Apache Nation

Native American Facts

 White Mountain Apache



About 10,000 White Mountain Apache live on the Fort Apache Reservation. Their economy is based on tourism, forestry, and ranching. The White Mountain Apache were the largest society of the Arizona Apache. This nomadic people learned skills from the other native peoples with whom they came into contact. They were surrounded by the Navajo, Pima, and Pueblo cultures, which brought about social, agricultural, linguistic, and cultural changes that differentiated them from other Apache.

The White Mountain Apache planted their crops each spring and left the children and elders to tend to the corn, beans, and squash. The men left in hunting parties, the women in gathering groups. They acquired horses from the Spanish, which greatly increased their range. The Spanish could not defeat the White Mountain Apache so settled them in villages near Spanish forts, creating a dependency relationship. This worked for awhile, but the Apache turned on the Spanish and drove them out. When the U.S. purchased Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico, settlers and miners moved into Apache territory. The Apache responded with a 40-year war that lasted through about 1870.

The Apache signed a treaty that let them live peacefully on their own land. Within four years, valuable minerals were found on Apache land and the U.S. Government attempted to move the Apache off. The Apache resisted and conducted gorilla warfare for the next 20 years. Resistance ended with the final surrender of Geronimo in 1884.

The Apache

Today most of the Apache live on five reservations: three in Arizona (the Fort Apache, the San Carlos Apache, and the Tonto Apache Reservations); and two in New Mexico (the Mescalero and the Jicarilla Apache). The White Mountain Apache live on the Fort Apache Reservation. Their economy is based on tourism, forestry, and ranching. About 10,000 Apache Indians live on this reservation. Today about 10,000 Apache live on the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Forestry, tourism, and agriculture sustain the local economy.  The Tonto Apache once occupied a vast territory that extended from Flagstaff down into Mexico. These Apache were hunters and gatherers who migrated with the seasons. Today, only 100 or so Apache live on the Tonto Apache Reservation, 85 acres halfway between Flagstaff and Phoenix. Approximately 3,000 Apache live on both the Mescalero and Jicarilla Apache Reservations.

Ancestry

The Apache dominated much of northern Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas for hundreds of years. It is estimated that about 5,000 Apache lived in the Southwest in 1680 AD.Some Apache lived in the mountains, while others lived on the plains.  Some hunted big game, while others existed by farming or gathering wild plants. Their main shelter, a circular brush lodge with a fire at the center, fit their nomadic lifestyle.  The Apache got their name from the Zuni word for "enemy." They often were in conflict with the Pima, Papago, and the Pueblo Indians, as well as the Plains peoples. Clans, social units based on female inherited leadership, were at the center of the Apache political and economic structure.

The Apache had a series of great leaders:
Cochise
Mangas Coloradas
Victorio
Geronimo

These leaders helped the Apache resist white intrusion into their traditional territories far better than any other group of native people in the Southwest. "I do not think you will keep the peace. Once again you tell me we can stay in our mountains and our valleys. That is all we wish, we do not want to fight and kill whites, and we do not want the whites to fight and kill us. We want nothing but to live in peace. But I do not believe you will allow us to remain on the lands we love. I warn you, if you try to move us again, war will start once more; it will be a war without end, a war in which every Apache will fight until he is dead. Prove to me that I am wrong; prove to me that this time I can trust you."
Cochise


 

Southwest Indians Today

Overview:

Housing
The housing shortage for Southwest Indians is acute:
• Many homes are filled with more than one family.
• 20,000 families on the Navajo Reservation alone need housing.
• Homelessness is rampant.

Education
American Indian students, as a group, are the least successful public school students nationally. The percent of American Indian high school graduates who go on to college is 17%, compared to a national average of 62%.


Economics
Some groups of Indians living in the southwestern United States are worse off economically than citizens of many third world countries. Local reservation economies often are devastated, and the economic disparity between the Southwest Indian communities and the rest of American society is growing.

Health
The health of American Indians is far worse than it is for any other minority group in the United States. Preventive programs are almost non-existent.

* Resource-Council of Indian Nations

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