The Apache (the name is derived from the Zuni word for enemy, their own name for themselves being N'de or Dineh, the people) were a semi-nomadic people of hunter-gathers comprising six distinct tribes, each in its turn being made up of autonomous bands. Their homeland consisting of what is now West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of Northern Mexico.
Their first recorded encounter with European 'civilisation' was with the Spanish Coronado expedition in 1541 on the high plains of the Texas panhandle. Who described them as 'a gentle people not cruel, faithful in their friendship and skilled in the use of signs'.
Although they acquired horses from the Spanish, they were soon locked in a long guerrilla war, first with Spanish and then Mexican slave traders and finally American settlers.
In 1680 they joined forces with the Hopi in the great pueblo revolt, defeating the Spanish and driving them out of Santa Fe. Although the revolt was finally crushed in 1698, it set in train the events that would establish the pattern of raiding that the Apache were later to be known for. In 1784 the Spanish were offering 20 pesos for every Apache scalp or pair of ears and ordered that all over 7 years of age be killed, as they were untameable.
When Mexico acquired its independence they continued the practice of enslaving Apache women and children and paying a bounty for scalps. Thus the Americans were initially welcomed as friends when they acquired the South West from Mexico in 1848. However, following a number of brutal clashes, American ranchers and Miners had become the new enemy by 1850.
When troops were withdrawn from the Apache lands during the civil war, many bands increased their attacks on the settlers believing the American's to be on the retreat. However, following a clash at Apache Pass with Cochise's band of Chiricahua Apache's (the Bascom affair) and the end of the civil war, General James H. Carleton started an all out war against the Apache's. Instructing his troops that 'men are to be slain wherever and whenever found. The women and children may be taken prisoners...'
In January 1863 he sent the California volunteers under the command of General Joseph R. West to deal with Mangas Coloradas Mimbreno band of Apaches. Captured at gunpoint under a flag of truce he was tortured, shot, decapitated, and finally his head boiled to remove the flesh before sending it to the Smithsonian Institute.
The Apache wars that followed would last nearly two decades...
Frustrated by their resistance a mob from Tuscon in 1871 murdered, raped and mutilated 144 Apache women and children (the Camp Grant massacre) living as POW's at Camp Grant. A jury would later find no one guilty.
In 1872 Cochise, by now terminally ill, entered into peace talks. He agreed to end his bands fighting in return for a promise that his people could return to their homes at Apache pass. The promise was never kept.
In 1877, after the government ordered the Apache's to relocate to Arizona's San Carlos reservation, Geronimo emerged as one of the great leaders of the resistance. He and his followers successfully avoiding capture for almost a decade in the Mountains of northern Mexico.
By 1886 5,000 American troops and 3,000 Mexican volunteers were hunting him, his 17 surviving followers and their families. He finally surrendered on condition that his band be allowed to live on the reservation after being held as POW's for 2 years. He died at Fort Still, Oklahoma in 1909 still a prisoner. The surviving prisoner's (261) of Geronimo's band were finally released in 1913. A third chose to remain and settle in Oklahoma, were the town of Apache bears their name.
Some Apache links...
Fort Apache Indian Reservation
White Mountain Apache Tribe