Apache Indian

Apache is the collective name for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States.

The Apache Indians speak a Southern Athabaskan ( Apachean ) language. Apache Indians came from the Alaskan region, Canada, and portions of the American southwest. The Apache Indians were typically nomadic, meaning they traveled arround, never quite setting in one place.

There are several hypotheses concerning Apache Indians migrations. One posits that they moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In the early 16th century, the Apache Indians lived in tents, hunted bison and other game, and used dogs to pull travois loaded with their possessions. Substantial numbers and a wide range were recorded by the Spanish in the 16th century.

The Apache Indians  lived in extended family units  that usually lived close together in separate dwellings. An extended family generally consisted of a husband and wife, their unmarried children, their married daughters, their married daughters' husbands, and their married daughters' children. This extended family is connected through a lineage of women that live together, into which men may enter upon marriage (leaving behind his parents' family). When a daughter was married, a new dwelling was built nearby for her and her husband.

There were three types of houses in the Apache Indian tribes.  The first of which is the Teepee, for those who lived in the plains. Another type of housing is the Wickiup, an eight-foot tall frame of wood held together with yucca fibers and covered in brush usually in the Apache Indians in the highlands. If a family member lived in a wickiup and they died, the wickiup would be burned. The third type is Hogan, an earthen structure in the desert area that was good for keeping cool in the hot weather of northern Mexico.

The Apache Indians known as a good hunter. Hunting was done primarily by men, although there were sometimes exceptions depending on animal and culture.
Hunting often had elaborate preparations, such as fasting and religious rituals performed by medicine men before and after the hunt.

The most common hunting weapon used by Apache Indians before the introduction of European guns was the bow and arrow. Various hunting strategies were used. Some techniques involved using animal head masks worn as a disguise. Whistles were sometimes used to lure animals closer. Another technique was the relay method where hunters positioned at various points would chase the prey in turns in order to tire the animal. A similar method involved chasing the prey down a steep cliff. Apache groups are now in Oklahoma and Texas and on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

The present-day Apache Indian groups include the Jicarilla and Mescalero of New Mexico, the Chiricahua of the Arizona-New Mexico border area, the Western Apache of Arizona, the Lipan Apache of southwestern Texas, and the Plains Apache of Oklahoma