While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Local Group were ideal for any Cooperative
Activity
The local group was an ideal unit for any
cooperative activity. So small that it could
be instantly mobilized, and not too large to
move rapidly and with perfect coordination,
it constituted the nerve center for raiding
and warfare. The closeness of families
together permitted the maximum of social
enjoyment, also; and while each family was
economically independent of every other
family, there were cooperative advantages
that came to all from their proximity to
each other. When the time came to lay in a
supply of piņon nuts, or to gather and roast
mescal, the women of half a dozen families
found it to their advantage to go together
and later divide up what had been secured on
the expedition--to each family its due
share. It was pleasant for the whole
community to join in a great hunt. The women
would all go along to take care of the meat
and to perform all necessary menial tasks.
However, after the hunt was over, there was
a fair division of the game and each family
was once more on its own.
In every local group several able leaders
would develop. Such men came to the front by
virtue of native ability and weight of
personality. Though leaders, they had no
claim to the title of chief, nor did they
exercise any command over the group that had
not been voluntarily conferred upon them.
Such headmen could not bind their associates
to any particular action or guarantee that
they would stand by a treaty that might be
made in their name. This is why, in the
early days, it was so difficult for
Americans ever to come to exact and enduring
terms with Apaches. From among these men of
mark in each group, when an emergency arose,
one--the wisest, the wealthiest, the most
capable--would be chosen as chief. He would
speak for the group on great occasions and
would lead them in time of war. Yet, while
his words and his decisions would have much
weight with his fellows, he possessed no
authority over them except such as emanated
from his superiority of personality. There
was real democracy among the Apaches; it was
for the rank and file to decide upon a given
course of action.
So long as a chief was strong enough to
protect his followers, courageous enough to
lead them to victory against their foes, and
sufficiently skillful to bring in the
plunder, he held sway over them. When he
failed to make good, an abler man took his
place. A very brave and successful chief
would win distinction for his group, would
give it prestige so that ambitious young
warriors would desire to join it, and so
would force his organization into the
forefront of the band to which it belonged.
There was safety under his leadership, much
plunder was assured, so the Apache nation as
a whole came to know and honor his wisdom
and prowess. It was thus that such chiefs as
Mangas Coloradas, Victorio, and Cochise, who
began as local rulers, rose to supreme
influence in the tribe. When a chief of such
honor and fame was killed or captured, it
was an overwhelming loss to his local group
and no effort was spared to avenge terribly
his death.
The next higher coherent organization was
the band. There were times when for purposes
of hunting, raiding, or making war it was
desirable for a number of load groups to
unite in cooperative action. Tribal
boundaries, and the limits within which such
a particular band was supposed to wander in
its search for food and plunder, were not
strictly defined. Yet wide and vast as was
the extent of the territory controlled by
the Apaches and many as were the streams,
mountains, and forests where they camped and
hunted, regular supplies of water and food
in that arid and crabbed Southwest were not
easy to secure; and it was advantageous for
each tribe to recognize its natural limits
and for particular bands to seek their
livelihood in well-recognized areas of
country. A band would thus be composed of
several local groups residing at
well-identified places close enough to each
other to make it possible for them to
combine quickly and effectively for war.
Indeed, the band was the largest manageable
unit that could be relied upon for instant
offensive or defensive action in time of
need. From among the bold and able leaders
in the various local groups that constituted
the band, the strongest and most experienced
would naturally be selected as chieftain. A
chieftainship was never hereditary, either
in the local group or in the band.
Finally came the tribal organization. An
Apache when captured or required to give an
account of himself would first name his
tribe and then his band. But the tribal
concept meant little to him as compared with
the immediacy of his relationship with his
local group and his band. The ties that
bound him to these smaller units were close
and realistic. Seldom did the tribe as a
whole come into common action in an
emergency. Yet there was, to be sure, real
feeling of unity and a definite sense of
territorial domain that held all the members
of a tribe together. But the Apaches as a
people were, in fact, very loosely united.
They spoke the same language and possessed a
basic unity of culture, but some tribes
never came into contact with each other. Dr.
M. E. Opler and Mr. Granville Goodwin, both
of whom have lived for long periods in close
association with the Apaches and have
studied deeply their primitive
characteristics and organizations, have
adopted somewhat different tribal names and
regional demarcations from those used in the
past. They make the following divisions: the
Mescalero, the Jicarilla, the Chiricahua,
and the Western. Previous to the coming of
the Americans, tribal boundaries were pretty
well agreed upon among the Apaches and it
was understood that the respective tribes
were to keep within their own limits. The
Mescaleros claimed as their domain New
Mexico as far east as Hondo, as far north as
Santa Fe, as far west as the Rio Grande, and
on the south as far as northwest Texas--and
indeed, some distance into Texas. The
Jicarillas held a large section of northern
and eastern New Mexico and even some
contiguous portions of southern Colorado.
