The Apache tribes fought the invading Spanish and Mexican peoples for centuries. The first Apache raids on Sonora appear to have taken place during the late 17th century. In 19th-century confrontations during the American Indian Wars, the U.S. Army found the Apache to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists.
The nine Apache tribes formed a nonprofit organization, the
Apache Alliance. Tribal leaders convene at the Apache Alliance Summits,
meetings hosted by a different Apache tribe each time.
The member tribes are the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, Fort McDowell
Yavapai Nation, Fort Sill Apache Tribe, Jicarilla Apache Tribe,
Mescalero Apache Tribe, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Tonto Apache Tribe,
White Mountain Apache Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Nation, In 2021, "Lipan Apaches were present" at the summit.
Name
Apaches first encountered European and African people, when they met conquistadors from the Spanish Empire, and thus the term Apache has its roots in the Spanish language. The Spanish first used the term Apachu de Nabajo (Navajo) in the 1620s, referring to people in the Chama region east of the San Juan River.
By the 1640s, they applied the term to Southern Athabaskan peoples from
the Chama on the east to the San Juan on the west. The ultimate origin
is uncertain and lost to Spanish history.
The first known written record in Spanish is by Juan de Oñate in 1598. The most widely accepted origin theory suggests Apache was borrowed and transliterated from the Zuni word ʔa·paču meaning "Navajos" (the plural of paču "Navajo"). J. P. Harrington reports that čišše·kʷe can also be used to refer to the Apache in general.
Another theory suggests the term comes from Yavapaiʔpačə meaning "enemy". The Zuni and Yavapai sources are less certain because Oñate used the term before he had encountered any Zuni or Yavapai. A less likely origin may be from Spanish mapache, meaning "raccoon".
Modern Apache people use the Spanish term to refer to themselves
and tribal functions, and so does the US government. However, Apache
language speakers also refer to themselves and their people in the
Apache term Indé meaning "person" or "people". A related Southern Athabascan–speaking tribe, the Navajo, refer to themselves as the Diné.
The fame of the tribes' tenacity and fighting skills, probably bolstered by dime novels, was widely known among Europeans. In early 20th century Parisian society, the word Apache was adopted into French, essentially meaning an outlaw.
The term Apachean includes the related Navajo people.
Many of the historical names of Apache groups that were recorded by
non-Apache are difficult to match to modern-day tribes or their
subgroups. Over the centuries, many Spanish, French and English-speaking
authors did not differentiate between Apache and other semi-nomadic
non-Apache peoples who might pass through the same area. Most commonly,
Europeans learned to identify the tribes by translating their exonym,
what another group whom the Europeans encountered first called the
Apache peoples. Europeans often did not learn what the peoples called
themselves, their autonyms.
While anthropologists agree on some traditional major subgrouping of
Apaches, they have often used different criteria to name finer
divisions, and these do not always match modern Apache groupings. Some
scholars do not consider groups residing in what is now Mexico to be
Apache. In addition, an Apache individual has different ways of
identification with a group, such as a band or clan, as well as the
larger tribe or language grouping, which can add to the difficulties in
an outsider comprehending the distinctions.
In 1900, the US government classified the members of the Apache tribe in the United States as Pinal Coyotero, Jicarilla, Mescalero, San Carlos, Tonto, and White Mountain Apache. The different groups were located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
In the 1930s, the anthropologist Greenville Goodwin
classified the Western Apache into five groups (based on his
informants' views of dialect and cultural differences): White Mountain,
Cibecue, San Carlos, North Tonto, and South Tonto. Since then, other
anthropologists (e.g. Albert Schroeder) consider Goodwin's classification inconsistent with pre-reservation cultural divisions. Willem de Reuse
finds linguistic evidence supporting only three major groupings: White
Mountain, San Carlos, and Dilzhe'e (Tonto). He 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.
John Upton Terrell classifies the Apache into western and eastern groups. In the western group, he includes Toboso, Cholome, Jocome, Sibolo or Cibola, Pelone, Manso, and Kiva or Kofa. He includes Chicame (the earlier term for Hispanized Chicano or New Mexicans of Spanish/Hispanic and Apache descent) among them as having definite Apache connections or names which the Spanish associated with the Apache.
In a detailed study of New Mexico Catholic Church records, David
M. Brugge identifies 15 tribal names that the Spanish used to refer to
the Apache. These were drawn from records of about 1,000 baptisms from
1704 to 1862.
Tribes and bands
The list below is based on Foster and McCollough (2001), Opler (1983b, 1983c, 2001), and de Reuse (1983).
The term Apache refers to six major Apache-speaking
groups: Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Plains, and Western
Apache. Historically, the term has also been applied to the Comanches, Mojaves, Hualapais, and Yavapais, none of whom speak Apache languages.
Chiricahua – Mimbreño – Ndendahe
Chiricahua historically lived in Southeastern Arizona and Northern Sonora and Chihuahua. Chíshí (also Tchishi) is a Navajo word meaning "Chiricahua, southern Apaches in general".
Ch'úúkʾanén, true Chiricahua (Tsokanende, also Č'ók'ánéń,
Č'ó·k'anén, Chokonni, Cho-kon-nen, Cho Kŭnĕ́, Chokonen) is the Eastern
Chiricahua band identified by Morris Opler. The name is an autonym from the Chiricahua language.
Gileño (also Apaches de Gila, Apaches de Xila, Apaches de la
Sierra de Gila, Xileños, Gilenas, Gilans, Gilanians, Gila Apache,
Gilleños) referred to several different Apache and non-Apache groups at
different times. Gila refers to either the Gila River or the Gila Mountains.
Some of the Gila Apaches were probably later known as the Mogollon
Apaches, a Central Apache sub-band, while others probably coalesced into
the Chiricahua proper. But, since the term was used indiscriminately
for all Apachean groups west of the Rio Grande (i.e. in southeast
Arizona and western New Mexico), the reference in historical documents
is often unclear. After 1722, Spanish documents start to distinguish
between these different groups, in which case Apaches de Gila refers to the Western Apache living along the Gila River (synonymous with Coyotero). American writers first used the term to refer to the Mimbres (another Central Apache subdivision).
Mimbreño are the Tchihende, not a Chiricahua
band but a central Apache division sharing the same language with the
Chiricahua and the Mescalero divisions, the name being referred to a
central Apache division improperly considered as a section of Opler's "Eastern Chiricahua band", and to Albert Schroeder's Mimbres, or Warm Springs and Copper Mines "Chiricahua" bands in southwestern New Mexico.
Copper Mines Mimbreño
(also Coppermine) were located on upper reaches of Gila River, New
Mexico, having their center in the Pinos Altos area. (See also Gileño and Mimbreño.)
Warm Springs Mimbreño
(also Warmspring) were located on upper reaches of Gila River, New
Mexico, having their center in the Ojo Caliente area. (See also Gileño and Mimbreño.)
Ndendahe
were a division comprising the Bedonkohe (Mogollon) group and the
Nedhni (Carrizaleño and Janero) group, incorrectly called, sometimes, Southern Chirichua.
Mogollon was considered by Schroeder to be a separate
pre-reservation Chiricahua band, while Opler considered the Mogollon to
be part of his Eastern Chiricahua band in New Mexico. This is not be confused with the precontact Mogollon culture.
Nedhni
were the most southern group of the Central Apache, having their center
in the Carrizal (Carrizaleño) and Janos (Janero) areas, in the Mexican
state of Chihuahua.
The Jicarilla primarily live in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. The term jicarilla comes from the Spanish word for "little gourd."
Carlana (also Sierra Blanca) is Raton Mesa in Southeastern Colorado. In 1726, they joined the Cuartelejo
and Paloma, and by the 1730s, they lived with the Jicarilla. The
Llanero band of the Jicarilla or the Dáchizh-ó-zhn Jicarilla (defined by
James Mooney)
might be descendants of the Carlana, Cuartelejo, and Paloma. Parts of
the group were called Lipiyanes or Llaneros. In 1812, the term Carlana was used to mean Jicarilla. The Flechas de Palo might have been a part of or absorbed by the Carlana (or Cuartelejo).
