Plains Apache

Apache Tribe of Oklahoma

Vanessa Jennings, a Plains Apache-Kiowa-Gila River Pima artist and traditionalist
Total population
2,263[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States ( Oklahoma)
Languages
English, formerly Plains Apache language
Religion
traditional tribal religion, Native American Church, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Apache peoples

The Plains Apache are a Southern Athabaskan group that traditionally live on the Southern Plains of North America and today are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma. The tribe is federally recognized as the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma.

Name

The Plains Apache are also known as the Kiowa Apache, Naʼisha, or Naishan Dene, meaning "Our People."^[2] They also used the term Khat-tleen-deh or γát dìndé meaning "Cedar People" or Bay-ca-yeh meaning "Whetstone People". To their close allies, the much larger Kiowa tribe, although speaking a completely unrelated language, they were known as Semat meaning "Stealers." At major tribal events, the Kiowa Apache formed part of the Kiowa tribal 'hoop' (ring of tipis). This may explain why the Kiowa named the Kiowa-Apache Taugui meaning "Sitting Outside." ^{[citation needed]}

Government

Today the tribe is headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area covers parts of Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Grady, Jefferson, Kiowa, and Stephens Counties in Oklahoma. Their current tribal chairperson is Louis Maynahonah.^[1]

Tribal members must have a minimum blood quantum of 1/8 Plains Apache descent to enroll in the tribe.^[1]

Economic development

The Apache Tribe operates one casino, one smoke shop, and the Apache Ink Tattoo Parlor. They also issue their own tribal license plates.^[3] Louis Maynahonah is serving as Tribal Chairman,^[4] succeeding Alonzo Chalepah.^[5]

History

Essa-queta, Plains Apache chief

Kiowa-Apache

In the late 18th century, Plains Apache lived near the upper Missouri River, their 1780 population was 400.^[2] The Kiowa Apache adopted many traits from the Southern Plains lifestyle of the Kiowa, while remaining ethnically distinct. It is recorded that many Kiowa Apache did not learn the Kiowa language, preferring to communicate with their allies using the sophisticated Plains Indian Sign Language, at which the Kiowa were past masters (having probably devised much of the system). The Kiowa Apache social organisation was split into numerous extendend families (kustcrae), who camped together (for hunting, gathering) as local groups (gonka). The next level was the division or band, a grouping of a number of gonkas (who would come together, for mutual protection, especially in time of war).

In pre-reservation times there were at least four local groups or gonkas who frequently joined together for warring neighboring tribes and settlements.

The Kiowa Apache with their Kiowa allies agreed to settle on a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. Some bands of Kiowas remained at large until 1875. Some of the Lipan Apache and Mescalero Apache bands with some Comanche in their company held out in northern Mexico until the early 1880s, when Mexican and U.S. Army forces drove them onto reservations or into extinction. By the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache settled in Western Oklahoma and Kansas. They were forced to move south of the Washita River to the Red River and Western Oklahoma with the Comanche and the Kiowa. The reservation period lasted from 1868 to 1906. The transition from the free life of Plains people to a restricted life of the reservation was more difficult for some families than others.^[6] The 1890 Census showed 1,598 Comanche at the Fort Sill reservation, which they shared with 1,140 Kiowa and 326 Kiowa Apache.^[7]

Dismal River culture

The Apache are linked to the Dismal River culture of the western Plains,^[8] generally attributed to the Paloma and Quartelejo (also Cuartelejo) Apaches. Jicarilla Apache pottery has also been found in some of the Dismal River complex sites.^[9] Some of the people of the Dismal River culture joined the Kiowa Apache in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Due to pressure from the Comanche from the west and Pawnee and French from the east, the Kiowa and remaining people of Dismal River culture migrated south where they later joined the Lipan Apache and Jicarilla Apache nations.^[9]

Language

Richard Aitson, poet and award-winning beadworker, is both Kiowa and Kiowa Apache

The Kiowa Apache language is a member of the Southern Athabaskan language family, a division of the Na-Dene languages. The Plains Apache language, also referred to as Kiowa Apache, was the most divergent member of the subfamily. While three people spoke the language in 2006,^[10] the last fluent speaker died in 2008.

