Apache background

From SPARK

Summary

Key Factors in Apache recording project

Apache Name

The Apache call themselves N’de, Dinë, Tinde, or Inde, `people.’ Jicarilla is a name meaning “little basket,” given to this clan of Tinde Apache by the Spanish because of the fine basket work they did. A major division in the Apache are the Querechos or Vaqueros, consisting of the Mescaleros, Jicarillas, Faraones, Llaneros, and probably the Lipan. The Jicarillas were first mentioned by this name early in the 18th century. Later, their different bands were designated Carlanes, Calchufines, Quartelejos, etc., after their habitat or chieftains. The present divisions of the Jicarilla, as recorded by Mooney (JMS., B. A. E., 1897), are: Apatsiltlizhihi, whose ancient homeland they consider to be Mora; Dachizhozhin, whose ancient land is the site of the present Jicarilla Reservation; Golkahin, from south of Taos Pueblo; Ketsilind, from south of Taos Pueblo; and Saitinde, from around what is now Espanola.

Culture

The Jicarilla Apaches of northeastern New Mexico were a bridge between the Indians of the Plains and those of the Southwest. Culturally they had traits of both, but they looked most like the Plains Indians. They used tepees, had braided hair, used buckskin clothing adorned with fine beadwork, and could carry personal war medicine in a small bag hung from the neck (a Plains trait). Yet their mythology was Southwestern. The Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Canadian Rivers figure in their genesis myth (Mooney in Am. Anthrop., xi, 200, 1898), but their traditions seem to center about Taos and the heads of the Arkansas River. They regarded the kindred Mescaleros and also the Navajo as enemies, and, according to Mooney, their alliances and blood mixture have been with the Ute and Taos.

Being a nomadic people, the Apache practiced agriculture only to a limited extent before their permanent establishment on reservations. They subsisted chiefly on the products of the chase and on roots (especially that of the maguey) and berries. Although fish and bear were found in abundance in their country, they were not eaten, being tabooed as food. They had few arts, but the women attained high skill in making baskets. Their dwellings were shelters of brush, which were easily erected by the women and were well adapted to their arid environment and constant shifting. Nomadic in nature until just before European contact, the Jicarilla tribe established trade with Taos and Picurís pueblos. They wandered and traded in Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas panhandles, and as far east as Kansas, until they settled in the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the mid-1720s. When they began to farm they raised corn, beans, and squash.

Their principal ceremony combined sand-paintings, a Navajo-Pueblo-type masked dance, a Basin-type dance of men and women together, and the old original southern Athapascan pattern of a ceremony performed at night, by the light of bonfires, within an enclosure of green branches.

Both the Spanish settlers of New Mexico and their American successors regarded them as a worthless people. In raids for plunder they were thought to be the worst Apache tribes. They were considered more treacherous and cruel, but less brave and energetic warriors than the Ute, but equally fond of intoxicants. While they sometimes planted on a small scale, they regarded theft as a natural means of support. For a time they obtained their chief support from plunder seized in their forays.

Language

In language, the Jicarillas (APJ) are more closely related to the Mescaleros (APM) than to the Navajo or the Arizona Apaches. A 1990 census listed 812 speakers out of a 2000 population. As of 1998 parents and the elderly were speaking the language; most adults speak the language, but many young adults may prefer English. Children tend to prefer English, but some speak the language and many can understand it.

History

• They are one of six southern Athapascan groups that are considered to have migrated out of Canada between 1300-1500 A.D.
• 1540: The first contact with the Spaniards came in 1541 when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado’s expedition journeyed through the northeastern plains of New Mexico in search of gold. They were perhaps known as the Querechos, whom the later Spanish explorers called Vaqueros. Hostilities began almost at first contact with the Spaniards. For a century the Jicarilla Apache were indifferent to the Spanish presence until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 triggered the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico.
• 1725: They settled deep in the northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the mid-1720s.
• 1733: Though a Spanish mission was attempted near Taos, it was short-lived. Henceforward they were nominally at peace, although committing many petty thefts.
• 1853: The governor of New Mexico induced 250 of the Jicarilla tribe to settle on the Puerco River, but a treaty with the governor of New Mexico was not ratified or honored by him, so war broke out. They went on the warpath, maintaining hostility until their defeat by United States troops in 1854.
• 1854: Jicarillas are defeated by the United States Army.
• 1870: They resided on the Maxwell grant in northeast New Mexico, the sale of which necessitated their removal.
• 1872–1873: The U.S. tries to move the Jicarilla to Fort Stanton. In 1872 (and again in 1878) an attempt was made to move them south to Fort Stanton, but most of them were permitted to go to a reservation of 900 square miles at Tierra Amarilla, in the north of New Mexico Territory.
• 1874: A reservation is established at Tierra Amarilla; this lasts less than four years.
• 1878: An Act of Congress was passed to force the Jicarilla south. They refused, and their annuities were suspended. They resorted to thievery.
• 1880: The Act of 1878 was repealed, and a new reservation was set aside on the Rio Navajo, to which they were removed.
• 1883: The Jicarilla were moved to Fort Stanton, where they had not wanted to go.
• 1887: On February 11, an Executive Order by President Grover Cleveland created a reservation in the Tierra Amarilla area in northern New Mexico. They were again returned to that reservation, where they have since resided. On this reservation 129,313.35 acres have been allotted to the Indians, and 280.44 acres reserved for mission, school, and agency purposes; the remainder, comprising 280,400 acres, is unallocated.
• 1908: A southern area was added to the reservation.
• 1937: The tribal constitution was approved, making them a sovereign nation.
• Now they are doing well financially. Money from the wool of their thousands of sheep is supplemented handsomely by income from their hundreds of gas and oil wells; and the ubiquitous casino has also put in an appearance.
• Since about 1990 the Jicarilla Apache have been adding more land to their reservation, spending millions of dollars.

They have been able to adapt to many cultural and environmental changes in just 200 years, and they still do crafts such as leather, painting, pottery, and beadwork.

Population

There were approximately 10,000 Jicarilla Apache prior to the Spanish reconquest beginning in 1680. There was an estimated population of only 800 Jicarilla in 1845. By 1897, however, the population (at least as counted in one spot) had further plummeted to 330. Then they began to increase (and apparently re-group). In 1903, Jicarillas numbered 782; their population in 1905 was 795. A 1990 census listed about 2000 people; there are now approximately 2755 tribal members (census 2000), most of whom live in the town of Dulce.

Judy Young, January 27, 2005