They were mentioned in 1718 records as being near the newly established town of San Antonio, Texas. They expanded into Texas and south the Gulf of Mexico and Rio Grande. In the mid-18th century, some Lipan settled in and near Spanish missions in Texas. Clashes with Comanche forced them into southern Texas and northern Mexico.
Briefly in the late 1830s, the Lipan allied with the Republic of Texas;
however, after Texas gained statehood in 1846, the Americans waged a
brutal campaign against the Lipan, destroying Lipan villages and trying
to force them from Texas. Most were forced onto the Mescalero
Reservation and some went to Oklahoma.
Pelones ("Bald Ones") lived far from San Antonio and far to the northeast of the Ypandes near the Red River of the South of North-Central Texas, although able to field 800 warriors, more than the Ypandes and Natagés
together, they were described as less warlike because they had fewer
horses than the Plains Lipan, their population were estimated between
1,600 and 2,400 persons, were the Forest Lipan division (Chishį́į́hį́į́, Tcici, Tcicihi
– "People of the Forest", after 1760 the name Pelones was never used by
the Spanish for any Texas Apache group, the Pelones had fled for the
Comanche south and southwest, but never mixed up with the Plains Lipan
division – retaining their distinct identity, so that Morris Opler was told by his Lipan informants in 1935 that their tribal name was "People of the Forest").
Faraones (also Apaches Faraone, Paraonez, Pharaones, Taraones, or Taracones) is derived from Spanish Faraón meaning "Pharaoh." Before 1700, the name was vague. Between 1720 and 1726, it referred to Apache between the Rio Grande, the Pecos River, the area around Santa Fe, and the Conchos River. After 1726, Faraones
only referred to the groups of the north and central parts of this
region. The Faraones like were part of the modern-day Mescalero or
merged with them. After 1814, the term Faraones disappeared and was replaced by Mescalero.
Sierra Blanca Mescaleros
were a northern Mescalero group from the Sierra Blanca Mountains, who
roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western Texas.
Sacramento Mescaleros
were a northern Mescalero group from the Sacramento and Organ
Mountains, who roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western
Texas.
Guadalupe Mescaleros. were a northern Mescalero group from the Guadalupe Mountains, who roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and western Texas.
Limpia Mescaleros
were a southern Mescalero group from the Limpia Mountains (later named
as Davis Mountains) and roamed in what is now eastern New Mexico and
western Texas.
Natagés (also Natagees, Apaches del Natafé, Natagêes, Yabipais Natagé, Natageses, Natajes)
is a term used from 1726 to 1820 to refer to the Faraón, Sierra Blanca,
and Siete Ríos Apaches of southeastern New Mexico. In 1745, the Natagé
are reported to have consisted of the Mescalero (around El Paso and the Organ Mountains) and the Salinero (around Rio Salado), but these were probably the same group, were oft called by the Spanish and Apaches themselves true Apaches,
had had a considerable influence on the decision making of some bands
of the Western Lipan in the 18th century. After 1749, the term became
synonymous with Mescalero, which eventually replaced it.
Plains Apache (Kiowa-Apache, Naisha, Naʼishandine) are headquartered in Southwest Oklahoma. Historically, they followed the Kiowa.
Other names for them include Ná'įįsha, Ná'ęsha, Na'isha, Na'ishandine,
Na-i-shan-dina, Na-ishi, Na-e-ca, Ną'ishą́, Nadeicha, Nardichia,
Nadíisha-déna, Na'dí'į́shą́ʼ, Nądí'įįshąą, and Naisha.
Querechos
referred to by Coronado in 1541, possibly Plains Apaches, at times
maybe Navajo. Other early Spanish might have also called them Vaquereo
or Llanero.
Western Apache
A Western Apache woman from the San Carlos group
Western Apache
include Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto, Cibecue, White Mountain, and
San Carlos groups. While these subgroups spoke the same language and had
kinship ties, Western Apaches considered themselves as separate from
each other, according to Goodwin. Other writers have used this term to
refer to all non-Navajo Apachean peoples living west of the Rio Grande
(thus failing to distinguish the Chiricahua from the other Apacheans).
Goodwin's formulation: "all those Apache peoples who have lived within
the present boundaries of the state of Arizona during historic times
with the exception of the Chiricahua, Warm Springs, and allied Apache,
and a small band of Apaches known as the Apache Mansos, who lived in the
vicinity of Tucson."
Cibecue is a Western Apache group, according to Goodwin, from north of the Salt River between the Tonto and White Mountain Apache, consisting of Ceder Creek, Carrizo, and Cibecue (proper) bands.
San Carlos.
A Western Apache group that ranged closest to Tucson according to
Goodwin. This group consisted of the Apache Peaks, Arivaipa, Pinal, San
Carlos (proper) bands.
Arivaipa
(also Aravaipa) is a band of the San Carlos Apache. Schroeder believes
the Arivaipa were a separate people in pre-reservation times. Arivaipa is a Hispanized word from the O'odham language. The Arivaipa are known as Tsézhiné ("Black Rock") in the Western Apache language.
Pinal (also Pinaleño). One of the bands of the San Carlos group of Western Apache, described by Goodwin. Also used along with Coyotero to refer more generally to one of two major Western Apache divisions. Some Pinaleño were referred to as the Gila Apache.
Tonto.
Goodwin divided into Northern Tonto and Southern Tonto groups, living
in the north and west areas of the Western Apache groups according to
Goodwin. This is north of Phoenix, north of the Verde River. Schroeder
has suggested that the Tonto are originally Yavapais who assimilated
Western Apache culture. Tonto is one of the major dialects of the
Western Apache language. Tonto Apache speakers are traditionally
bilingual in Western Apache and Yavapai.
Goodwin's Northern Tonto consisted of Bald Mountain, Fossil Creek,
Mormon Lake, and Oak Creek bands; Southern Tonto consisted of the
Mazatzal band and unidentified "semi-bands".
White Mountain
are the easternmost group of the Western Apache, according to Goodwin,
who included the Eastern White Mountain and Western White Mountain
Apache.
Coyotero
refers to a southern pre-reservation White Mountain group of the
Western Apache, but has also been used more widely to refer to the
Apache in general, Western Apache, or an Apache band in the high plains
of Southern Colorado to Kansas.
Llanero
is a Spanish-language borrowing meaning "plains dweller". The name
referred to several different groups who hunted buffalo on the Great Plains. (See also Carlanas.)
Lipiyánes
(also Lipiyán, Lipillanes). A coalition of splinter groups of Nadahéndé
(Natagés), Guhlkahéndé, and Lipan of the 18th century under the
leadership of Picax-Ande-Ins-Tinsle ("Strong Arm"), who fought the
Comanche on the Plains. This term is not to be confused with Lipan.
History
Entry into the Southwest
Apache rawhide playing cards c. 1875–1885, collection of NMAI.
The Apache and Navajo speak related languages of the Athabaskan language family. Other Athabaskan-speaking people in North America continue to reside in Alaska, western Canada, and the Northwest Pacific Coast.
Anthropological evidence suggests that the Apache and Navajo peoples
lived in these same northern locales before migrating to the Southwest
sometime between AD 1200 and 1500.
The Apaches' nomadic way of life complicates accurate dating,
primarily because they constructed less substantial dwellings than other
Southwestern groups.
Since the early 21st century, substantial progress has been made in
dating and distinguishing their dwellings and other forms of material
culture. They left behind a more austere set of tools and material goods than other Southwestern cultures.
The Athabaskan-speaking group probably moved into areas that were
concurrently occupied or recently abandoned by other cultures. Other
Athabaskan speakers, perhaps including the Southern Athabaskan, adapted
many of their neighbors' technology and practices into their own
cultures. Thus sites where early Southern Athabaskans may have lived are
difficult to locate and even more difficult to firmly identify as
culturally Southern Athabaskan. Recent advances have been made in the
regard in the far southern portion of the American Southwest.
There are several hypotheses about Apache migrations. One
posits that they moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In the
mid-16th century, these mobile groups lived in tents, hunted bison and other game, and used dogs to pull travois
loaded with their possessions. Substantial numbers of the people and a
wide range were recorded by the Spanish in the 16th century.