The boundaries set for the Chiricahuas were
the Rio Grande on the east, Laguna and Acoma
on the north, the present eastern boundaries
of the White Mountain and San Carlos
Reservations on the west, and on the south
as far as and a considerable distance into
Sonora and Chihuahua. The Western Apaches
occupied all that is now included in the
White Mountain and San Carlos Reservations
and a vast region in Arizona west of the
limits of these two reservations.
Differences appeared among these various
tribes in dress, in personal decoration, in
the manner of erecting their dwelling
places, and even in peculiarities of speech
and vocabulary. Mr. Granville Goodwin, who
has limited his studies to the Western
Apaches, in a letter to me states that there
are clans among them and that these clans
are almost identical with those of the
Navajo system. Dr. Opler finds that clans do
not exist in any of the other three Apache
tribes. Mr. Goodwin further says that "in
dialect, culture, and tribal affiliations"
some of the four tribes named above are
"just as distinct from each other as any one
of the Apache divisions is from the Navajo."
Indeed, he holds that the Navajo originally
were Apaches.
Notwithstanding what has been said above,
the Apaches recognized themselves as one
people and as distinct from all other
peoples. One tribe as a whole never made war
on another tribe as a whole. Often they were
far from cordial toward each other, and
members of one tribe might show open
hostility toward members of another tribe.
In the seventies and eighties there was
always trouble when our Government tried to
force separate tribes to live together on
the same reservation, and the final conquest
of the Apaches was due in great measure to
the fact that Army officers were able to
enlist volunteers from one tribe to fight
against recalcitrants of a different tribe.
The Mescalero tribe was made up of two
bands: the plains people on the east and the
mountain people on the west. There were two
bands of Jicarillas also: the Llanero, or
plains people, east of the Rio Grande, and
the Ollero, or sand people, west of the Rio
Grande. Three bands constituted the powerful
Chiricahua tribe: the red paint people to
the north, a band that operated in northern
Chihuahua and Sonora, and the band called
the Chiricahua in the southwest--this band,
under Cochise, becoming coextensive with the
tribe. The Western Apaches consisted of four
groups: the Coyotero, or White Mountain, the
Tonto, the Cibecue, and the San Carlos.
These designations are modern, although all
these groups occupied the territory in
primitive times that they now inhabit in our
day.
The Apache economy was essentially an
economy of war. War was the Apache's trade.
A boy was instructed in the ways of the
warpath almost from infancy. His earliest
training was in the hands of his maternal
grandfather and his father. While still
small, he was given a bow and blunt arrows
to play with. When he was large enough, he
was taught to make his own weapons. It was a
proud day in his life when he was taken on a
hunt by his father and uncles; and then it
was that his education in woodcraft began.
Since the local group was the basic fighting
and raiding unit, it assumed responsibility
for the training of the youth when he was
ready for the warpath, as he was by the time
he was fifteen or sixteen. Sometimes several
boys were trained at once--usually in the
early spring or in the fall. The youth was
required to take dips in cold water,
sometimes even to plunge into ice water. He
had to take long runs over rough country
with a load on his back. He must keep his
mouth shut and breathe through his nose. By
this time he was required to make his own
weapons and to show skill in using them.
Next, he was put through every hard exercise
engaged in by men, including horseback
riding. To test his will power and
endurance, he was made to go without sleep
for a long period, the vigil sometimes being
extended to a period of forty-eight hours.
Such intensive training went on for a long
time, that is, until he was able to conduct
himself like a real Apache, no matter how
severe the test. The author was told by
Jimmie Stevens, seventy-year-old interpreter
at the San Carlos Reservation, whose mother
was the daughter of a White Mountain Apache
chief and whose father was one of the most
influential American traders on the Apache
Reservation in the seventies, that, as a
climax to this Spartanlike training, the
youth must go alone in the wilds for two
weeks and live by his own skill and
hardihood.
At last the novice might volunteer to go on
the warpath. At this time a ceremony was
performed in his behalf, and a helmet and
shield were especially designed for him. A
war dance accompanied this ceremony during
which he must show his agility and endurance
by leaping, twisting, and dodging with
unwearied pep and strength. Then he was
instructed in the language of the warpath by
the ceremonial man in charge. He was not
always able to perfect himself in these
things at once; but as soon as he was well
versed in it all, his request to go along
with a war party would be granted. His
novitiate was not complete until he had
volunteered for four raids or war parties.
