TRIBAL SUMMARY - THE APACHE

Language—Athapascan.

Population—Fort Apache Agency, Arizona (White Mountain Apache), 2,072.
San Carlos Agency: San Carlos Apache, 1,066; Tonto Apache, 554; Coyoteros, 525.
Tonto Apache on Beaver Creek, 103.
Total Apache of Arizona (not including the so-called Mohave Apache and Yuma Apache), 4,320.
Mescaleros in New Mexico, 460. Jicarillas in New Mexico, 784.
Chiricahua Apache at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, 298. Kiowa Apache in Oklahoma, 155.
Grand total of Apache tribes, 6,017.

Dress—The primitive dress of the men was deerskin shirt (ĕpŭntltésĭs), leggings (ĭsklé̆tlĭkai), and moccasins (ĕpú̆nkĕ). They were never without the loin-cloth, the one absolutely necessary feature of Indian dress. A deerskin cap (cha), with attractive symbolic ornamentation, was worn; but for the greater part the headgear consisted of a band braided from the long leaves of the yucca, which they placed rather low on the head to keep the hair from the eyes. The dress of the Apache women consisted of a short deerskin skirt, high boot-legged moccasins, and a loose waist which extended to the hips and was worn outside the skirt. Both skirt and waist were ornamented with deerskin fringe and latterly with metal pendants. The men's hair always hangs loose; it is never braided. At time of mourning the hair is cut horizontally just above the shoulder line. Apache matrons, like the men, do not braid the hair, but let it hang loosely over the shoulders. The maidens tie their hair in a low long knot at the back of the head, to which is fastened a decorated deerskin ornament, denoting maidenhood. So arranged it is called pĭtsĭvé̆sti, and the wrapping, tsĭgé̆.

Dwellings—The Apache dwelling consists of a dome-shaped frame of cottonwood or other poles, thatched with grass. Average diameter at the base, twelve feet. The house itself they term kówa; the grass thatch, pin. Bear-grass, or what the Spanish term palmillo, is used exclusively in thatching. Since the institution of the Messiah religion the houses are built rather elongate in form, with a doorway in each end, and all the houses of the village are arranged in long rows. Doorways are termed dáitin, or chogúntĭ, interchangeably. Summer houses are generally built at a distance from the winter houses, in fact wherever the Apache would have occasion to stop, and are little more than brush shelters to afford temporary shade.

Primitive Foods—No tribe is more capable of living on the natural products of their pristine haunts than the Apache. Whether allowed to live peacefully in the river valleys or driven in war to seek protection of impenetrable mountains, nature provided amply for their support; for practically all the flora and fauna indigenous to the Southwest are considered food by the Apache. (See the list in the vocabulary.)

Coyotero Clans

Band I

Band II

Band III

Band IV

Band V

THE JICARILLAS

Language—Athapascan.

Population—784.

Dress—The Jicarillas in dress show the effect of their contact with the Plains tribes, especially the Ute. The primitive dress of the men was a deerskin shirt with sleeves, hip-leggings and moccasins, and the universal loin-cloth. In winter a large loose deerskin coat was worn in addition. The women wore a waist open at the sides under the arms, a deerskin skirt falling below the knees, and legging-moccasins with very high tops. About the waist the women now also wear a very broad leather belt, ten to sixteen inches in width, extending well up under the arms. The men wear their hair in braids hanging over the shoulders and wound with strips of deerskin. Formerly they wore bangs in front on a line with the cheek-bones and tied their hair in a knot at the back of the head, as the Navaho and the Pueblo Indians do. The women part their hair down the middle, bring it to the sides of the head, and tie it with strips of deerskin, cloth, or yarn.

Dwellings—The Jicarilla dwelling is the same as the tipi of the Plains Indians, once made of five buffalo skins on the usual framework of poles, with smoke-hole at the apex. Since the disappearance of the buffalo, canvas has replaced the skins, and many log houses are also to be found on the reservation. The native house is called kozhán.

THE NAVAHO

Language—Athapascan.

Population—About 17,000 (officially estimated at 20,600).

Dress—Primitively the men dressed in deerskin shirts, hip-leggings, moccasins, and native blankets. These were superseded by what has been the more universal costume during the present generation: close-fitting cotton or velvet shirt, without collar, cut rather low about the neck and left open under the arms; breeches fashioned from any pleasing, but usually very thin, material, and extending below the knees, being left open at the outer sides from the bottom to a little above the knees; deerskin moccasins with rawhide soles, which come to a little above the ankles, and brown deerskin leggings from moccasin-top to knee, held in place at the knee by a woven garter wound several times around the leg and the end tucked in. The hair is held back from the eyes by a head-band tied in a knot at the back. In early times the women wore deerskin waist, skirt, moccasins, and blanket, but these gradually gave place to the so-called "squaw-dress," woven on the blanket loom, and consisting of two small blankets laced together at the sides, leaving arm-holes, and without being closed at top or bottom. The top then was laced together, leaving an opening for the head, like a poncho. This blanket-dress was of plain dark colors. To-day it has practically disappeared as an article of Navaho costume, the typical "best" dress of the women now consisting of a velvet or other cloth skirt reaching to the ankles, a velvet shirt-like waist cut in practically the same manner as that of the men, and also left open under the arms. Many silver and shell ornaments are worn by both sexes. The women part their hair down the middle and tie it in a knot at the back.

