Western Apache refers to the Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 peoples living today primarily in east central Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

. Most live within reservations. The White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache

Fort Apache Indian Reservation

The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, a Western Apache tribe. It has a land area of 2,627.608...

, San Carlos, Yavapai-Apache, Tonto Apache

Tonto Apache

The Tonto Apache is one of the groups of Western Apache people. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language...

, and the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Indian reservations are home to the majority of Western Apache and are the bases of their federally recognized tribes. In addition, there are numerous bands.

Their dialects are a form of Apachean, a branch of the Southern Athabaskan language family. The Navajo speak a related Athabaskan language, but the peoples separated long ago and are considered culturally distinct. Other indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

 who are Athabaskan speakers are located in Alaska and Canada.

The anthropologist Grenville Goodwin

Greenville Goodwin

Grenville Goodwin, born Greenville Goodwin , is best known for his participant-observer ethnology work among the Western Apache in the 1930s in the American Southwest. Largely self-taught as an anthropologist, he lived among the Apache for nearly a decade, and learned their stories and rituals...

 (1938) classified the Western Apache into five groups based on Apachean dialect and culture:

• Cibecue,
• Northern Tonto,
• Southern Tonto,
• San Carlos, and
• White Mountain.

Since Goodwin, other researchers have disputed his conclusion of five linguistic groups, but have agreed on three main Apachean dialects with several subgroupings:

• San Carlos,
• White Mountain, and
• Dilzhe'e (Tonto).

Some 20,000 Western Apache still speak their native language, and efforts have been made to preserve it. Bilingual teachers are often employed in the lower elementary grades, to expedite this goal, but the tendency toward children learning to speak only English, mingled with occasional Spanish, remains dominant.

In relation to culture, tribal schools offer classes in native handicrafts, such as basket weaving, making bows, arrows, spears, shields; cradles for infants, native costumes from buckskin for the young women, and the making of silver jewelry (often by the men) at the elementary and secondary level.

Western Apache bands and tribes

• White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache Indian Reservation (Dzil Łigai Si'án Ndee - ‘People of the White Mountains’), (Spanish: Sierra Blanca Apache), a federally recognized tribe.
  • Western White Mountain band (Łįįnábáha - ‘Many Go to War People’)
  • Eastern White Mountain band (Dził Ghą́ʼ - ‘On Top of Mountains People’)
• Cibecue Apache (Spanish derivation of the autonym Dishchíí Bikoh - ‘People of the Red Canyon’)
  • Canyon Creek band (Gołkizhn - ‘Spotted on Top People’, likely refers to a mountain that is spotted with junipers)
  • Carrizo band (Tłʼohkʼadigain, Tłʼohkʼadigain Bikoh Indee - ‘Canyon of the Row of White Canes People’)
  • Cibecue band (Dziłghą́ʼé, Dził Tʼaadn - ‘Base of Mountain People’)
• San Carlos Apache of the San Carlos Reservation (Tsékʼáádn). a federally recognized tribe composed of several Western Apache peoples
  • Apache Peaks band (Nadah Dogalniné - ‘Spoiled Mescal People’, ‘Tasteless Mescal People’)
  • San Carlos band (Tsékʼáádn, Tsandee Dotʼán - ‘It is Placed Alone beside the Fire People’, San Carlos proper)
  • Pinaleno/Pinal band (Spanish ‘Pinery People’, Tʼiisibaan, Tʼiis Tsebán - ‘Cottonwoods Gray in the Rocks People’, after the trees at the mouth of the San Pedro River and because thei lived and farmed along Pinal Creek called Tʼii Tsebá)
  • Arivaipa/Aravaipa band (Pima
    Pima
    The Pima are a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona. The long name, "Akimel O'odham", means "river people". They are closely related to the Tohono O'odham and the Hia C-ed O'odham...
    
    : ‘cowards, ‘women’, called by the Apaches Tséjìné - ‘Dark Rocks People’, after the black rocks of the Galiuro Mountains and Aravaipa Canyon)
    • Tséjìné (‘Dark Rocks People’, Arivaipa proper, because they outnumbered the Tsé Binestʼiʼé their name was used for all Arivaipa)
    • Tsé Binestʼiʼé (‘Rock encircling People’)
• Tonto Apache (autonym: Dilzhé`e), the Chiricahua
  Chiricahua
  Chiricahua are a group of Apache Native Americans who live in the Southwest United States. At the time of European encounter, they were living in 15 million acres of territory in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico...
  
