Apaches

Apaches, a North American Indian nation, southernmost branch of the Athabascan family, from whom they are separated by a space of nearly 1,000 miles. The Apaches are ferocious nomads who roam over the region between the Rio Pecos and the Colorado desert, east and west, and from Utah, through Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas, southwards to the Mexican States of Chihuahua and Sonora. But in recent years the area of their depredations has been steadily diminished, and the time seems approaching when all will have been driven across the United States frontier into North Mexico. They are divided into numerous tribal groups or clans, commonly known by such Spanish names as Tontos, Llaneros, etc. But the collective national name is Shis Inday, "men of the wood," the word Inday being the same as Tinney, "men," applied generally to the Athabascan family. Like all the Tinney languages Apache is extremely harsh, full of unpronounceable gutturals, grunts, and other sounds resembling the Hottentot clicks. A few Apaches have abandoned the nomad state, and are now settled with some Kiowas and Comanches in the south-west corner of Indian territory between the Washita and Red River. Detailed descriptions of the Apaches are given by Ross Browne (Adventures in the Apache Country, Washington, 1869) and by C. Cremony (Life among the Apaches, San Francisco, 1869).