Apache peoples: languages, culture, and history of the Southwest

Origin of the name Apache

The tribal designation commonly used today as Apache was adopted into English (and later into other languages) from Spanish; however, the origin of the designation is uncertain and disputed.

The most widely accepted doctrine today is that the word originated in Shiwi'ma, the language of the Zuni (A:shiwi), a Pueblo people who referred to the hostile Southern Athapascans advancing from the north into the southwest - particularly the Navajo - as A:bachu / ʔa-paču (singular: Bachu / Paču "enemy, stranger"). Another possibility is that the hostile Quechan (Yuma) referred to the allied Yavapai and Apache as E-patch ("Fighting Men" or "Those Who Fight") or, based on the typical war paint of the Yavapai, as Apatieh ("Coon"). However, the name could also derive from two words of the Yavapai - whose language, like that of the Quechan, belongs to the Cochimí-Yuma languages: ʔpačə ("enemy") or Abaja ("the people"), the proper name of the Guwevkabaya/Kwevkepaya or Southeastern Yavapai of the Fort McDowell Reservation.

The first known written mention of the tribal name Apache in Spanish was by Juan de Oñate in 1598; thus, the origin from the Zuñi and Yavapai languages remains in dispute, as Oñate knew the name and had it written down before he first encountered these two peoples during the Second Oñate Expedition in 1604.

Another - but less convincing - origin could come directly from Spanish: mapache ("raccoon") or apachurrar ("to smash, to crush"), which could refer to the fighting technique with war clubs popular among the Apache.

Initially, the Spanish used "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navajo) in the 1620s to refer to Southern Athapascans in the Chama region east of the San Juan River; however, beginning in the 1640s, they began to distinguish between the Navajo proper and the rest of the Apache; so that soon the addition of "de Nabajo" was dropped and "Apache" became the designation for the non-Navajo (Diné) Southern Athapascans.

They referred to themselves simply as Indee, Ndee, Nndee (Tonto Apache, Cibecue Apache, and White Mountain Apache), Innee, Nnēē (Arivaipa/Aravaipa Apache and Pinaleño/Pinal Apache), T'Inde, Dinde, depending on the dialect, like many indigenous peoples, Didé (Jicarilla Apache), Inday, Indee, Ndé (Mescalero Apache), Nde, Ne, Néndé, Héndé, Hen-de (Chiricahua Apache), Tindi, Ndé, Indeh (Lipan Apache), or as Dené, Dìndé, N-deh, Inde (Kiowa Apache/Plains Apache), all literally meaning simply "people."

Historical use of the term Apache

In former times Wi:pukba / Wipukepa ("Northeastern Yavapai") were mostly called Mohave-Apache (Apache-Mojave) as well as together with the Guwevkabaya / Kwevkepaya ("Southeastern Yavapai") as Tonto Apache or short Tonto, because they often lived in bilingual bands together with Tonto Apache and San Carlos Apache and besides the language they had also adopted much culture of the Apache. The Ɖo:lkabaya / Tolkepaya ("Western Yavapai") were referred to as Yuma-Apache (Apache-Yuma) along with the Hualapai (Walapai) as well as Havasupai. Historically and in older literature, the Yavapai are usually referred to as Apache Mohave (Apache-Mojave), Yavapai-Apache, or simply Apache, since in northern Mexico as well as in the southwestern United States the word "Apache" was often used to refer to "hostile, warlike, predatory Indians" without linguistic, ethnic, or cultural differentiation (Mohave / Mojave and even Comanche were also formerly referred to as Apache).

The Apache tribes, along with the Navajo (Diné), migrated from the north probably across the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains into what is now the southwestern United States and northern Mexico in the 14th and 15th centuries. Their tribal territories were called Apachería by the Spanish (Mexicans) and from the mid-18th century included a vast land area in eastern and southern Arizona, large parts of New Mexico, southern Colorado, western and southwestern Texas, and large areas of the bordering states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in northern Mexico.

At one time the tribal territory, then called the Gran Apachería, extended even further north and east to the Southern Plains and High Plains of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. After moving into the Southern Plains from the north and west (from circa 1700 to 1780), the Comanche and their tribally related Ute formed an alliance with the Wichita (from 1740) that gave them access to French arms, ammunition, and markets, and they began working with other Texas tribes (Pawnee, Caddo, Tonkawa, Hasinai, Jumano, et al. et al.), who suffered from the raids of the mounted Apaches, relentlessly warred against the Mescalero Apache, Jicarilla Apache, and Lipan Apache, who lived mostly as semi-nomads.

Several bands of the aforementioned Apaches were partially destroyed or dispersed and had to reorganize and retreat south and west largely from the Southern Plains and High Plains; the Mescalero retreated mainly to areas west of the Pecos River and crossed the Rio Grande to the south, the Lipan Apache retreated first south of the Colorado River in central Texas to the Edwards Plateau (1720 to 1750). Later they moved as far south as the Texas Coastal Bend on the Gulf of Mexico. Beginning in 1751, they also began crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico in large numbers. The Jicarilla Apache, after a great defeat, were also forced to cross the Rio Grande westward for the most part in 1724 and seek refuge in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico and Colorado among the Pueblo and in Spanish settlements. Only a few bands were able to partially maintain or regain their territories and now inhabited the outskirts of the Southern Plains-which now largely belonged to the Comanchería-and bison hunting was only possible with danger.

In northern Mexico, some tribes were soon unable to resist the Apaches advancing southward and seeking a new homeland, and were forced either to abandon their former tribal territories (e.g., the Sobaipuri, Toboso, Coahuiltec, et al.), seek refuge in Spanish missions (several smaller coastal and desert tribes in southwest Texas and northeast Mexico), settle in permanent settlements near presidios (Opata, Upper Pima, Lower Pima, Sobaipuri), or join the Apache (Suma, Jocome, Jumano, Toboso). By about 1830, the Apachería had probably reached its greatest expansion to the south and west, and the Lipan Apache and Mescalero Apache even held some territory again along the Colorado River in Texas.