   called them Ben-et-dine - ‘wild’, ‘crazy’; neighboring Western Apache called them Koun`nde (‘Those who you don’t understand’, ‘wild rough People’); (the Spanish adapted this as Tonto - 'loose', 'foolish')
  • Northern Tonto
    • Bald Mountain band (Dasziné Dasdaayé Indee - ‘Porcupine Sitting Above People’)
    • Fossil Creek band (Tú Dotłʼizh Indee - ‘Blue Water People’)
    • Mormon Lake band (Dotłʼizhi HaʼitʼIndee - ‘Turquoise Road Coming Up People’)
    • Oak Creek band (Tsé Hichii Indee - ‘Horizontal Red Rock People’)
  • Southern Tonto
    • Mazatzal band (Tsé Nołtłʼizhn - ‘Rocks in a Line of Greenness People’)
    • Dil Zhęʼé semi-band (‘People with high-pitched voices’, first and most important semi-band under which name the five remaining semi-bands were known)
    • second semi-band
    • third semi-band
    • fourth semi-band
    • fifth semi-band
    • sixth semi-band

Often groups of the Yavapai

Yavapai people

Yavapai are an indigenous people in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai were divided into four geographical bands that considered themselves separate peoples: the Tolkapaya, or Western Yavapai, the Yavapé, or Northwestern Yavapai, the Kwevkapaya, or Southeastern Yavapai, and Wipukpa, or Northeastern...

, especially the Wipukepa and Kwevkepaya, lived together with the Tonto Apache (as well as bands of the San Carlos Apache) in bilingual rancherias, and could not be distinguished by outsiders (Americans, Mexicans or Spanish) except on the basis of their "Mother tongues." The Yavapai and Apache together were often referred to as Tonto or Tonto Apaches. Therefore, it is not always easy to find out whether it is now exclusively dealing with Yavapai or Apache, or those mixed bands. The Wipukepa and Kwevkepaya were therefore, because of their ancestral and cultural proximity to the Tonto Apaches, often incorrectly called Yavapai Apaches or Yuma Apaches. The Tolkepaya, the southwestern group of Yavapai, and the Hualapai

Hualapai

The Hualapai or Walapai are a tribe of Native Americans who live in the mountains of northwestern Arizona, United States. The name is derived from "hwa:l," the Hualapai word for ponderosa pine, "Hualapai" meaning "people of the ponderosa pine"...

 (also belonging to the Upland Yuma Peoples) were also referred as Yuma Apaches or Mohave Apaches.

Notable Western Apache

• Jay Tavare
  Jay Tavare
  Jay Tavare is an American actor. Tavare is perhaps best known as Vega in 1994 film Street Fighter. Tavare has played a number of roles in movies, including a Seminole in Adaptation, an Apache in The Missing, a Cherokee in Cold Mountain, and a Cheyenne in Into the West.His mother was White Mountain...
  
  , actor (White Mountain)
• Michael Minjarez, actor & Apache dialect supervisor

Further reading

Language pedagogy

• Arizona State University & American Indian Language Development Institute. (1983). Nohwiyati’ [Our language]. SIL.
• Bunney, Curtis. (1974). Nnee baa nadaagoni’ [Apache stories]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District.
• Bunney, Curtis. (1974). Oshii bigonsh’aa. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District.
• Bunney, Curtis. (n.d.). Apache Workbook l: Oshii bigonsh’aa. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District.
• Bunney, Curtis. (n.d.). Nnee dii k’ehgo daagoląąni’. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District.
• Bunney, Curtis. (n.d.). The Little Red Hen (and other stories): Chaghashe bi nagoni’e. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District.
• Bunney, Curtis; & and Crowder, Jack. (1972). Western Apache Series. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District. [20 booklets].
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). The cactus boy: Hosh nteelé ishkiin. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Chagháshé táági [The three children]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Da’ónjii nadaagohilnéhé [We read we play]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Doo hant’é dalke’ da. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Gosh’ii: Shíí Mary nshlii: Gosh’ii. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Haigo: Zas naláá. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Idiists’ag, gosh’ii: [I hear, I see]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Kih nagodenk’áá: Kih diltli’. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Mary hik’e tl’oh bilgo. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Nnee kéhgo onltag bigonláa [Learn to count in Apache]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Shíí nnee nshlii. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Shíígo shil nlt’éé. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Shiyo’ tséé dotl’izhi alzáa [Mary's peridot necklace]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Stephen hik’e na’inniihí [Stephen and the airplane]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Tahbiyú [Early morning]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Tl’oh tú yidlaa. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). Tulgayé ligayi: Tulagayé bijaa igodi [The white donkey]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). The wild animals: Itsá. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Crowder, Jack L. (1972). [Apache language readers]. San Carlos, AZ.
• Edgerton, Faye E.; & Hill, Faith. (1958). Primer, (Vols. 1-2). Glendale, AZ.
• Goode, Phillip. (1985). Apache language course and lesson plans for Globe High School: Grades 9-12. [Unpublished manuscript].
• Goode, Phillip. (1996). Total physical response sentences from Asher (1982) translated into San Carlos Apache, with commentary by Willem J. de Reuse. [Unpublished manuscript].
• Johnson, James B.; Lavender, Bonnie; Malone, Beverley; Bead, Christina; & Clawson, Curry. (n.d.). Yati' nakih [Two languages]: Kindergarten bi naltsoos choh [Kindergarten's big book]. Title VII Bilingual Education Program Kindergarten Curriculum Manual. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Tribe.
• Malone, Wesley; Malone, Beverly; & Quintero, Canyon Z. (1983). New keys to reading and writing Apache, (rev. ed.). Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• Perry, Edgar. (1989). Apache picture dictionary. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• Perry, Edgar; & Quintero, Canyon Z. (1972). Now try reading these. Fort Apache, AZ: Apache Culture Center.
• Quintero, Canyon Z. (1972). Keys to reading Apache. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• de Reuse, Willem J. (2006). A practical grammar of the San Carlos Apache language. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 51. LINCOM. ISBN 3-89586-861-2.
• de Reuse, Willem J.; & Adley-SantaMaria, Bernadette. (1996). Ndee biyáti’ bígoch’il’aah [Learning Apache]: An introductory textbook in the White Mountain Apache language for non-speakers. [Unpublished manuscript].
• de Reuse, Willem J.; & Goode, Phillip. (1996). Nnee biyati’ yánlti’go [Speak Apache]: An introductory textbook in the San Carlos Apache language for non-speakers. [Unpublished manuscript].
• Steele, Lola; Smith, Dorothy; & Bunney, Curtis. (n.d.). Nnee Díí Kehgo Daagolii’ ni’ [Apaches used to live this way]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Steele, Lola; Smith, Dorothy; & Bunney, Curtis. (n.d.). Oshíí bígonsh’aa [I learn to read]. San Carlos, AZ: Rice School District No. 20.
• Uplegger, Francis J. (1966). Red man and white man in harmony: Songs in Apache and English. San Carlos, AZ: Lutheran Indian Mission.
• White Mountain Apache Culture Center. (1972). Apache months. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• White Mountain Apache Culture Center. (1972). Apache plants. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• White Mountain Apache Culture Center. (1972). Keys to reading and writing Apache. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• White Mountain Apache Culture Center. (1972). Writing Apache. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• Wycliffe Bible Translators. (1900). Apache reader.

