24 Facts About Apache

Apache are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreno, Ndendahe, Salinero, Plains and Western Apache.

Distant cousins of the Apache are the Navajo, with whom they share the Southern Athabaskan languages.

Apache people have moved throughout the United States and elsewhere, including urban centers.

The Apache Nations are politically autonomous, speak several different languages, and have distinct cultures.

Historically, the Apache homelands have consisted of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern Great Plains, including areas in what is Eastern Arizona, Northern Mexico and New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern Colorado.

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Apache tribes fought the invading Spanish and Mexican peoples for centuries.

The Western Apache, located in Arizona, is divided into several reservations, which crosscut cultural divisions.

Plains Apache are located in Oklahoma, headquartered around Anadarko, and are federally recognized as the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma.

People who are known today as Apache were first encountered by the conquistadors of the Spanish crown, and thus the term Apache has its roots in the Spanish language.

The most widely accepted origin theory suggests Apache was borrowed and transliterated from the Zuni word meaning "Navajos".

In early 20th century Parisian society, the word Apache was adopted into French, essentially meaning an outlaw.

Apache believes San Carlos is the most divergent dialect, and that Dilzhe'e is a remnant, intermediate member of a dialect continuum that previously spanned from the Western Apache language to the Navajo.

Western Apache include Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto, Cibecue, White Mountain and San Carlos groups.

The Plains Apache have a significant Southern Plains cultural influence.

The Apache quickly acquired horses, improving their mobility for quick raids on settlements.

In 1540, Coronado reported that the modern Western Apache area was uninhabited, although some scholars have argued that he simply did not see the American Indians.

In general, the recently arrived Spanish colonists, who settled in villages, and Apache bands developed a pattern of interaction over a few centuries.

All Apache peoples lived in extended family units ; they usually lived close together, with each nuclear family in separate dwellings.

Apache men practiced varying degrees of "avoidance" of his wife's close relatives, a practice often most strictly observed by distance between mother-in-law and son-in-law.

Apache reported five groups for the Western Apache: Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto, Cibecue, San Carlos, and White Mountain.

Apache tribes have two distinctly different kinship term systems: a Chiricahua type and a Jicarilla type.

Apache provides the grass and brush beds and replaces them when they become too old and dry.

Western Apache hunted deer and pronghorns mostly in the ideal late fall.

Interchanges between the Apache and European-descended explorers and settlers included trading.