In April 1541, while traveling on the plains east of the Pueblo region, Francisco Coronado referred to the people as "dog nomads." He wrote:
After seventeen days of travel, I
came upon a 'rancheria' of the Indians who follow these cattle (bison).
These natives are called Querechos. They do not cultivate the land, but
eat raw meat and drink the blood of the cattle they kill. They dress in
the skins of the cattle, with which all the people in this land clothe
themselves, and they have very well-constructed tents, made with tanned
and greased cowhides, in which they live and which they take along as
they follow the cattle. They have dogs which they load to carry their
tents, poles, and belongings.
The Spanish described Plains dogs as very white, with black spots, and "not much larger than water spaniels."
Plains dogs were slightly smaller than those used for hauling loads by
modern Inuit and northern First Nations people in Canada. Recent
experiments show these dogs may have pulled loads up to 50 pounds
(20 kg) on long trips, at rates as high as two or three miles per hour
(3 to 5 km/h). The Plains migration theory associates the Apache peoples with the Dismal River culture, an archaeological culture known primarily from ceramics and house remains, dated 1675–1725, which has been excavated in Nebraska, eastern Colorado, and western Kansas.
Although the first documentary sources mention the Apache, and
historians have suggested some passages indicate a 16th-century entry
from the north, archaeological data indicate they were present on the
plains long before this first reported contact.
A competing theory posits their migration south, through the Rocky Mountains,
ultimately reaching the American Southwest by the 14th century or
perhaps earlier. An archaeological material culture assemblage
identified in this mountainous zone as ancestral Apache has been
referred to as the "Cerro Rojo complex".
This theory does not preclude arrival via a plains route as well,
perhaps concurrently, but to date the earliest evidence has been found
in the mountainous Southwest.The Plains Apache have a significant Southern Plains cultural influence.
When the Spanish arrived in the area, trade between the
long-established Pueblo peoples and the Southern Athabaskan was well
established. They reported the Pueblo exchanged maize and woven cotton
goods for bison meat, and hides and materials for stone tools. Coronado
observed the Plains people wintering near the Pueblo in established
camps. Later Spanish sovereignty over the area disrupted trade between
the Pueblo and the diverging Apache and Navajo groups. The Apache
quickly acquired horses, improving their mobility for quick raids on
settlements. In addition, the Pueblo were forced to work Spanish mission
lands and care for mission flocks; they had fewer surplus goods to
trade with their neighbors.
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. Other Spanish explorers first mention
"Querechos" living west of the Rio Grande in the 1580s. To some
historians, this implies the Apaches moved into their current
Southwestern homelands in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Other
historians note that Coronado reported that Pueblo women and children
had often been evacuated by the time his party attacked their dwellings,
and that he saw some dwellings had been recently abandoned as he moved
up the Rio Grande. This might indicate the semi-nomadic Southern
Athabaskan had advance warning about his hostile approach and evaded
encounter with the Spanish. Archaeologists are finding ample evidence of
an early proto-Apache presence in the Southwestern mountain zone in the
15th century and perhaps earlier. The Apache presence on both the
Plains and in the mountainous Southwest indicate that the people took
multiple early migration routes.
In general, the recently arrived Spanish colonists, who settled in
villages, and Apache bands developed a pattern of interaction over a few
centuries. Both raided and traded with each other. Records of the
period seem to indicate that relationships depended on the specific
villages and bands: a band might be friends with one village and raid
another. When war occurred, the Spanish would send troops; after a
battle both sides would "sign a treaty" and go home.
The traditional and sometimes treacherous relationships continued
after the independence of Mexico in 1821. By 1835 Mexico had placed a
bounty on Apache scalps (see scalping), but certain villages still traded with some bands. When Juan José Compà, the leader of the Copper Mines Mimbreño Apaches, was killed for bounty money in 1837, Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves) or Dasoda-hae (He just sits there) became the principal chief and war leader; also in 1837 Soldado Fiero (a.k.a. Fuerte), leader of the Warm Springs Mimbreño Apaches, was killed by Mexican soldiers near Janos, and his son Cuchillo Negro
(Black Knife) became the principal chief and war leader. They (being
now Mangas Coloradas the first chief and Cuchillo Negro the second chief
of the whole Tchihende or Mimbreño people) conducted a series of
retaliatory raids against the Mexicans. By 1856, authorities in
horse-rich Durango
would claim that Indian raids (mostly Comanche and Apache) in their
state had taken nearly 6,000 lives, abducted 748 people, and forced the
abandonment of 358 settlements over the previous 20 years.
When the United States went to war against Mexico
in 1846, many Apache bands promised U.S. soldiers safe passage through
their lands. When the U.S. claimed former territories of Mexico in 1846,
Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty with the nation,
respecting them as conquerors of the Mexicans' land. An uneasy peace
with U.S. citizens held until the 1850s. An influx of gold miners into
the Santa Rita Mountains led to conflict with the Apache. This period is sometimes called the Apache Wars.
The United States' concept of a reservation
had not been used by the Spanish, Mexicans or other Apache neighbors
before. Reservations were often badly managed, and bands that had no
kinship relationships were forced to live together. No fences existed to
keep people in or out. It was common for a band to be allowed to leave
for a short period of time. Other times a band would leave without
permission, to raid, return to their homeland to forage, or to simply
get away. The U.S. military usually had forts nearby to keep the bands
on the reservations by finding and returning those who left. The
reservation policies of the U.S. caused conflict and war with the
various Apache bands who left the reservations for almost another
quarter century.
War between the Apaches and Euro-Americans has led to a
stereotypical focus on certain aspects of Apache cultures. These have
often been distorted through misunderstanding of their cultures, as
noted by anthropologist Keith Basso:
Of the hundreds of peoples that
lived and flourished in native North America, few have been so
consistently misrepresented as the Apacheans of Arizona and New Mexico.
Glorified by novelists, sensationalized by historians, and distorted
beyond credulity by commercial film makers, the popular image of 'the
Apache'—a brutish, terrifying semi-human bent upon wanton death and
destruction—is almost entirely a product of irresponsible caricature and
exaggeration. Indeed, there can be little doubt that the Apache has
been transformed from a native American into an American legend, the
fanciful and fallacious creation of a non-Indian citizenry whose
inability to recognize the massive treachery of ethnic and cultural
stereotypes has been matched only by its willingness to sustain and
inflate them.
Forced removal
In 1875, United States military forced the removal of an estimated 1,500 Yavapai and Dilzhe'e Apache (better known as Tonto Apache) from the Rio Verde Indian Reserve
and its several thousand acres of treaty lands promised to them by the
United States government. At the orders of Indian Commissioner L. E.
Dudley, U.S. Army troops made the people, young and old, walk through
winter-flooded rivers, mountain passes and narrow canyon trails to get
to the Indian Agency at San Carlos,
180 miles (290 km) away. The trek killed several hundred people. The
people were interned there for 25 years while white settlers took over
their land. Only a few hundred ever returned to their lands. At the San
Carlos reservation, the Buffalo soldiers of the 9th Cavalry Regiment—replacing the 8th Cavalry who were being stationed to Texas—guarded the Apaches from 1875 to 1881.
Beginning in 1879, an Apache uprising against the reservation system led to Victorio's War between Chief Victorio's band of Apaches and the 9th Cavalry.
Defeat
Most United States' histories of this era report that the final defeat of an Apache band took place when 5,000 US troops forced Geronimo's group of 30 to 50 men, women and children to surrender on September 4, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. The Army sent this band and the Chiricahua scouts who had tracked them to military confinement in Florida at Fort Pickens and, subsequently, Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.
Many books were written on the stories of hunting and trapping
during the late 19th century. Many of these stories involve Apache raids
and the failure of agreements with Americans and Mexicans. In the
post-war era, the US government arranged for Apache children to be taken
from their families for adoption by white Americans in assimilation
programs.
Pre-reservation culture
Social organization
Apache bride
All Apache peoples lived in extended family units (or family clusters);
they usually lived close together, with each nuclear family in separate
dwellings. An extended family generally consisted of a husband and
wife, their unmarried children, their married daughters, their married
daughters' husbands, and their married daughters' children. Thus, the
extended family is connected through a lineage of women who live
together (that is, matrilocal residence), into which men may enter upon
marriage (leaving behind his parents' family).
