Native Pride - Apache

“We are vanishing from the earth, yet I cannot think we are useless or else God would not have created us. He created all tribes of men and certainly had a righteous purpose in creating each.” - Geronimo
Apache - one of the bravest and most famous Indian peoples of North America. A people of legendary and untamed warriors, the last free Indians who succumbed to the civilization of the white man, and famous chiefs such as Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, Juh, Victorio and Geronimo... Few may know the names of Lozen and Dahteste, women who were themselves warriors. Being a very militant people, Apaches were born and lived to fight. The Comanches and advancing North American settlers forced Indian tribes, including the Apaches, to move to the American Southwest. In the mid-16th century, the Spanish conquistadors brought more conflict by introducing horses and weapons - forever changing the way they fought their battles. The Apache historically never had it easy.
The Apaches brought together different ethnic groups that spread to northern Mexico and the southern United States. Apache people of the Southwest were surrounded by colonial European invaders who wanted their land. They had to defend themselves from the Mexican army to the south and the U.S. army to the north. For the Mexican region, the Apachería covered the north of the states of Sonora, Coahuila and Chihuahua.Because of this, the Apaches also have a shared history with Mexico, a country that bears a great responsibility for the decline of their culture. The Apache - United States conflict began with American settlement in Apache lands after the end of the war with Mexico in 1848 (the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo - part of the agreement involved Mexico ceding much of the Apache Nation’s land to the United States). In 1854, the United States agreed to pay Mexico for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico - pretty much the remainder of Chiricahua Apache territory.
The Apache were about as tough, tenacious, and formidable a people as the westward expansion faced hence the “Apache Wars” as designated during the time span of 1849-1886, and the names of famous Apache warriors associated with them. The story of the Apache trail of tears cannot be told without referencing the Camp Grant massacre, on April 30, 1871.The Long Walk to Fort Sumner (1864) where both the Navajo and about 400 Mescalero Apache were captured and herded onto the Indian reservation. In 1863, dishonorable capture of Mangas Coloradas (Geronimo’s Mentor) under the white flag of treaty counsel and his subsequent torture, murder and the defilement of his body they are ones of the most heinous actions of whites and the military in dealing with Native Americans. Apaches never drove wars for prey, or aimed at conquering someone else's territory. They only distinguished expeditions for loot and for revenge -while revenge meant "dealing death to enemies". Revenge for the deaths of relatives killed in robberies or killed in enemy attacks was a religious order that followed from the traditional Apache code of values and ideals. In 1858, during one of the Mexican soldiers invasions, Geronimo lost his wife, three children and mother.This tragic event made Geronimo declare war on the Mexicans, having no pity for them. From that moment on, he devoted his life to avenging the brutal killings of his loved ones. Geronimo initially avoided clashes with the Americans, as he did not hold a grudge against them. Eventually, however, America's aggressive policy towards the Indians forced him to fight them as well. On September 4, 1886, Geronimo agreed to surrender on the condition that he and his people would eventually be able to return to their homelands. But the government broke its promise. Initially, he and his followers were transported by train to Fort Pickens, Florida, then Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, until they were finally imprisoned at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. While in Florida, the government took their children away and placed them at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania for re-education. A third of them died at the notoriously inhumane boarding school. Geronimo died on Feb.17,1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, a prisoner of war, unable to return to his homeland. Four years after his death, the government finally let the remainder of Geronimo’s Chiricahua Apache followers leave Fort Sill. They were given the option to remain in Oklahoma or return to New Mexico and live on a reservation to the West. Apache fought with ferocity for decades, but finally had to surrender and were forced into reservations.Today many of the Apache tribes live in reservations in New Mexico and Arizona. Some also live in Oklahoma and Texas.
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