During this apprenticeship on the warpath he
must build the fires, prepare the food and
cook it, look after the horses, stand guard
at night, be constantly alert and observant,
and never speak except in the language of
the warpath. These four expeditions
constituted his war college. During this
period he was set in as harsh a strait
jacket of behavior as the midshipman in the
days of the sailing vessel. It was not until
his fifth raid that he was allowed to take
part in battle. But then, if he was made of
the right stuff, he lost no chance to show
his metal, and returned rich with the spoils
of war and covered with glory.
The Apache armed himself in primitive times
with the bow and arrow and the lance. The
bow was a powerful weapon, strengthened as
it was with layers of sinew on the back,
laid on with such nicety that they could
scarcely be seen. The arrows were more than
three feet long. The upper part was made of
cane or rush, but a shaft about a foot long,
made of light yet hard and seasoned wood,
was inserted into this. The point was of
stone, bone, or iron. An Apache was able to
shoot this arrow five hundred feet with
fatal effect. If an attempt was made to pull
the arrow from the body of the victim, the
shaft came out of its socket leaving the
point in the wound. Poisoned arrows were
sometimes used. The lance was fifteen feet
long, with a strong sharp point. An Apache
horseman, in charging an enemy, held his
lance above his head with both hands,
controlling his horse with his knees. In
battle he usually carried a shield. However,
the Apache rarely fought in the open, and
almost never against a large and well-armed
force, unless completely taken by surprise.
He was infinitely patient and skillful in
ambush. He could so disguise himself with
dirt and desert plants that the unwary
traveler little suspected his presence until
it was too late. Warriors kept watch from
rocks and mountain lookouts across wide
stretches of country, observing sometimes
for days their intended victims before
striking. They pounced upon solitary
horsemen or small unarmed parties, but had a
wholesome respect for large armed
expeditions and soldiers. They crept up to
lonely ranch houses and mines--killing,
looting, and burning--and then quickly made
their escape, driving stampeded herds before
them. When a band was hard-pressed, or
forced to do battle, it would scatter and
disappear like a flock of wild turkeys, to
reassemble at some preappointed spot.
The Apache was perfectly acquainted with the
country that he inhabited for hundreds of
miles around. He knew every spring, water
hole, canyon, and crevice. There was no
commissary or transportation problem for
him. He could carry for days what little
food he needed and could add some edible
thing to his store, however and the region.
He could travel on foot, over the roughest
terrain from fifty to seventy-five miles a
day; and such was his endurance that he
could keep up this pace for several days at
a stretch. He had his own sign language,
too, and his highly effective telegraph
system. For him there were transmitted
secrets, if not sermons, in stones and
running brooks, and devilish possibilities
in everything. His skill as a trailer was
equal to that of the most erudite scholar
who traces, reads, and translates the
chirography of past ages in his cold, dark
cubicle. The position of an overturned
stone, the manner in which a twig or the
branch of a tree had been broken, the way in
which three sticks had been placed, the
horse manure dropped in camp or along the
trail, spoke to him in trumpet tones and
taught him things well worth remembering. He
had perfected a system of smoke signaling
over wide spaces that was swift and most
effective. Both Cremony and White give
details concerning the war craft of the
Apache in trailing and communicating by
smoke signals:
"Smokes are of various kinds, each one
significant of a particular object. A sudden
puff, rising into a graceful column from the
mountain heights, and almost as suddenly
losing its identity by dissolving into the
rarefied atmosphere of those heights, simply
indicates the presence of a strange party
upon the plains below; but if those columns
are rapidly multiplied and repeated, they
serve as a warning to show that the
travelers are well armed and numerous. If a
steady smoke is maintained for some time,
the object is to collect the scattered bands
of savages at some designated point, with
hostile intention, should it be practicable.
These signals are made at night, in the same
order, by the use of fires, which being
kindled, are either alternately exposed and
shrouded from view, or suffered to burn
steadily, as occasion may require." 2
Though the Apache devoted himself so
diligently to the turning of live men into
dead ones, he experienced the greatest
horror when in the presence of a corpse. The
Apaches buried their dead at the earliest
moment practicable. Interment always took
place in the daytime on the day of death if
possible. The very unwelcome task of
preparing the body for burial and of
interring it fell to the nearest male
relatives. Only a few assisted. Interment
was made in some remote cave or crevice in
the rocks if such a place of sepulture were
available. If necessary, a grave was dug on
low or level ground, and the deceased,
together with all his personal effects, was
placed therein. The body was then securely
covered with brush and dirt and rocks so
that coyotes could not get at it. Such
burial mounds were often seen by the first
American soldiers in Arizona. At the grave,
before returning to camp, the burial party
would brush themselves all over with wisps
of a green grass and then lay these tufts of
grass on the grave in the form of a cross.