When a daughter married, a new dwelling was built nearby for her
and her husband. Among the Navajo, residence rights are ultimately
derived from a head mother. Although the Western Apache usually
practiced matrilocal residence, sometimes the eldest son chose to bring
his wife to live with his parents after marriage. All tribes practiced sororate and levirate marriages.
Apache Indian girl carrying an olla (a water basket) on her head, c. 1900
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. The degree of avoidance differed
by Apache group. The most elaborate system was among the Chiricahua,
where men had to use indirect polite speech toward and were not allowed
to be within visual sight of the wife's female relatives, whom he had to
avoid. His female Chiricahua relatives through marriage also avoided
him.
Several extended families worked together as a "local group",
which carried out certain ceremonies, and economic and military
activities. Political control was mostly present at the local group
level. Local groups were headed by a chief, an influential man with an
impressive reputation. The position was not hereditary, and was often
filled by members of different extended families. The chief's influence
was as strong as he was evaluated to be—no group member was obliged to
follow the chief. Western Apache criteria for a good chief included:
industriousness, generosity, impartiality, forbearance,
conscientiousness, and eloquence in language.
Many Apache peoples joined several local groups into "bands".
Banding was strongest among the Chiricahua and Western Apache, and weak
among the Lipan and Mescalero. The Navajo did not organize into bands,
perhaps because of the requirements of the sheepherding
economy. However, the Navajo did have "the outfit", a group of
relatives that was larger than the extended family, but smaller than a
local group community or a band.
On a larger level, Western Apache bands organized into what Grenville Goodwin
called "groups". He reported five groups for the Western Apache:
Northern Tonto, Southern Tonto, Cibecue, San Carlos, and White Mountain.
The Jicarilla grouped their bands into "moieties", perhaps influenced by the northeastern Pueblo. The Western Apache and Navajo also had a system of matrilineal "clans" organized further into phratries (perhaps influenced by the western Pueblo).
The notion of a tribe within Apache cultures is very weakly
developed; essentially it was only a recognition "that one owed a
modicum of hospitality to those of the same speech, dress, and customs." The six Apache tribes had political independence from each other and even fought against each other. For example, the Lipan once fought against the Mescalero.
Kinship systems
The Apache tribes have two distinctly different kinship term systems: a Chiricahua type and a Jicarilla type.
The Chiricahua-type system is used by the Chiricahua, Mescalero, and
Western Apache. The Western Apache kinship system differs slightly from
the other two but shares similarities with the Navajo system.
The Jicarilla type, which is similar to the Dakota–Iroquois kinship
systems, is used by the Jicarilla, Navajo, Lipan, and Plains Apache.
The Navajo system is more divergent among the four, having similarities
with the Chiricahua-type system. The Lipan and Plains Apache systems are
very similar.
Chiricahua
Hide painting depicting Apache girl's puberty ceremony, by Naiche (Chiricahua Apache), c. 1900, Oklahoma History Center
The Chiricahua language has four words for grandparent: -chú "maternal grandmother", -tsúyé "maternal grandfather", -chʼiné "paternal grandmother", -nálé
"paternal grandfather". Additionally, a grandparent's siblings are
identified by the same word; thus, one's maternal grandmother, one's
maternal grandmother's sisters, and one's maternal grandmother's
brothers are all called -chú. Furthermore, the grandchild terms
are reciprocal, that is, one uses the same term to refer to their
grandchild. For example, a person's maternal grandmother is called -chú and that grandmother also calls that granddaughter -chú (i.e. -chú can mean the child of either your own daughter or your sibling's daughter.)
Chiricahua cousins are not distinguished from siblings through
kinship terms. Thus, the same word refers to either a sibling or a
cousin (there are not separate terms for parallel-cousin and cross-cousin). The terms depend on the sex of the speaker (unlike the English terms brother and sister): -kʼis "same-sex sibling or same-sex cousin", -´-ląh "opposite-sex sibling or opposite-sex cousin". This means if one is a male, then one's brother is called -kʼis and one's sister is called -´-ląh. If one is a female, then one's brother is called -´-ląh and one's sister is called -kʼis. Chiricahuas in a -´-ląh relationship observed great restraint and respect toward that relative; cousins (but not siblings) in a -´-ląh relationship may practice total avoidance.
Two different words are used for each parent according to sex: -mááʼ "mother", -taa "father". Likewise, there are two words for a parent's child according to sex: -yáchʼeʼ "daughter", -gheʼ "son".
A parent's siblings are classified together regardless of sex: -ghúyé "maternal aunt or uncle (mother's brother or sister)", -deedééʼ
"paternal aunt or uncle (father's brother or sister)". These two terms
are reciprocal like the grandparent/grandchild terms. Thus, -ghúyé also refers to one's opposite-sex sibling's son or daughter (that is, a person will call their maternal aunt -ghúyé and that aunt will call them -ghúyé in return).
Jicarilla
Unlike the Chiricahua system, the Jicarilla have only two terms for grandparents according to sex: -chóó "grandmother", -tsóyéé
"grandfather". They do not have separate terms for maternal or paternal
grandparents. The terms are also used of a grandparent's siblings
according to sex. Thus, -chóó refers to one's grandmother or one's grand-aunt (either maternal or paternal); -tsóyéé
refers to one's grandfather or one's grand-uncle. These terms are not
reciprocal. There is a single word for grandchild (regardless of sex): -tsóyí̱í̱.
There are two terms for each parent. These terms also refer to that parent's same-sex sibling: -ʼnííh "mother or maternal aunt (mother's sister)", -kaʼéé
"father or paternal uncle (father's brother)". Additionally, there are
two terms for a parent's opposite-sex sibling depending on sex: -daʼá̱á̱ "maternal uncle (mother's brother)", -béjéé "paternal aunt (father's sister).
Two terms are used for same-sex and opposite-sex siblings. These terms are also used for parallel-cousins: -kʼisé "same-sex sibling or same-sex parallel cousin (i.e. same-sex father's brother's child or mother's sister's child)", -´-láh
"opposite-sex sibling or opposite parallel cousin (i.e. opposite-sex
father's brother's child or mother's sister's child)". These two terms
can also be used for cross-cousins. There are also three sibling terms based on the age relative to the speaker: -ndádéé "older sister", -´-naʼá̱á̱ "older brother", -shdá̱zha "younger sibling (i.e. younger sister or brother)". Additionally, there are separate words for cross-cousins: -zeedń "cross-cousin (either same-sex or opposite-sex of speaker)", -iłnaaʼaash "male cross-cousin" (only used by male speakers).
A parent's child is classified with their same-sex sibling's or same-sex cousin's child: -zhácheʼe "daughter, same-sex sibling's daughter, same-sex cousin's daughter", -gheʼ "son, same-sex sibling's son, same-sex cousin's son". There are different words for an opposite-sex sibling's child: -daʼá̱á̱ "opposite-sex sibling's daughter", -daʼ "opposite-sex sibling's son".
Apache lived in three types of houses. Tipis were common in the plains. Wickiups
were common in the highlands; these were 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) framed of
wood held together with yucca fibers and covered in brush. If a family
member died, the wickiup would be burned. Apache of the desert of
northern Mexico lived in hogans, an earthen structure for keeping cool.
Below is a description of Chiricahua wickiups recorded by anthropologist Morris Opler:
The home in which the family lives
is made by the women and is ordinarily a circular, dome-shaped brush
dwelling, with the floor at ground level. It is seven feet high at the
center and approximately eight feet in diameter. To build it, long fresh
poles of oak or willow are driven into the ground or placed in holes
made with a digging stick. These poles, which form the framework, are
arranged at one-foot intervals and are bound together at the top with
yucca-leaf strands. Over them a thatching of bundles of big bluestem grass or bear grass
is tied, shingle style, with yucca strings. A smoke hole opens above a
central fireplace. A hide, suspended at the entrance, is fixed on a
cross-beam so that it may be swung forward or backward. The doorway may
face in any direction. For waterproofing, pieces of hide are thrown over
the outer hatching, and in rainy weather, if a fire is not needed, even
the smoke hole is covered. In warm, dry weather much of the outer
roofing is stripped off. It takes approximately three days to erect a
sturdy dwelling of this type. These houses are 'warm and comfortable,
even though there is a big snow.' The interior is lined with brush and
grass beds over which robes are spread ...
