A branch of the Athabascan stock.
They are mostly wanderers, and have roamed as marauders over portions of
Texas,
New Mexico, and
Arizona, in the
United States, and several of the northern provinces of
Mexico, Wanderers, they do not cultivate the soil, and have only temporary chiefs to lead them.
Civil government they have none.
Divided into many roving bands, they resisted all attempts by the
Spanish to civilize and Christianize them, but constantly
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attacked these europeans.
So early as 1762, it was estimated that the Apaches had desolated and depopulated 174 mining towns, stations, and missions in the province of
Sonora alone.
For fifty years a bold chief —
Mangas Colorado — led powerful bands to war; and since the annexation of their territory to the
United States, they have given its government more trouble than any of the
Western Indians.
Colorado was killed in 1863.
Though fierce in war, they never scalp or torture their enemies.
A Great Spirit is the central figure in their simple system of theology, and they reverence as sacred certain animals, especially a pure white bird.
In 1900 the members of the tribe in the
United States were classified as Coyotera, Jicarilla, Mescalero,
San Carlos, Tonto, and
White Mountain Apaches, and were located in
Arizona,
New Mexico, and
Oklahoma.
They numbered 6,113.