Upon returning to the wickiup of the
deceased, they would burn it up, together
with everything that he wore or came in
close contact with while alive. They would
also burn everything that they wore while
disposing of the body. They took pains,
also, to disinfect themselves by bathing
their bodies in the smoke of the sagebrush.
The surviving family immediately moved from
the locality where the death had occurred
and made themselves new wickiups. The name
of the dead was never again spoken among
them, nor was the place of his interment
ever visited or mentioned.
Very likely they were prompted by sanitary
reasons in taking these extraordinary
precautions; but back of all practical
considerations was the superstitious fear
that the spirit of the dead might return to
haunt them and harm them. The nearer the
relationship that bound them to the
deceased, the more terrible this dread
seemed to be. If a relative had kept
anything that had belonged to the departed,
he would fear that the ghost of the dead man
would come back to claim it. They believed
that they might arouse or anger the ghost of
the dead if they spoke his name or made any
mention of him or went near the spot where
he was buried. There are on record many
instances of "ghost sickness." It exhibited
itself in the form of extreme nervousness
and fright. It was most often brought on by
the hooting of a near-by owl at night. The
Apache had an excessive dread of the owl;
and if an owl hooted near one's camp it was
an omen of the most frightful import. They
believed that the spirit of the dead entered
into the owl and came back to warn or
threaten them. (For an extended and
exceedingly interesting account of the
Apache attitude toward the dead, read Dr. M.
E. Opler article, "An Interpretation of
Ambivalence," etc., in The Journal of Social
Psychology, 1936, Vol. vii, pp. 82-116.)
Some writers assert that the Apache is
destitute of the religious sense. In fact
the primitive Apache had an ever-present
consciousness of the supernatural. There is
not space here to discuss the myths of the
Apaches that deal with the creation of the
world or to record their stories of the
birth and miraculous exploits of the culture
hero; but assuredly they believed in some
impersonal force, creator of the world, and
source of all power, that influenced the
affairs of men. This being was not thought
of as wholly benign; but, whether for good
or for evil, they recognized its sway over
them. It was through the medicine men that
this supernatural power worked for the good
of man, or for his hurt, since there were
among men those who sought through
supernatural aid to do their fellow men harm
as well as those who desired to help them.
Those who trafficked with the supernatural
for evil purposes were witches; and the
Apache had a superstitious dread of a witch.
These malevolent beings worked their evil
spells through certain animals and natural
forces--the bear, the owl, the snake, the
coyote, clouds, lightning, etc.
John G. Bourke asserts that the medicine man
was at once the most powerful and the most
injurious influence in the life of the
primitive Apache. He was the purveyor of
fear, witchcraft, and idolatry. There was no
particular family or clan set apart as
supernatural practitioners. Any youth might
aspire to become a medicine man. In order to
succeed, he must, of course, convince his
people that this higher power was willing to
work through him. To become eminent he must
be a dreamer of dreams, must give evidence
of great spirituality, must fast, and keep
lonely night vigils in the high places, must
be able to interpret omens, and must master
the art of swallowing fire, arrows, and
spearheads. He might be a warrior as well as
a shaman. Some very influential medicine men
were blind and decrepit, and in some
instances the function was exercised by
women. The usual way to become a medicine
man was to learn the art from a successful
and renowned practitioner and to pay him
well for his instruction and influence.
There were no set doctrines of practice.
Each shaman did what he could do best. Some
professed the power to bring rain; others to
cure the sick; others to control snakes; and
still others to recover lost or stolen
property. Some there were who devoted
themselves to the consulting of the spirits,
but made no attempt to heal the sick or
exercise miraculous power over the elements
or over the animal world. All claimed to be
able to work magic; but always with the
qualification that witches, or some ghostly
power, do not interfere. The most sacred and
solemn of incantations was the spirit dance;
but even in this highest of religious
functions, all medicine men did not have
recourse to exactly the same symbolism or
make use of the same ceremonial dress.
It was the practice of medicine men to
resort at times to secret and sacred caves.
Apaches were exceedingly secretive
concerning their religious ceremonials.
Special virtue seemed to reside in the hair
of the medicine man. He took care that no
one should touch it. When in full regalia he
no longer considered himself a mere man; he
believed that he became the very power that
he represented. Monotonous chanting, or
beating incessantly upon a drum, seemed to
have a sedative effect upon a patient and
was much practiced. Medicine men held no
free clinics. They demanded pay at time of
treatment, either from the patient or his
friends.