Chiricahua medicine man in wickiup with family
The woman not only makes the furnishings of the home but is
responsible for the construction, maintenance, and repair of the
dwelling itself and for the arrangement of everything in it. She
provides the grass and brush beds and replaces them when they become too
old and dry ... However, formerly 'they had no permanent homes, so they
didn't bother with cleaning.' The dome-shaped dwelling or wickiup, the
usual home type for all the Chiricahua bands, has already been described
... Said a Central Chiricahua informant.
Both the teepee and the oval-shaped house were used when I
was a boy. The oval hut was covered with hide and was the best house.
The more well-to-do had this kind. The tepee type was just made of
brush. It had a place for a fire in the center. It was just thrown
together. Both types were common even before my time ...
A house form that departs from the more common dome-shaped variety is recorded for the Southern Chiricahua as well:
... When we settled down, we used the wickiup; when we were moving around a great deal, we used this other kind ...
Recent research has documented the archaeological remains of
Chiricahua Apache wickiups as found on protohistoric and at historical
sites, such as Canon de los Embudos where C. S. Fly photographed
Geronimo, his people, and dwellings during surrender negotiations in
1886, demonstrating their unobtrusive and improvised nature."
Food
Various Apache containers: baskets, bowls and jars. Apache women wove yucca, willow leaves, or juniper bark into baskets that could hold heavy loads.
Apache people obtained food from hunting, gathering wild plants,
cultivating domestic plants, trade, or raiding neighboring groups for
livestock and agricultural projects.
Particular types of foods eaten by a group depending upon their respective environment.
Hunting
Hunting was done primarily by men, although there were sometimes
exceptions depending on animal and culture (e.g. Lipan women could help
in hunting rabbits and Chiricahua boys were also allowed to hunt
rabbits).
Apache jug
Hunting often had elaborate preparations, such as fasting and religious rituals performed by medicine men
before and after the hunt. In Lipan culture, since deer were protected
by Mountain Spirits, great care was taken in Mountain Spirit rituals to
ensure smooth hunting. Slaughter follows religious guidelines (many of
which are recorded in religious stories) prescribing cutting, prayers,
and bone disposal. Southern Athabascan hunters often distributed
successfully slaughtered game. For example, among the Mescalero a hunter
was expected to share as much as half of his kill with a fellow hunter
and needy people at the camp. Feelings of individuals about this
practice spoke of social obligation and spontaneous generosity.
The most common hunting weapon before the introduction of European guns was the bow and arrow.
Various hunting techniques were used. Some involved wearing animal head
masks as a disguise. Whistles were sometimes used to lure animals
closer. Another technique was the relay method where hunters positioned
at various points would chase the prey in turns in order to tire the
animal. A similar method involved chasing the prey down a steep cliff.
Eating certain animals was taboo. Although different cultures had
different taboos, common examples included bears, peccaries, turkeys,
fish, snakes, insects, owls, and coyotes. An example of taboo
differences: the black bear was a part of the Lipan diet (although less
common as buffalo, deer, or antelope), but the Jicarilla never ate bear
because it was considered an evil animal. Some taboos were a regional
phenomenon, such as fish, which was taboo throughout the southwest (e.g.
in certain Pueblo cultures like the Hopi and Zuni) and considered to resemble a snake (an evil animal) in physical appearance.
Western Apache hunted deer and pronghorns
mostly in the ideal late fall. After the meat was smoked into jerky
around November, they migrated from the farm sites in the mountains
along stream banks to winter camps in the Salt, Black, Gila river and even the Colorado River valleys.
The Chiricahua mostly hunted deer followed by pronghorn. Lesser game included cottontail rabbits, opossums, squirrels, surplus horses, surplus mules, wapiti (elk), wild cattle and wood rats.
The Mescalero primarily hunted deer. Other game includes bighorn sheep,
buffalo (for those living closer to the plains), cottontail rabbits,
elk, horses, mules, opossums, pronghorn, wild steers, and wood rats.
Beavers, minks, muskrats, and weasels were hunted for their hides but
were not eaten.
The Jicarilla primarily hunted bighorn sheep, buffalo, deer, elk,
and pronghorn. Other game included beaver, bighorn sheep, chief hares,
chipmunks, doves, groundhogs, grouse, peccaries, porcupines, prairie
dogs, quail, rabbits, skunks, snow birds, squirrels, turkeys and wood
rats. Burros and horses were only eaten in emergencies. Minks, weasels,
wildcats and wolves were not eaten but hunted for their body parts.
The Lipan ate mostly buffalo with a three-week hunt during the
fall and smaller hunts until the spring. The second most utilized animal
was deer. Fresh deer blood
was drunk for health. Other animals included beavers, bighorns, black
bears, burros, ducks, elk, fish, horses, mountain lions, mourning doves,
mules, prairie dogs, pronghorns, quail, rabbits, squirrels, turkeys,
turtles, and wood rats. Skunks were eaten only in emergencies.
Plains Apache hunters hunted primarily buffalo and deer. Other
game included badgers, bears, beavers, fowl (including geese), opossums,
otters, rabbits, and tortoises.
Clothing
Influenced by the Plains Indians, Western Apaches wore clothing sewn
from animal hides decorated with seed beads for clothing. These beaded
designs historically resembled that of the Great Basin Paiute and is
characterized by linear patterning. Apache beaded clothing was bordered
with narrow bands of glass seed beads in diagonal stripes of alternating colors. They made buckskin shirts, ponchos, skirts, and moccasins and decorated them with colorful beadwork.
Undomesticated plants and other food sources
Apache girl with basket, 1902
The gathering of plants and other food was primarily done by women.
The men's job was usually to hunt animals such as deer, buffalo, and
small game. However, men helped in certain gathering activities, such as
of heavy agave
crowns. Numerous plants were used as both food and medicine and in
religious ceremonies. Other plants were used for only their religious or
medicinal value.
In May, the Western Apache baked and dried agave crowns pounded
into pulp and formed into rectangular cakes. At the end of June and
beginning of July, saguaro, prickly pear, and cholla fruits were gathered. In July and August, mesquite beans, Spanish bayonet fruit, and Emory oak
acorns were gathered. In late September, gathering was stopped as
attention moved to harvesting cultivated crops. In late fall, juniper berries and pinyonnuts were gathered.
The abundant agave (mescal) was also important to the Mescalero,
who gathered the crowns in late spring after reddish flower stalks
appeared. The smaller sotol crowns were also important. The crowns of
both plants were baked and dried. Other plants include: acorns, agarita
berries, amole stalks (roasted and peeled), aspen inner bark (used as a sweetener), bear grass stalks (roasted and peeled), box elder
inner bark (used as a sweetener), banana yucca fruit, banana yucca
flowers, box elder sap (used as a sweetener), cactus fruits (of various
varieties), cattail rootstocks, chokecherries, currants, dropseed grass seeds (used for flatbread), elderberries, gooseberries (Ribes leptanthum and R. pinetorum), grapes, hackberries, hawthorne fruit, and hops (used as condiment).
They also used horsemint
(as a condiment), juniper berries, Lamb's-quarters leaves, locust
flowers, locust pods, mesquite pods, mint (as a condiment), mulberries, pennyroyal
(as a condiment), pigweed seeds (for flatbread), pine inner bark (as a
sweetener), pinyon pine nuts, prickly pear fruit (dethorned and
roasted), purslane leaves, raspberries, sage (as a condiment), screwbeans, sedge tubers, shepherd's purse leaves, strawberries, sunflower seeds, tumbleweed seeds (for flatbread), vetch pods, walnuts, western white pine nuts, western yellow pine nuts, white evening primrose fruit, wild celery (as a condiment), wild onion (as a condiment), wild pea pods, wild potatoes, and wood sorrel leaves.
The Jicarilla used acorns, chokecherries, juniper berries,
mesquite beans, pinyon nuts, prickly pear fruit, yucca fruit, and many
other kinds of fruits, acorns, greens, nuts, and seed grasses.
