The San Carlos Reservation still exists. It is located in Gila and Graham counties of Arizona. Apache also live on other reservations in Arizona: on the Camp Verde Reservation, which they share with the Yavapai, in
Yava-18 APACHE
Apache sling for rock-throwing
Apache pottery ashtray (modern)
The Apalachee homeland was situated in what is now northwest Florida, near the capital of the state, Tallahas-see. The nearby bay on the Gulf of Mexico is named after the tribe: Apalachee Bay. Apalachee, pronounced ap-uh-LATCH-ee, is a CHOCTAWword meaning “people of the other side [of the Alabama River].”
The tribe no longer exists. The Apalachee once had at least 20 villages of pole-frame houses with palmetto-thatched roofs. Sometimes villagers packed the walls of their houses with mud, a technique called wattle and daub. Next to the villages were fields of corn, beans, squash, and other crops. Probable direct descendants of the MOUND BUILDERS, the Apalachee built mounds with temples on top. The tribe is classified as part of the Southeast Culture Area (see SOUTHEAST INDIANS).
To the north of the Apalachee lived the CREEK. Although both peoples spoke dialects of the Muskogean language family, they were enemies. The less numerous Apalachee managed to hold their own against the larger tribe.
In 1528, the Apalachee attacked and drove off an early Spanish expedition led by the explorer Pánfilo de Narváez. But Hernando de Soto and his men lived among the tribe in the winter of 1539–40 during the first part of their expedition throughout much of the Southeast. Some of the more militant Apalachee resented the presence of the conquistadores and quar-reled with them.
By 1633, Spanish missionaries had a foothold among the Apalachee. By the 1640s, seven churches had been built among them, and eight of the principal
Apalachee chiefs had been converted to Catholicism.
In 1647, the Apalachee, angry because they were forced to work on the Spanish fort at St. Augustine, rebelled. But Spanish soldiers, having superior weapons, quickly suppressed the uprising. Then in 1656, some Apalachee joined their trading partners the TIMUCUA in their revolt. The faction that wanted the Spanish as allies, valuing European trade goods and protection against other Indians, prevented fur-ther violence in the ensuing years.
As allies of the Spanish, the Apalachee suffered attacks from other colonists. In 1703–04, Carolina militiamen and Creek warriors under Colonel James Moore destroyed many villages and killed many inhabitants.
They took some Apalachee captives back to South Car-olina, some of whom later joined with the YAMASEEin the Yamasee War of 1715.
In the course of the 18th century, the Apalachee migrated often. Some joined their former enemies, the Creek. Others moved to new villages among the Span-ish. After 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War, when Spain lost Florida to England, many Apalachee moved to Louisiana and settled on the Red River. The Spanish regained control of Florida in 1783 after the American Revolution, holding it until 1819.
By that time, however, most of their Apalachee allies had dispersed. The small bands that remained inter-married with other Indian peoples, as well as with African Americans and European Americans, and grad-ually lost their tribal identity.
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pai County; on the Fort McDowell Reservation, which they share with MOJAVE and Yavapai, in Maricopa County; and on the Fort Apache Reservation in Apache, Gila, and Navajo Counties. In New Mexico, there is the Jicarilla Reservation in Rio Arriba and Sandoval Coun-ties; and the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Otero County. The Fort Sill Apache have their business com-mittee headquarters in Apache, Oklahoma. They are sometimes referred to as Chief Geronimo’s Band of Apache. Some of the Apache groups, such as the Jicarilla, have been expanding reservation lands by purchasing new real estate.
Apache support themselves through a number of tribal enterprises, including stock raising, sawmills,
stores, gas stations, oil and gas leases, and more and more, tourist facilities. In recent years, tribally run casi-nos in New Mexico and Arizona have increased the number of visitors to Apache lands. Individual tribal members also farm and hire themselves out as laborers to earn a living. Some Apache supplement their income by making traditional arts and crafts, in particular, baskets, cradleboards, and beadwork.
In 2005, Mary Kin Titla, a San Carlos Apache and a news reporter appearing on television in Arizona, includ-ing the cities of Tucson and Phoenix, created an Internet magazine, http://www.nativeyouthmagazine.com. The online magazine gives Native young people the opportu-nity to explore the world of journalism as guest writers.
APALACHEE
The Arapaho originally called themselves Inuna-ina, meaning “our people.” To their CHEYENNE allies, they were hitanwo’iv for “people of the sky” or “cloud people.”