The sacred articles that the medicine man
made use of were hoddentin, the medicine
hat, the medicine shirt, and the medicine
cord. Other charms and amulets of various
sorts were employed, but these four were
very important. Hoddentin was a kind of
powder made of the tule. It was carried in a
little buckskin bag and rarely was an Apache
without such a bag. This powder he
considered efficacious under almost all
circumstances. It was regularly made use of
by the medicine man. A pinch of it was
applied to the breast or forehead of the
sick; it was scattered on the path before a
sick or wounded man; a pinch of it was
thrown toward the sun at planting time, and
when a war party set out; and it was
sprinkled on the body of the dead. In cases
of sickness it was eaten as a remedy; and
the strength of an exhausted warrior was
restored when it was placed upon his tongue.
Among other supernatural powers inherent in
the medicine hat and the elaborately
constructed ghost-dance headdress were
ability to cure sickness, and insight into
the future, whereby a medicine man could see
and forestall the coming of an enemy. The
medicine shirt was an artistically
ornamented shirt of buckskin. The
decorations were symbolic of the sun, the
moon, the stars, hail, rain, lightning,
rainbow, and clouds, among elemental
objects, and of the snake, the centipede,
and the tarantula among animals. The
medicine shirt also possessed the magical
quality of providing security for the
warrior against the arrows and bullets of
his foe. One of the most efficacious yet
mysterious accessories of the medicine man
was the medicine cord. There were cords of
one, two, three, or four beautifully
decorated strands. Strangers were not
allowed to look upon or talk about these
medicine cords, so sacred were they. It was
only with the greatest difficulty that
Bourke was able to secure specimens of them.
Only on the most solemn and important
occasions were they in evidence on the
person of the medicine man. They were
believed to possess the very greatest
efficacy. Only the leading medicine men
could make them; and before a new owner
could put one on, it must be sprinkled with
"heap hoddentin."
Bourke John G. Ninth Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology, 18871888.
Cremony John C. Life among the Apaches. San
Francisco, 1868.
Curtis E. S. "Vanishing Indian Types--The
Tribes of the Southwest." In Scribner's
Magazine, May, 1906.
Dellenbaugh F. S. The North Americans of
Yesterday. New York, Putnam, 1901.
Gay Dorothy Frances. Apache Art. Master's
Thesis. University of Arizona Library.
Goddard Pliny Earle. Indians of the
Southwest. New York, 1921.
Goddard Pliny Earle. Myths and Tales from
the San Carlos Apache. Anthropological
Papers of the American Museum of Natural
History, Vol. XXIV, Part I.
Goddard Pliny Earle. Myths and Tales from
the White Mountain Apache. Anthropological
Papers of the American Museum of Natural
History, Vol. XXIV, Part II.
Goodwin Grenville. "Clans of the Western
Apaches." In New Mexico Historical Review,
July, 1933.
Hodges Frederick W. "The Early Navajo and
Apache." In The American Anthropologist, old
series, July, 1895.
Hrdlicka Ales. "Notes on the San Carlos
Apache." In American Anthropologist, new
series, 1905.
Lummis Charles F. The Land of Poco Tiempo.
New York, Scribner, 1897.
Opler M. E. An Analysis of Mescalero and
Chiricahua Apache Social Organization in the
Light of their Systems of Relationships.
University of Chicago Library.
Opler M. E. "The Concept of Supernatural
Power among the Chiricahua and Mescalero
Apaches." In American Anthropologist. Vol.
XXXVII, No. 1.
Opler M. E. "An Interpretation of
Ambivalence of Two American Indian Tribes."
In The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol.
VII, No. 1.
Opler M. E. "A Summary of Jicarilla Apache
Culture." In American Anthropologist, new
series, Vol. XXVIII, No. 2.
Roberts Helen H. Basketry of the San Carlos.
Anthropological Papers of The American
Museum of Natural History, Vol. XXXI, Part
II.
Smart Charles. Notes on the Tonto Apaches.
Smithsonian Report for 1867.
Smith Dama Margaret. Indian Tribes of the
Southwest. Stanford University Press, 1933.
White Dr. John B., Surgeon in the U. S. Army
and Physician to the Apache Indians under
the Department of the Interior. A Complete
Vocabulary of the Apache and the Tonto
Indian Dialect of Arizona Territory. Bureau
of American Ethnology. Manuscript Vault.
(From photostat copy secured by Charles
Morgan Wood, 1926.)
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