The Lipan heavily used agave (mescal) and sotol. Other plants
include agarita, blackberries, cattails, devil's claw, elderberries,
gooseberries, hackberries, hawthorn, juniper, Lamb's-quarters, locust,
mesquite, mulberries, oak, palmetto, pecan, pinyon, prickly pears, raspberries, screwbeans, seed grasses, strawberries, sumac, sunflowers, Texas persimmons, walnuts, western yellow pine, wild cherries, wild grapes, wild onions, wild plums, wild potatoes, wild roses, yucca flowers, and yucca fruit. Other gathered food includes salt obtained from caves and honey.
The Plains Apache gathered chokecherries, blackberries, grapes, prairie turnips, wild onions, and wild plums, and many other fruits, vegetables, and tuberous roots.
Ethnobotany
A list of 198 ethnobotany plant uses for the Chiricahua can be found at http://naeb.brit.org/uses/tribes/11/, which also includes the Mescalero.
The Navajo practiced the most crop cultivation, the Western Apache,
Jicarilla, and Lipan less. The one Chiricahua band (of Opler's) and the
Mescalero practiced very little cultivation. The other two Chiricahua
bands and the Plains Apache did not grow any crops.
Trade, raids, and war
Interchanges between the Apache and European-descended explorers and
settlers included trading. The Apache found they could use European and
American goods.
Apaches distinguished raiding from war. Raiding was done in small
parties with a specific economic purpose. War was waged in large
parties (often clan members), usually to achieve retribution. Raiding
was traditional for the Apache, but Mexican settlers objected to their
stock being stolen. As tensions grew between the Apache and settlers,
the Mexican government passed laws offering cash rewards for Apache
scalps.
Religion
Apache religious stories relate to two culture heroes
(one of the Sun/fire:"Killer-Of-Enemies/Monster Slayer", and one of
Water/Moon/thunder: "Child-Of-The-Water/Born For Water") who destroy
several creatures harmful to humankind.
Another story is of a hidden ball game, where good and evil animals decide whether or not the world should be forever dark. Coyote, the trickster,
is an important being that often has inappropriate behavior (such as
marrying his own daughter, etc.) in which he overturns social
convention. The Navajo, Western Apache, Jicarilla, and Lipan have an
emergence or Creation Story, while this is lacking in the Chiricahua and
Mescalero.
Most Southern Athabascan gods are personified natural forces that
run through the universe. They may be used for human purposes through
ritual ceremonies. The following is a formulation by the anthropologist Keith Basso of the Western Apache's concept of diyí':
The term diyí' refers to one or all of a set of
abstract and invisible forces that are said to derive from certain
classes of animals, plants, minerals, meteorological phenomena, and
mythological figures within the Western Apache universe. Any of the
various powers may be acquired by man and, if properly handled, used for
a variety of purposes.
Medicine men learn the ceremonies, which can also be acquired by
direct revelation to the individual. Different Apache cultures had
different views of ceremonial practice. Most Chiricahua and Mescalero
ceremonies were learned through the transmission of personal religious
visions, while the Jicarilla and Western Apache used standardized
rituals as the more central ceremonial practice. Important standardized
ceremonies include the puberty ceremony (Sunrise Dance) of young women,
Navajo chants, Jicarilla "long-life" ceremonies, and Plains Apache
"sacred-bundle" ceremonies.
Certain animals—owls, snakes, bears, and coyotes—are considered spiritually evil and prone to cause sickness to humans.
Many Apache ceremonies use masked representations of religious spirits. Sandpainting
is an important ceremony in the Navajo, Western Apache, and Jicarilla
traditions, in which healers create temporary, sacred art from colored
sands. Anthropologists believe the use of masks and sandpainting are
examples of cultural diffusion from neighboring Pueblo cultures.
The Apaches
participate in many religious dances, including the rain dance, dances
for the crop and harvest, and a spirit dance. These dances were mostly
for influencing the weather and enriching their food resources.
Population history
José de Urrutia
estimated the Apache population in year 1700 at up to 60,000 people (or
12,000 warriors). Indian Affairs 1837 estimated the Apache population
in 1837 at 20,280 people, this estimate was later repeated by official
reports of Indian Affairs 1841 and 1844. In Indian Affairs 1857 "every
possible estimate" has been gathered - from 18,000 warriors (which would
indicate a total population of 90,000) down to 300. Many estimates did
not include the whole body of the tribe and referred only to some bands
or to a part of the area they roved over. In 1875 there were already on
the reservations 9,248 Apaches (Indian Affairs 1875), this number does
not include those who were still not on the reservations. The census of
1890 returned at least 7,218 (including 4,041 in Arizona) and the census
of 1910 returned at least 6,119.
During the 20th and 21st centuries Apache population has rebounded, reaching 148,936 in the USA according to the 2020 census.
The Southern Athabascan branch was defined by Harry Hoijer primarily according to its merger of stem-initial consonants of the Proto-Athabascan series *k̯ and *c into *c (in addition to the widespread merger of *č and *čʷ into *č also found in many Northern Athabascan languages).
Proto- Athabascan
Navajo
Western Apache
Chiricahua
Mescalero
Jicarilla
Lipan
Plains Apache
*k̯uʔs
"handle fabric-like object"
-tsooz
-tsooz
-tsuuz
-tsuudz
-tsoos
-tsoos
-tsoos
*ce·
"stone"
tsé
tséé
tsé
tsé
tsé
tsí
tséé
Hoijer (1938) divided the Apache sub-family into an eastern branch
consisting of Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache and a Western branch
consisting of Navajo, Western Apache (San Carlos), Chiricahua, and
Mescalero based on the merger of Proto-Apachean *t and *k to k
in the Eastern branch. Thus, as can be seen in the example below, when
the Western languages have noun or verb stems that start with t, the related forms in the Eastern languages will start with a k:
Western
Eastern
Navajo
Western Apache
Chiricahua
Mescalero
Jicarilla
Lipan
Plains Apache
"water"
tó
tū
tú
tú
kó
kó
kóó
"fire"
kǫʼ
kǫʼ
kųų
kų
ko̱ʼ
kǫǫʼ
kǫʼ
He later revised his proposal in 1971 when he found that Plains Apache did not participate in the *k̯/*c
merger to consider Plains Apache as a language equidistant from the
other languages, now called Southwestern Apachean. Thus, some stems that
originally started with *k̯ in Proto-Athabascan start with ch in Plains Apache while the other languages start with ts.
Proto- Athabascan
Navajo
Chiricahua
Mescalero
Jicarilla
Plains Apache
*k̯aʔx̣ʷ
"big"
-tsaa
-tsaa
-tsaa
-tsaa
-cha
Morris Opler (1975) has noted cultural similarities of Jicarilla and
Lipan with Eastern Apache language speakers and differences from Western
Apache speakers, supporting Hojier's initial classification. Other
linguists, particularly Michael Krauss
(1973), have noted that a classification based only on the initial
consonants of noun and verb stems is arbitrary and when other sound correspondences are considered the relationships between the languages appear more complex.
Apache languages are tonal. Regarding tonal development, all Apache languages are low-marked, which means that stems with a "constricted" syllable rime in the proto-language developed low tone while all other rimes developed high tone. Other Northern Athabascan languages are high-marked:
their tonal development is the reverse. In the example below, if
low-marked Navajo and Chiricahua have a low tone, then the high-marked
Northern Athabascan languages, Slavey and Chilcotin, have a high tone, and if Navajo and Chiricahua have a high tone, then Slavey and Chilcotin have a low tone.
Low-Marked
High-Marked
Proto- Athabascan
Navajo
Chiricahua
Slavey
Chilcotin
*taʔ
"father"
-taaʼ
-taa
-táʼ
-tá
*tu·
"water"
tó
tú
tù
tù
Notable historic Apache
Contemporary Apache people are listed under their specific tribes.
Indigenous futurisms is a movement in literature, visual art,
comics, video games, and other media that expresses Indigenous
perspectives of the future, past, and present in the context of science fiction and related sub-genres. Such perspectives may reflect Indigenous ways of knowing, oral history, historical or contemporary politics, and cultural perspectives.