Literature and dictionaries

• Basso, Keith H. (1979). Portraits of "the whiteman": Linguistic play and cultural symbols among the Western Apache. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-29593-9.
• Basso, Keith H. (1990). Western Apache language and culture: Essays in linguistic anthropology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-1323-6.
• Basso, Keith H. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0-8263-1724-3.
• Bourke, John G.; & Condie, Carole J. (1990). Vocabulary of the Apache or ’Indé language of Arizona and New Mexico. Occasional publications in anthropology: Linguistic series, (no. 7). Greenley, CO: Museum of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado.
• Bray, Dorothy, & White Mountain Apache Tribe. (1998). Western Apache-English dictionary: A community-generated bilingual dictionary. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press. ISBN 0-927534-79-7.
• Goddard, Pliny E. (1918). Myths and tales from the San Carlos Apache. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, (Vol. 24, Part 1). New York: The American Museum of Natural History.
• Goddard, Pliny E. (1919). Myths and tales from the White Mountain Apache. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, (Vol. 24, Part 2). New York: The American Museum of Natural History.
• Goddard, Pliny E. (1919). San Carlos Apache texts. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, (Vol. 24, Part 3). New York: The American Museum of Natural History.
• Goddard, Pliny E. (1920). White Mountain Apache texts. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History, (Vol. 24, Part 4). New York: The American Museum of Natural History.
• Gordon, Matthew; Potter, Brian; Dawson, John; de Reuse, Willem; & Ladefoged, Peter. (2001). Phonetic structures of Western Apache. International Journal of American Linguistics, 67(4), 415-481.
• Perry, Edgar. (1972). Western Apache dictionary. Fort Apache, AZ: White Mountain Apache Culture Center.
• Plocher, Johannes & Eilers, Herman. (1893). English Apache dictionary: Containing a vocabulary of the San Carlos Apache, also some White Mount. terms, and many sentences illustrating the use of the words. [Unpublished manuscript].
• de Reuse, Willem J. (2004). [personal communication].
• Uplegger, Francis J. (1899–1964). Papers. [unpublished material].
• Uplegger, Francis J. (1900). Apache dictionary. [unpublished].
• Uplegger, Francis J. (1911). My life, how should it proceed. San Carlos, AZ [?]: Evangelical Lutheran Mission.
• Uplegger, Francis J. (1940–1960). Apache language songbook. [unpublished archival material].

External links

• White Mountain Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council)
• San Carlos Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council)
• Tonto Apache Tribe (Arizona Intertribal Council)
• Yavapai-Apache Nation Official Website
• Yavapai-Apache Nation (Arizona Intertribal Council)
• White Mountain Apache Tribe
• map of Fort Apache Reservation
• Photos & Fact about White Mountain Apaches at Fort Apache Reservation (includes photographs)
• Apache Texts
• Grenville Goodwin's preface to Myths and Tales of the White Mountain Apache
• White Mountain Apache Language: Issues in Language Shift, Textbook Development, and Native Speaker-University Collaboration
• Apache Indian Language (Tinde, Nde, Ndee, Tineh, Na'isha)