WESTERN APACHE IN COLORADO INDIANS

THESE APACHE WERE SOUTHERN ATHABASKANS WHO LIVED IN COLORADO BETWEEN 1000 - 15000 A.D. THEIR MIGRATIONS THROUGH TIME ARE NOT WELL UNDERSTOOD. BUT AFTER 1500S THEY SEPARATED INTO SEVERAL SMALL GROUPS. THEY BECAME MORE SEPARATED INTO SEVERAL SMALL GROUPS. THEY BECAME MORE ISOLATED FROM EACH OTHER AND DEVELOPED DIFFICULT CULTURAL TRAITS.


THERE ARE FIVE SUBTRIBAL GROUPS OF THE WESTERN APACHE WHO OCCUPIED CONTIGUOUS REGIONS IN THE EASTERN AND CENTRAL PORTION OF ARIZONA. THE SAN CARLOS APACHE LIVED SOUTH OF THE COLORADO PLATEAU. THE WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE WERE THE EASTERNMOST GROUP. THE CIBEQUE APACHE WERE ON THE SALT RIVER ABOVE THE MOGOLLON RIM.

THE WESTERN APACHE WERE HUNTER AND GATHERERS AND THEY WERE MODIFIED AFTER CONTACT WITH PUEBLOS. BY 1600S THEY DEVELOPED A COLLECTION STRATEGY OF FOOD GATHERING AND PLANTING SOME CROPS BY THEIR VILLAGES IN SPRING AND SUMMER. THEY TRAVELED A LARGE DISTANCE TO HARVEST MESCAL. IN MAY THEY HAD BUILT AND USED IRRIGATION DITCHES AND PLANTED CROPS. IN JULY THEY HARVESTED SAQUARO CACTUS IN THE GILA VALLEY. THERE ACORN HARVEST TOOK A MONTH AND THEY COLLECTED THEIR PLANTED CROPS IN SEPTEMBER. IN FALL/WINTER THE MEN HUNTED. EXCEPT FOR EARLY SPRING THEY WERE CONSTANTLY ON THE MOVE. THEY LEARNED TO RAID OTHER TRIBES FOR SECURING CATTLE. DURING THE 1600'S THEY ACQUIRED HORSES FROM THE SPANISH. THE APACHE WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR RAIDS.

THEY WERE DEFEATED BY 1875 BY GENERAL CROOK AS HE BURNED MOST OF THE STORES OF MEAT SEEDS AND WINTER DIET. AS THEY WERE PLACED ON RESERVATIONS THEIR CYCLE OF HUNTING AND GATHERING WAS FOREVER DESTROYED. THEY WERE ALL PLACED ON THE SAN CARLOS RESERVATION WHICH WAS SOUTH OF THEIR SACRED BIRTH PLACE. THE FORT APACHE WERE IN THE SOUTH WHITE RIVER WHERE THEIR HOMELANDS WERE LOCATED, AND THEY COULD RAISE CORN, BEANS AND SQUASH.

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