Background
In
the late 20th century, Indigenous artists and writers experimented with
science fiction and images of Indigenous lifeways through different
spaces and times. In her anthology, Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science-Fiction (2012), Grace Dillon outlines how science fiction can aid processes of decolonization. Using tools like slipstream, worldbuilding, science fiction and anthropological
First Contact scenarios, Indigenous communities construct
self-determined representations and alternative narratives about their
identities and futures. Indigenous Futurists critique the exclusion of Indigenous people from the contemporary world and challenge notions of what constitutes advanced technology. In so doing, the movement questions the digital divide,
noting that Indigenous peoples have at once been purposefully excluded
from accessing media technologies and constructed as existing outside of
modernity. The widespread use of personal computers and the Internet following the Digital Revolution
created conditions in which, to some extent, Indigenous peoples may
participate in the creation of a network of self-representations.
Art plays an essential role into this movement as it communicates
more than pretty pictures and something to look at. It is meant to
influence opinions, values, and experiences. It is one of the earliest
sources of work done with indigenous futurisms. Indigenous futurisms
have had a big impact on Chicana art overall. It calls attention to the
past, present, and optimistic future. It gives views a new lens to view
events on in a visual way. Their work depicts the culture as it has been
passed down from ancestors to the present. Indigenous futurisms, as a
movement, has given many cultures, like Chicanas, a platform to spread
their story.
Grace Dillon, editor of Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, encouraged stories through IIF, the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Science Fiction Contest.
Chickasaw scholar Jenny L. Davis
emphasizes the importance of 'Indigenous language futurisms,' where she
shows that Indigenous languages are important to articulating and
understanding Indigenous temporalities.
Themes
Indigenous
futurisms at its base, envisions alternative futures where indigenous
peoples are allowed to reclaim agency, sovereignty, and cultural
continuity over culture, which may have been lost to time as well as cultural genocide,
or ancestral homeland. Through speculative storytelling, it re-imagines
relationships with the land, technology, and spirituality, emphasizing
interconnection and harmony, socially, spiritually and ecologically.
Concepts of time, space, identity, and belonging are redefined, offering
insights into indigenous worldviews and Spiritual practices.
Ultimately, indigenous futurisms serve as a powerful tool for
recognizing colonialism, genocide, and how to more peacefully coexist
with one's gender and environment.
Anti-Colonialism and Cultural Genocide Rhetoric
Much
of Indigenous futurism exists as a way to speculate a future without
the interference of Western countries, namely Spain, France, and
Britain, and explores the idea of what an American community would look
like free of the colonization of Europe. Most of these stories include
either a community, thriving on the same scale as modern America while
being more symbiotic with its environment, or a community of oppressed
citizens/refugees who long to return to a time/space where such things
were possible.
While in some part, genocide in Indigenous communities might
normally only be attributed to the early Americans, however, genocide,
is a far broader topic for discussion. The definition of genocide is the
deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of
their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. American Indian boarding schools in the last 100 years have been
responsible for beating Indigenous children into learning and accepting
customs from America at the time.
This interference has since been labeled as genocide, and Indigenous
futurist novels often speculate on a future where this culture was
allowed to grow and be taught primarily to children, instead of being
integrated with American culture and language.
Environmental sustainability
In
both the indigenous populations of today and the works of speculative
fiction, each individual member of a community is often asked to take
part in maintaining and sustaining the environment they are a part of.
Nature is often viewed as a cycle, just like the life and death of a
member of a community, and thus they can contribute to the cycle they
are a part of.
The term “Two Spirit” is a modern, pan-Indian, umbrella term used by some Indigenous peoples to describe those who fulfill a third gender
ceremonial and social role in their cultures. Those who identify
themselves as Two-Spirit are neither a man nor woman, but can carry the
traits of both sex represented in one complete body. The term was widely
adopted in the 1990s to encompass the various non-binary gender
identities and expressions among Indigenous peoples today.
Indigiqueer is a term that is used as an alternative to
two-spirit. It does not rely on binary concepts of gender. The term
Indigiqueer was created by Thirza Cuthand (Plains Cree) in 2004. Unlike
Two Spirit and other recent modern identities, Indigiqueer honors and
celebrates one's sexual and romantic orientation as well as their gender
identity and expression as they both relate to one's indigeneity
There are many indigenous futurisms stories written with indigiqueer
themes. For example: How to Survive the Apocalypse for Native Girls by
Two-Spirit Métis/Baawiting Nishnaane.
Concept of time
The
concept of time in Indigenous Futurisms moves away from Western linear
interpretations, both culturally and within the genre of speculative fiction. Time, according to Indigenous Futurists, encompasses and connects the past, present, and future all at once. Artists may explore alternate histories, distant and near futures, separate timelines, time travel, the multiverse, and other topics in which time is not limited to a linear conceptualization. Historical themes of colonialism, imperialism, genocide,
conflict, the environment, trade and treaties, which have impacted
Indigenous cultures, are recurring and reexamined, creating new
narratives in the process.
Artists play with questions of race, privilege, and "Whiteness", both
in history and within the speculative genre; they are expanded upon,
subverted, erased, reversed, etc., thereby linking culture to time,
space, and what lies in-between. The term biskaabiiyang (Anishinaabe), used by Dillon, exemplifies how Indigenous creators reflect on the impact of colonization
by returning to their ancestral roots, conflating past with present and
future, as well as reframing what the world would or could be like.
In other words, Indigenous Futurisms do not solely address the
future, but create a range of scenarios and phenomena in which
reimaginations of space, time, and Indigeneity are celebrated.
Literature
Literature
lends itself to many aspects of Indigenous Futurisms. Many of the
stories revolving around Indigenous Futurisms contain an Indigenous main
character, however, this does not define the genre, when referring to
literature in Indigenous Futurisms we are referring to the Author, or
the conceptualized stories, as defined in Dillon's anthology.
Literature is currently the most diverse subject in Indigenous Futurisms, works including: Love After the End, compiled by Joshua Whitehead, a collection of stories and perspectives from queer Indigenous peoples tackling colonialism and the ideas of hope.
Scholarly works including; Knotting Ontologies, Beading Aesthetics, and Braiding Temporalities, by Darren Lone Fight,
an examination of Native American literary epistemology and futurisms
including an analysis of the Indigenous Star Wars phenomena.
Visual art
An early source of collective Indigenous Futurisms is on the CyberPowWow website, a site launched by Skawennati (Mohawk) for Indigenous artworks starting in 1997 to 2004. It was a precursor to her TimeTraveller™Machinima series began with a 22nd-century Mohawk man.
Many pieces of Indigenous Futurists artwork contain iconography or symbolism that reference Indigenous oral history. Another major facet of Indigenous Futurists artwork is the adaptation of existing culture and nomenclature. For instance, artist Bunky Echo-Hawk's “If Yoda was Indian” displays show a new perspective on Yoda from the franchise Star Wars.
Kristina Baudemann focuses on storytelling and art and the integration of science fiction into Indigenous art in Indigenous Futurisms in North American Indigenous Art. She says that Indigenous people are resilient and sustainable and their art incorporates those characteristics. One specific Indigenous artist, Ryan Singer (Navajo Nation), paints in acrylic and silk-screens prints. He has two pieces of Princess Leia, from the Star Wars series that portrays the princess as Hopi, acknowledging George Lucas' cultural appropriation of the Hopi butterfly whorl hairstyle. In his first painting, Hopi Princess Leia (2009),
he shows the Hopi Princess Leia holding a gun pointing straight at the
audience while also staring directly at the audience as well. In his
second Hopi Princess Leia, named Hopi Princess Leia II (2010),
Leia is seen holding a bigger gun and still looking directly at the
audience. Baudemann analyses this depiction and says it creates
awareness of the colonial gaze, which is harmful to indigeneity. In these paintings Princess Leia is seen clad in a Hopi blanket, wearing the hairstyle typical to unmarried Hopi girls.
She is in front of her pueblo homes protecting them with her gun.
Baudemann emphasizes the idea that Hopi homes should be seen as homes
and not monuments that can be looked at by outsiders and they should not
be appropriated. Princess Leia, in the Star Wars
movies, loves her home and tries her hardest to protect it which is why
Singer chose Princess Leia to be depicted in these paintings.
Influence on Chicana Artists
Indigenous
futurisms touched many communities, one of which is the Chicana/Mexican
Community. There art offers an alternative platform that allows the
view to see and feel the history of their past and their connection to
it in the present. The movement has inspired many hope and aspirations
for the future to come.
