The North American Indian | Page 6

an incipient
primitive culture, but one developed by age. The mythology and ceremonial of the
Navaho exhibit unquestioned signs of being composite in origin. Their ceremonials are
perhaps the most elaborate of any Indians except the Pueblos; indeed the very life of this
people so teems with ceremony as almost to pass comprehension. The Navaho ritual
probably reached its highest phase about the beginning of the nineteenth century. It
would seem impossible for a religion so highly developed as this to have attained such a
stage within a comparatively short time.
Before the early years of the seventeenth century the Spanish chroniclers give us nothing
definite regarding the Apache of what is now Arizona and New Mexico, but there are
numerous accounts of their aggressiveness from this time onward.
[Illustration: Ténokai - Apache]
Ténokai - Apache
From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis
Father Francisco Garcés, who in 1775-76 journeyed from his mission of San Xavier del
Bac, in southern Arizona, to San Gabriel, California, thence to the Hopi country, and
back to his mission by way of the Colorado and the Gila rivers, had sufficient knowledge
of the Apache to keep well out of their country, for they had ever been enemies of
Garcés' peaceful neophytes, the Papago and the Pima. To the warlike, marauding Apache
Garcés gave much thought, drawing up a plan for holding them in subjection by the
establishment of a cordon of presidios. To read his simple plan and compare the
ineffectual efforts of the Americans, who had the Apache country virtually surrounded by
military posts for many years, will convince one that while Garcés held the Apache in

justifiable fear, he little knew the true character of those with whom he was reckoning.
So far as diligent field research reveals, there was but one tribe or band of Indians living
within proximity of the Apache Indians of Arizona in early times who ever affiliated with
them, or associated with them in any way save on terms of enmity. This tribe was the
Apache-Mohave, of Yuman stock, whose domain extended along the Rio Verde in
central Arizona, immediately adjacent to the territory over which the Apache proper held
undisputed sway. With these, affiliation practically became fusion, for in outward
semblance, characteristics, mode of living, and handicraft they are typically Apache; but
their mother tongue, though impaired, and remnants of their native mythology are still
adhered to. Through the Apache-Mohave, allied with the Apache since early times, and
resembling them so closely as to have almost escaped segregation until recent years, did
the tribe now so widely known as Apache undoubtedly receive its name.
The Apache-Mohave call themselves Apátieh, which means, simply, "people." The
Walapai, another Yuman tribe farther north, whose dialect resembles that of the
Apache-Mohave more closely than do the dialects of the Mohave and the Yuma, also call
themselves Apátieh. Although the pronunciation of this word is indicated more nearly
correctly by this spelling than by "Apache," only a trained ear can distinguish the
difference in sound when the average Yuman Indian utters it. Etymologically it comes
from apá, "man," and the plural suffix -tieh.
The mountain fastness of the Apache in Arizona permitted easiest approach from the
south and the west for all who wished to seek peace or revenge. The Apache-Mohave,
living as Apache in close affiliation, were on the western border of this stronghold,
whence they made raids upon several other Yuman groups, north, west, and south, in
company with the Apache. They were also the first to be attacked by enemies waging
offensive warfare, hence any name by which they designated themselves might readily
have been transmitted to the whole Apache group. Early Spanish missionaries alluded to
the Apache-Mohave as true Apache. Contradistinguished from the Apache proper, the
Apache-Mohave are called Yavapai and Yavapeh by their congeners of the Colorado
river, a term that has been employed by early writers, misled through the close
association of the Apache-Mohave with the Apache, to designate also the latter people. It
is further evident that the term Apache came to be applied to this great division of the
Athapascan family indirectly, as its component tribes are not known by that name in any
of the Indian languages of the Southwest, and there is no evidence of its being of other
than Indian origin.
[Illustration: At The Ford - Apache]
At The Ford - Apache
From Copyright Photograph 1903 by E.S. Curtis
Since known to history, the many bands of Apache have occupied the mountains and
plains of southern Arizona and New Mexico, northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and
western Texas--an area greater than that of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New

Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Ohio, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and West Virginia. They were always known as "wild" Indians, and indeed
their