Dwellings—Whatever its form or stability, the Navaho house is called hogán. In its most substantial form it is constructed by first planting four heavy crotch posts in the ground; cross logs are placed in the crotches, and smaller ones are leaned from the ground to these, the corner logs being longer, forming a circular framework, which is covered with brush and a heavy coating of earth. The entrance is invariably at the east. The building of a hogán and its first occupancy are attended with ceremony and prayer. For the great nine-day rites hogáns like those used as dwellings, but larger, are built. Generally they are used for the one occasion only, but in localities where there are very few trees the same ceremonial hogán may be used for a generation or more. For summer use a brush shelter, usually supported by four corner posts and sometimes protected by a windbreak, is invariably used, supplanting a once common single slant shelter.

Primitive Foods—See the list in the vocabulary.

Arts and Industries—The Navaho are known the world over for their skill in weaving. Practically every Navaho woman is a weaver, and the blanketry produced is one of the most important handicrafts of any tribe of North American Indians. A few baskets, of a single form, are made, and for ceremonial use only, most so-called Navaho ceremonial baskets being manufactured by neighboring tribes. The Navaho are also skilful silversmiths, having learned the art of metal-working from the Spaniards. Their first work of this character, however, was in iron, but this was superseded by the more easily worked silver. Some pottery is made, but it is rather crude in form, black in color, and without decoration.

Political Organization—The government of the Navaho is rather loose; indeed, inasmuch as they have no head-chief strictly such, it may be said that they have no tribal government. Their code of ethics and morals is governed almost entirely by their religious beliefs. There is always a man who is denominated the head-chief, but his influence is seldom much greater than that of any one of the many subordinate chiefs who are the recognized heads of small groups only.

Origin—Mythical First People produced from corn, rain, pollen, and precious stones in a miraculous manner by four gods and the Winds.

Persons of Miraculous Birth—Nayé̆nĕzganĭ and Tobadzĭschí̆nĭ are the sons of the Sun and Water respectively, and the virgin Yólkai Ĕstsán, White-Shell Woman. Man-destroying monsters, symbolic of earthly evils, infested the earth until destroyed by these two miraculous personages.

Ceremonies—The Navaho life is particularly rich in ceremony and ritual, second only to some of the Pueblo groups. Note is made of nine of their great nine-day ceremonies for the treatment of ills, mental and physical. There are also many less important ceremonies occupying four days, two days, and one day in their performance. In these ceremonies many dry-paintings, or "sand altars," are made, depicting the characters and incidents of myths. Almost every act of their life—the building of the hogán, the planting of crops, etc.—is ceremonial in nature, each being attended with songs and prayers.

Burial—The Navaho dead are buried by others than immediate relatives in unmarked graves. No ceremonies are held, for the dead are considered evil and are feared. The hogán in which death occurs is forever abandoned, often burned. Sometimes a hogán is demolished over the dead and then left to decay.

After-world—An under-world whence came the spirit people who created man and to which spirits return.

Names for Indian Tribes—

Acoma - Háqonĭ (An Acoma word)
Apache - Tzlĭh A Gón (On the Mountains)
Chiricahua - Klí̆shnĭ (Red War-paint)
Cochiti - To Gad (Cedar Water)
Comanche - Aná Tlú̆nĭ (Many Enemies)
Havasupaí - Gohní̆nĭ (A term borrowed from the Hopi)
Hopi - Ayá Kĭnné̆ (Hole Houses)
Isleta - Aná To Ho (Tribe by the Water)
Jemez - Mai Dĕshkís (Coyote Pass)
Laguna - To Tlú̆nĭ (Have much Water)
Mohave, Pima, Maricopa, Yuma, Papago - Bĕ Ĕsá Ntsái (With large Jars)
Navaho - Dĭné̆
Sandia - Kĭn Nodózĭ (Striped Houses)
San Felipe - To Háchĕle (Pull up Water)
San Ildefonso - Tsĕ Tŭ Kĭnné̆ (Houses between Rocks)
San Juan - Kĭn Klĕchínĭ (Red-house People)
Santa Clara - Ána Sú̆shĭ (Tribe like Bears—from skunkskin moccasins, first thought to be of bearskin)
Santo Domingo - Kĭn Klĕkái Nĭ (White Houses)
Sia - Tlógĭ (Hairy)
Taos - To Wolh (Water Gurgles)
Zuñi - Nashtĕzhé̆ (Blackened Eyebrows)