Ritualistic mask used by indigenous peoples.
Amparo Chi
is an artist selected to showcase her work in the riverside art exhibit
for indigenous futurisms. Amparo Chi is a Chicana artist raised in Los
Angeles, a city dense with Hispanic culture in many forms like art. She
drew inspiration from murals by Chicano artists around the city and
began her journey. Her work, Semillas de la Vida, depicts the culture as it has been passed down from ancestors to the present.
All three people presented in the painting are women. One, who is the
ancestor is dressed very colorfully with a head and filled with vibrant
feathers.
The second woman is older and looks to be the grandmother of the last,
and youngest girl. The grandmother and her grand daughters hair is
connected and seems to be significant as she passes down the culture and
history or her heritage.
A lot of her work has to do with the cultural impression that people
leave on the younger generation. She is very determined to leave behind a
legacy of the culture that shaped many. Her upbringing intensifies her
views on continuing to pass culture down through community and educating
others on its existence and meaning. Her goal is to educate others on
the origins of her indigenous roots so they can continue to grow as the
definition of indigenous futurisms imply.
Another artist whose work reflects the connection of their heritage to the present in this exhibit is Andrea Ramirez. Her artwork, Arbol de la Pura Vida,
captures a family tree of sorts that also happens to center around
women. She developed her skills in her community with influence from her
family that is Mexican and Costa Rican. There are many pieces in her
work that are inspired by Otomi and Nahua traditions. The Otomi are
indigenous people that inhabited the central plateau of Mexico. These
people are very close-knit, especially with the bonds made between
families or godparents. The Nahua
are indigenous peoples that had occupied central Mexico. This community
also fostered an environment of closeness between families. Being
raised by parents from each of these cultures is clearly shown in her
artwork that illustrates a family tree. It is a rather unique depiction
due to the shape of the family tree. It is very colorful and decorated
with other plants or fruit. Ramirez's work, Arbol de la Pura Vida, emphasizes to strong familial connects that are formed within this culture and that it remains many generations later.
Mural pertaining to the Mexican Revolution.
Both artists grew up in very culturally rich areas where they had the
ability and surroundings to learn about their culture and what it meant
to them as they got older. They each communicate through their artwork
their perspectives of their culture and how it will continue in the
future. It seems to be very important to each that younger generations
continue to keep the culture and everything that it encompasses alive.
Without newer and younger generations continuing to practice the
cultural traditions or beliefs then the culture would gradually die out.
Art is a way to emphasize the meaning behind their urgency to continue
their heritage and keep in touch with the history that their ancestors
have lived through so that the next generations can keep growing.
Film
Indigenous Futurisms in film reflect non-colonial encounters such as utopian sovereignty and dystopian assimilation.
The continued development of Indigenous Futurists frameworks account
for the diversity of creative efforts and histories between the First
Nations, Inuit, and Native American filmmakers and communities to influence the outside world.
While not
as prominent as other mediums, video games provide a more hands-on
approach to the teaching and display of Indigenous Futurisms. Representation of indigenous cultures has been part of video games for years, with iconic games such as The Oregon Trail
depicting Indigenous peoples. However, the specific genre of Indigenous
Futurisms in video games is a relatively new concept and few prominent
games fall into this category.
Indigenous Futurists games range from games such as Thunderbird Strike, an action game where you take on the form of the legendary Thunderbird, gathering lightning to destroy mining equipment and factories on a terrorized and barren earth, to games such as Never Alone, which tells the story of a Iñupiaq and an Arctic fox as they explore a dire atmosphere and experience the cosmology of the Alaska Natives for themselves. Thunderbird Strike features significant artistic components and lots of indigenous imagery. The creator of the game, Elizabeth LaPensée, calls the art style "Woodland" or "X-ray," after Anishinaabe artistic styles. The game offers a form of protest specifically against the oil industry. Additionally, the popular game Fallout: New Vegas features a DLC titled Honest Hearts
that showcases Indigenous culture in a dystopian future. Various tribes
exist in the new region of Zion Canyon and the connection to nature is
showcased with rain and friendly dogs being introduced to Fallout: New
Vegas for the first time.
There has been controversy surrounding representation of Native people in video games, and iconic games such as The Oregon Trail have depicted Indigenous cultures to be dangerous and violent.
Many new video games have begun hiring consultants from the Native
community to ensure accurate representation, with the popular video game
Assassins Creed III collaborating on the game with the Mohawk Nation.
A recent Indigenous Futurists game, Terra Nova, was produced by Maize
Longboat, a member of the Mohawk tribe, and many other indigenous people
have been engaging in the production of video games centered around
indigenous themes.
Indigenous Futurisms also manifest themselves in physical games
as well, Coyote and Crow, is a tabletop role playing game created by
Connor Alexander, A native Cherokee who has had a large portion of his
culture taken away from him by colonialism.
The setting is in an America far in the future that has been completely
free of contact with the eastern hemisphere of the world. Culture and
technology have allowed us to be completely influenced by indigenous
beliefs and ideals. And America becomes a country without borders that
lives in complete harmony with the cycle of life and death.
Virtual reality
Virtual
reality (VR) is a medium in which the concept of screen sovereignty can
be used to combat misrepresentation of Indigenous people in media.
Indigenous VR makers are shaping the culture of technology through VR to
properly represent Indigenous people and their culture. Currently,
white media creators dominate the digital media field and digital
technology industries. Indigenous Matriarch 4
is a virtual reality company that provides Indigenous people with the
tools they need to participate in and remake the virtual world. Because
Indigenous people are often misrepresented in media, VR has become a
place to creatively express Native American culture and ideas.
Indigenous VR has also provided Indigenous people with the opportunity
to be leaders in a new technology field, and to be involved in
technology fields that previously excluded them and that had very little
representation of Native American and Indigenous communities.
Virtual reality is being used to create space and capacity for Indigenous creatives to tell their stories.
VR is used by many Indigenous practitioners to reimagine traditional
storytelling and express themselves and their culture, promote health
and wellbeing, and foster self-esteem and pride. New virtual platforms
have also been created that retell significant moments in Indigenous
history as well as connect to the present, like the platform AbTeC
Island (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace).
The 2167VR Project (2017), in partnership with the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (TIIF), commissioned the works of many Indigenous artists such as Danis Goulet (Métis), Kent Monkman (Cree), Postcommodity and Scott Benesiinaabandan (Lac Seul First Nation), notable for his work Blueberry Pie Under a Martian Sky. This immersive project exhibits virtual reality works set 150 years forward in time, paralleling Canada's 150th anniversary, each offering a different perspective on the role Indigenous peoples and identities will have in building the future.
Exhibitions
To increase this movement's visibility and bring attention to Indigenous voices, the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (IAIA MoCNA) showed Indigenous Futurisms, featuring the works of 27 contemporary Indigenous artists. Following the pandemic, the MoCNA has transferred the collection to an online gallery and made available a VR experience that the public can access through their devices.
Related movements
The term Indigenous Futurism, now called Indigenous Futurisms since 2012, was coined by Grace Dillon, professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program at Portland State University. The term was inspired by Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism, all of which encapsulate multiple modes of art-making from literature to visual arts, fashion, and music.
Indigenous Futurisms are also connected to Chicanafuturism,
"a spectrum of speculative aesthetics produced by U.S. Latin@s,
including Chican@s, Puerto Ricans, Dominican Americans, Cuban Americans,
and other Latin American immigrant populations. It also includes
innovative cultural productions stemming from the hybrid and fluid
borderlands spaces, including the U.S.-Mexico border."
Criticism
Indigenous
Futurisms as a term has received mixed feedback among Indigenous
Brazilian musicians. Many Indigenous artists do not embrace this concept
because they view preserving culture to be much more important than
thinking about the future. For example, Indigenous rapper Kunumi MC,
disagrees with the term, arguing that it is a white man's term
unreflective of Indigenous people, saying: “We, native Indigenous people
living in tribes, don't think about the future,” he says. “The white
man has a vision of progress, not us. Our progress is to preserve our
culture ... to live in the present, I have to remember my past.”
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