Western Apache people

Seal of the San Carlos Apache tribe
San Carlos Apache woman, c. 1883-1887

The Western Apache live primarily in east central Arizona, in the United States. Most live within reservations. The Fort Apache Indian Reservation, San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and Tonto Apache Indian Reservation are home to the majority of Western Apache and are the bases of their federally recognized tribes. In addition, there are numerous bands. The Western Apache bands call themselves Ndee (Indé) (“The People”); because of dialectical differences the Pinaleño/Pinal and Arivaipa/Aravaipa bands of the San Carlos Apache pronounce the word Innee or Nnēē:.[1]

Language and culture

The various dialects of Western Apache (called by them Ndee biyati' / Nnee biyati') are a form of Apachean, a branch of the Southern Athabaskan language family. The Navajo speak a related Apachean language, but the peoples separated several hundred years ago and are considered culturally distinct. Other indigenous peoples who speak Athabaskan are located in Alaska and Canada.

The anthropologist Grenville Goodwin classified the Western Apache into five groups based on Apachean dialect and culture:[2]:2

Since Goodwin, other researchers have disputed his conclusion of five linguistic groups, but have agreed on three main Apachean dialects with several subgroupings:

Some 20,000 Western Apache still speak their native language, and efforts have been made to preserve it. Bilingual teachers are often employed in the lower elementary grades to expedite that goal, but the tendency toward children learning to speak only English, mingled with occasional Spanish, remains dominant.

In relation to culture, tribal schools offer classes in native handicrafts, such as basket weaving, making bows, arrows, spears, shields; cradles for infants, native regalia from buckskin for the young women, and the making of silver jewelry (often by the men) at the elementary and secondary level.

Western Apache bands and tribes

White Mountain Apache

The White Mountain Apache or Dzil Łigai Si'án Ndee "People of the White Mountains" (Spanish: Sierra Blanca Apache'), are currently centered in Fort Apache Indian Reservation. It is the most eastern band of the Western Apache group. The White Mountain Apaches are a federally recognized tribe. Their traditional area ranged from the White Mountains near Snowflake, Arizona and the Little Colorado River in the north over the Gila Mountains south to the Pinaleno Mountains near Safford (Ichʼįʼ Nahiłtį́į́)), lived and planted along the East Fork and North Fork of the White River, Turkey Creek, Black River and the Gila River.[2]:12 [3]

Cibecue Apache

(Spanish derivation of the autonym of the Apache living in the Cibecue Creek Valley and Salt River Canyon known to them as Deshchiiʼ Bikoh, Dishchíí Bikoh or Dè-stcì-bìkò' - ′Horizontally Red Canyon′, therefore the Apache living there were called Dè-stcì-bìkò'Ndé' , Dishchiid'ń - ′Horizonally Red Canyon People′ - sometimes shortened to ‘People of the Red Canyon’ or ‘Red Canyon People’, possibly of Navajo/Zuni ancestry, ranged north of the Salt River to well above the Mogollon Rim between Cherry Creek in the west to Cedar Creek in the east - sometimes they were found even further west on Tonto Creek, in the Sierra Ancha and the Mazatzal Mountains considered to be Southern Tonto Apache land), today all part of the federally recognized tribe of the White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache Reservation

San Carlos Apache of the San Carlos Reservation

(Tsékʼáádn - “Metate People”, lived on both sides of the San Pedro River and in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson), a federally recognized tribe composed of the San Carlos Apache proper and several groups of the Cibecue Apache (excluding the Tca-tci-dn (“red rock strata people”) clan of the Carrizo band), some Tonto Apache, Lipan as well Chiricahua Apache peoples.

Tonto Apache

(autonym: Dilzhé`e, the Chiricahua called them Ben-et-dine - ‘wild’, ‘crazy’; neighboring Western Apache called them Koun`nde - ‘Those who you don’t understand’, ‘wild rough People’, the Spanish adapted this as Tonto - 'loose', 'foolish', the Dine called the Tonto Apache and neighboring Yavapai Dilzhʼíʼ dinéʼiʼ - ‘People with high-pitched voices’, lived from the San Francisco Peaks, East Verde River and Oak Creek Canyon along the Verde River into the Mazatzal Mountains and to the Salt River in the SW and the Tonto Basin in the SE, extending eastwards towards the Little Colorado River, were the most westerly group of the Western Apache)

Other bands and groups

Often groups of Wi:pukba (Wipukepa) and Guwevkabaya (Kwevkepaya) of the Yavapai lived together with the Tonto Apache (as well as bands of the San Carlos Apache) in bilingual rancherias, and could not be distinguished by outsiders (Spaniards, Americans, or Mexicans) except on the basis of their first language. The Yavapai and Apache together were often referred to as Tonto or Tonto Apaches. Therefore, it is not always easy to find out whether it is now exclusively dealing with Yavapai or Apache, or those mixed bands. The Wi:pukba (Wipukepa) and Guwevkabaya (Kwevkepaya) were therefore, because of their ancestral and cultural proximity to the Tonto and San Carlos Apaches, often incorrectly called Yavapai Apaches or Yuma Apaches. The Ɖo:lkabaya (Tolkepaya), the southwestern group of Yavapai, and the Hualapai (also belonging to the Upland Yuma Peoples) were also referred as Yuma Apaches or Mohave Apaches.[9]

Notable Western Apache

White Mountain Apaches

Cibecue Apache

San Carlos Apaches

Tonto Apaches

See also

References

  1. Shadows at Dawn - The Peoples - Nnēē / Apache / 'O:b
  2. 1 2 Goodwin, Greenville (1969) [1942]. The Social Organization of the Western Apache. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. LCCN 76-75453.
  3. Ian W. Record: Big Sycamore Stands Alone: The Western Apaches, Aravaipa, and the Struggle for Place, p. 44, ISBN 978-0-8061-3972-2, 2008, University of Oklahoma Press
  4. 1 2 Yavapai and Nde Apache
  5. Fort Apache History
  6. 1 2 3 Palmer, Jessica Dawn (2013). The Apache Peoples: A History of All Bands and Tribes Through the 1880s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-4551-6.
  7. The Pinal Mountains
  8. The Apaches of the Aravaipa Canyon
  9. Timothy Braatz: Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples, 2003, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 978-0-8032-2242-7
  10. the Tca-tci-dn (“red rock strata people”) of Pedro were limited almost exclusively to the Carrizo band of the Cibecue Apaches, and were the only people on the Fort Apache Reservation who were not forced to go to San Carlos in 1875

Further reading

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