The North American Indian | Page 6

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: T��nokai - Apache]
T��nokai - Apache
From Copyright Photograph 1906 by E.S. Curtis
Father Francisco Garc��s, 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 Garc��s' peaceful neophytes, the Papago and the Pima. To the warlike, marauding Apache Garc��s 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 Garc��s 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 Ap��tieh, 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 Ap��tieh. 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 ap��, "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 early warfare with all neighboring tribes, as well as their recent persistent hostility toward our Government, which precipitated a "war of extermination," bear out the appropriateness of the designation. An admission of fear of anything is hard to elicit from the weakest of Indian tribes, but all who lived within raiding distance of the Apache, save the Navaho, their Athapascan cousins, freely admit that for generations before their subjugation the Apache were constantly held in mortal terror.
Through the constant depredations carried on against the Mexican settlements in northern Sonora and Chihuahua, under the leadership of Juan Jos��, an Apache chief educated among the Mexicans, those two states