Through the popular media of the movies, television, and magazines, Apache Indians have been given much publicity. Unfortunately, they have often been represented as the bad men. In fact, their conflict with the United States Government was over the defense of land which they had claimed as their own since the eleventh century A.D. and over their unwillingness to give up their way of life and be settled on reservations. The Apache resisted the government's attempt to turn them into farmers, and there where numerous bloody encounters with the infantry, cavalry, and scouts of the United States.

Foremost among those who resisted the government forces was Geronimo, whose band consisted not only of warriors but of women and children who were trained to evade the enemy. After almost twenty years of resistance, Geronimo surrendered to General Miles in 1886. He and his band were sent to Florida, where they remained until 1894 when they were transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They were held as prisoners of war in Fort Sill until 1913.

Sometime after 1,000 A.D., nomadic bands of Indians, speaking a language described as Athapaskan, trekked south from Western Canada into the area of the Southwest which they now occupy. As to the route that they took or the years spent on the journey, one can only conjecture, but by 1700 many of the pueblos along the Rio Grande were abandoned for fear of them.

At the time the Navajo and Apache were undifferentiated. Except for differences of dialect, they spoke the same language and shared an economy of hunting and food gathering. The Tewa pueblo people called the newcomers Apache, meaning stranger or enemy. Organized into small bands, the Apache roamed far end wide in their raiding forays and became quite independent from their cousins, the Navajo, whose name was derived from apache de nabahu, meaning enemies of the cultivated fields.

Unlike the Navajo, who, despite their early raids, developed an economy based on sheep and agriculture, the Apache continued their raids on Indian communities, Mexicans, and white settlers. Warfare and hunting served as an interesting occupation for some groups.

Today the Apache live on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, where they are grouped by Athapaskan dialects. To east are the Jicarilla, Mescalero, Chiricahua, and Lipan. To the west are the White Mountain, Cibecue, San Carlos, Southern Tonto, and Northern Tonto. An April 1977 estimate of resident Indian population by state and reservations numbered the Apache at 18,686, much fewer than the Navajo.

Before being settled on reservations, the various bands led a simple life. Men followed the wild animals in their hunting, and the women planted gardens of corn, beans, and squash. While older women tended the crops, younger women looked for mesquite, screw beans, acorns, or wild green vegetable. Cooked mescal, cactus fruit, and sprouted maize were used to make a fermented beer called tulpai.

There houses were dome-shaped, brush wickiups, which were easily set up, moved, and reassembled as they traveled from one place to another. The women became expert basket makers, and their decorative baskets are considered among the finest Indian baskets both in design and craftsmanship.

Like the Navajo, the Apache were matrilineal, with clans traced through the mothers. Their social organization took the form of bands under the leadership of a chief who was chosen by the local group for his wisdom and generosity. Under him were the headmen of family groups.

Their ceremonial life is comparable to that of the Navajo but less elaborate. Ceremonies last from one to four days and include myths, procedures, and sand painting performed under the direction of a shaman for the health and protection of crops. These "medicine men" still have their role in the community, although the modern hospital and Christian churches have reduced their activities.

THE MUSIC

The music of the Apache is similar to the music of their Navajo cousins in that the melodies tend to follow a triadic pattern, but the structural organization of the music is even more distinct and diagnostic. Each song opens with a short refrain that repeats itself throughout in alternation with changed phrases of text of variable lengths. the texts are generally chanted on two tones a minor third apart, occasionally a fourth apart. The constant rhythmic repetition of this formula gives the songs hypnotic effect.