Some tribes also called them “dog-eaters” in their various languages. Arapaho, pronounced uh-RAP-uh-ho, now the official name of the tribe, is probably derived from the PAWNEEword tirapihu or carapihu, meaning “trader.”
It is also close to the KIOWAname for the tribe: Ahyato.
It is thought that the Algonquian-speaking Arapaho once lived in the Red River region of what is now Min-nesota and North Dakota, one people with other
ALGONQUIANS, the GROS VENTRE (ATSINA). Other Algonquian tribes who eventually settled in the West, the BLACKFEETand the Cheyenne, might also have been relatives of the Arapaho.
The Arapaho and the Gros Ventre are believed to have migrated westward to the headwaters of the Missouri River sometime in the 1700s, possibly as far west as ter-ritory now in Montana. At some point, a split occurred.
The Gros Ventre migrated to the north to what is now northern Montana and southern Saskatchewan. The Arapaho headed southward.
At some point in the 1800s, the tribe again divided into the Northern Arapaho and the Southern Arapaho.
The northern branch of the tribe settled in the vicinity of the North Platte River in what is now Wyoming. The southern branch settled along the Arkansas River in what is now Colorado. The two groups stayed in close contact with each other, however.
Lifeways
By the 1800s, the Arapaho had adopted lifeways into a typical tribe of the Great Plains Culture Area. They were master horse trainers and riders, using their horses to hunt buffalo and to carry out raids on other Indians and on white settlers. They lived in buffalo-skin tipis. They changed their campsites often, following the migrations of buffalo herds.
Three customs shared by many of the tribes that migrated onto the plains—classified together as PLAINS INDIANS—are secret societies, medicine bundles, and the Sun Dance.
The secret societies of the Plains Indians were clubs built around the act of warfare. The societies had differ-ent initiation rites, pre-battle and post-battle ceremonies, songs and dances, and costumes. In the case of Arapaho, the eight secret societies were age-graded. That is to say,
boys of a certain age joined one society, then graduated into others. Other tribes with age-graded military soci-eties were the Gros Ventre, Blackfeet, MANDAN, and
HIDATSA. Some tribes with nongraded military societies, often with membership determined by invitation only, were the Cheyenne, SIOUX(DAKOTA,LAKOTA,NAKOTA),
CROW,ASSINIBOINE, and OMAHA.
Medicine bundles were containers of various shapes and sizes with objects inside thought to have magical powers.
Some were owned by individual Indians, and the owner might have seen the objects in a dream or vision during his vision quest, the ceremony that marked the passage into adulthood. Medicine bundles belonging to the medicine men were used in healing ceremonies. Each secret society had its own medicine bundles. Other medicine bundles belonged to the whole tribe. The most important medicine bundle for the Cheyenne contained many objects, includ-ing a hat made from the hide of a buffalo, plus four arrows, two for warfare and two for hunting. The Sioux treasured a pipe supposedly given to the tribe by a white buffalo calf.
The most sacred object of the Arapaho was the flat pipe, a long tobacco pipe with a stem about the length of a man’s arm. It was wrapped in a bundle, to be opened and smoked only on special occasions and with elaborate rituals.
Another sacred relic of the tribe kept in a bundle was a wheel or hoop.
ARAPAHO
20 ARAPAHO
Arapaho leather and bead toy horse
Arapaho drumstick with head of green-painted hide and quillwork eagles on both sides
For the Arapaho many everyday acts had symbolic meaning. For instance, when Arapaho women crafted beadwork on clothing, bags, or tipis, or when they painted designs with vegetable coloring, they were using shapes and colors with special significance, sometimes depicting tribal legends or spiritual beings.
An important ceremony for the Arapaho was the Sun Dance, also called the Offerings Lodge by the Ara-paho, which they used to ask for the renewal of nature and future tribal prosperity. This event took place once a year, when berries were ripening. The Lodgemaker directed the construction of an enclosure of poles and greenery. A sacred tree trunk was erected at the center, and a rawhide doll was usually tied to the top. The var-ious societies performed complex rituals around the tree, many of them involving medicine bundles, and gazed toward the Sun. The Offerings Lodge was a test of endurance for Arapaho participants. They went without food or sleep for days. But the Arapaho ver-sion of the ritual did not involve extreme self-torture.
Among some Plains tribes, participants, attached to the sacred tree by ropes and wooden skewers in their chests, danced backward until their flesh actually ripped.