Historical Chiefs

• Gonkon (Gonkan - "Stays in Tipi" or "Defends His Tipi", also known as "Apache John")
• Tsayaditl-ti (Ta-Ka-I-Tai-Di or Da-Kana-Dit-Ta-I - "White Man", ca. *1830 - ca. †1900)
• Koon-Ka-Zachey (Kootz-Zah - "The Cigar")
• Essa-queta (better known as Pacer or Peso, derived from Pay-Sus, ca. *? - † 1875, Pacer was the leader of the Kiowa Apace tribe. Actually, Pacer was part of the peace faction and kept the main group of Kiowa Apaches on the reservation during the Red River War of 1874-75)^[11]
• Si-tah-le ("Poor Wolf")
• Oh-ah-te-kah ("Poor Bear")
• Ah-zaah ("Prairie Wolf")

See also

• Apache
• Kiowa
• Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas

Notes

References

• Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-19-513877-1.

Bibliography

• Beatty, John. 1974. Kiowa-Apache Music and Dance. Occasional Publications in Anthropology: Ethnology Series. Number 31. Greeley, CO: Northern Colorado UP.
• Bittle, William. 1954. “The Peyote Ritual of the Kiowa Apache.” Oklahoma Anthropological Society. 2: 69-79.
• ______. 1962. “The Manatidie: A Focus for Kiowa Apache Tribal Identity.” Plains Anthropologist. 7(17): 152-163.
• ______. 1963. “Kiowa-Apache.” In Studies in the Athapaskan Languages. (Ed. Hoijer, Harry). University of California Studies in Linguistics vol. 29. Berkeley: California UP. 76-101.
• ______. 1964. “Six Kiowa Apache Tales.” Oklahoma Papers in Anthropology. 5:8-12.
• ______. 1971. “A Brief History of the Kiowa Apache.” Oklahoma Papers in Anthropology. 12(1): 1-34.
• ______. 1979. “Kiowa Apache Raiding Behavior.” Oklahoma Papers in Anthropology. 20(2): 33-47.
• Brant, Charles S. 1949. “The cultural position of the Kiowa-Apache.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 5(1): 56-61.
• Brant, Charles S. 1950. “Peyotism among the Kiowa-Apache and Neighboring Tribes.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 6(2): 212-222.
• Brant, Charles S. 1953. “Kiowa-Apache Culture History: Some Further Observations.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 9(2): 195-202.
• Brant, Charles S. 1969. Jim Whitewolf: The Life of a Kiowa Apache. New York: Dover Publications.
• Jordan, Julia A. 2008 Plains Apache Ethnobotany. University of Oklahoma Press.
• McAllister, J. Gilbert. 1937. “Kiowa-Apache Social Organization.” In Social Anthropology of North American Tribes. (ed. Eggan, Fred). Chicago: Chicago UP.99-169.
• _______.1949. “Kiowa Apache Tales.” In The Sky is My Tipi. (ed. Boatright, Mody). Dallas: SMU Press. 1-141.
• _______.1970. Dävéko: Kiowa-Apache Medicine Man. Austin: Bulletin of the Texas Memorial Museum, No. 17.
• Opler, Morris E. (1969). Western Apache and Kiowa Apache materials relating to ceremonial payment. Ethnology, 8 (1), 122-124.
• Opler, Morris E; & Bittle, William E. (1961). The death practices and escahatology of the Kiowa Apache. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 17 (4), 383-394.
• Schweinfurth, Kay Parker. (2002). Prayer on top of the earth: The spiritual universe of the Plains Apaches. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.

External links

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Apache Tribe of Oklahoma (Kiowa-Apache)
• Genealogynation.com, Kiowa Comanche Apache Indian Territory Project