| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 650 [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States, Oklahoma | |
| Languages | |
| English Language, Apache language | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Native American Church, traditional tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kiowa-Apache, Jicarilla Apache, Lipan Apache, Mescalero Apache, Western Apache, Navajo |
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma is the federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache in Oklahoma.
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is headquartered in Apache, Oklahoma. Tribal member enrollment, which requires a 1⁄16 minimum blood quantum (equivalent to one great-great-grandparent), stands at 650. [1] The tribe continues to maintain close connections to the Chiricahua Apache who were moved to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in the late 19th century. [2]
Lori Gooday Ware is the elected tribal chairperson; the position has a two-year term, as do the elected tribal council positions. [1]
The tribal jurisdictional area, as opposed to a reservation, spans Caddo, Comanche, and Grady Counties in Oklahoma. [1] A private landholder returned four acres of sacred land in Cochise County, Arizona to the tribe, and it is included in their trust lands. [3]
In 2011, the tribe won the right to establish a reservation in New Mexico. They now control 30 acres (12 ha) near Deming, New Mexico. [4]
The tribe operates its own housing program, Fort Sill Apache Industries, [1] and the Fort Sill Apache Casino in Lawton. [5] The tribe's 2008 economic impact was $10 million. [6]
Working with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2007 the Fort Sill Tribe began to set up an environmental protection office: to abate illegal dumping, encourage recycling, train certified water operators, and to educate the public about environmental issues. [7]
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is composed of Chiricahua Apache, who were made up of 4 bands:
The Apache are southern Athabaskan-speaking peoples who migrated many centuries ago from the subarctic to the southwestern region of what would become the United States. The Chiricahua settled in southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico of the present-day United States, northern Sonora, and northern Chihuahua of present-day Mexico. By the late 19th century, the Chiricahua Apache territory encompassed an estimated 15 million acres. [3]
In 1886, to break up the Apache Wars and resistance to European-American settlement, the US federal government took the Chiricahua into custody as prisoners of war and seized their land. The Army forcibly removed 400 members of the tribe from the Fort Apache and San Carlos Reservations in present-day Arizona, [3] and transported them to U.S. Army installations in Alabama and Florida. [2] Some warriors were held at Fort Pickens in Florida. Their ledger drawings are held in a collection by the Smithsonian Institution.
Many of the Apache Scouts who serve in the capture of Geronimo were arrested by the order of General Nelson A. Miles forced on the same train as Geronimo, the Apache Scouts came from the Tonto, Pinal, Aravaipa, Apache Pecks, Chiricahua, San Carlos, and White Mountain Apache bands, some of the Apache Scouts where also Apache chiefs were from different Apache bands.
In 1894, the US Congress passed a special provision to allow the Chiricahua to be relocated to Indian Territory. They were the last Indian tribe to be relocated into what is now Oklahoma. [2] When the Chiricahua arrived at Fort Sill, they had been promised the lands surrounding the fort as theirs to settle. Local non-Indians resisted Apache settlement, and the tribe was pressured to leave. Many wanted to return to their traditional lands in the Southwest, and the Mescalero Apache offered them land on their reservation.
A third of the Chiricahua stayed in Indian Territory, demanding that the US fulfill its promise to give them the Fort Sill lands. As a compromise, the government gave the remaining Chiricahua land which it had classified as surplus after allotment of tribal lands to individual households under the Dawes Act, on the nearby Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation. In 1914, the US government finally released 84 individuals from prisoner status and granted them household allotment lands around Fletcher and Apache, Oklahoma. [2]
The Fort Sill Apache struggled for survival in the ensuing years in the economically depressed areas of southwestern Oklahoma. The tribe seized the opportunity afforded by Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936. Persevering through the difficulty of satisfying documentation requirements for tribal continuity, they were recognized by the federal government (Department of Interior) as a tribe in 1976. [2]
The first chairperson, elected in 1976, was Mildred Cleghorn, one of the last Chiricahua Apache born under "prisoner of war" status. [2] She was an educator and traditional doll maker and was regarded as a cultural leader among the elders. [8] She served as tribal chairperson until 1995 and focused on sustaining history and traditional Chiricahua culture. [8]
Allan Houser was the first Fort Sill Apache child to be born free. He became one of the most celebrated Native American sculptors of the 20th century. His sons, Bob Haozous and Phillip Haozous, are successful sculptors today and are both enrolled members of the tribe.
Like other areas in Luna County, the Fort Sill Apache Indian Reservation is in the Deming Public Schools school district. [9]
Municipalities and communities of Luna County, New Mexico, United States | ||
|---|---|---|
| City |  | |
| Village | ||
| CDPs | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| Indian reservation | ||
Chiricahua is a band of Apache Native Americans.
Gerónimo was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands – the Tchihende, the Tsokanende and the Nednhi – to carry out numerous raids, as well as fight against Mexican and U.S. military campaigns in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona.
Cochise was the Mexican leader of the Chiricahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of a Chiricahua Apache. A key war leader during the Apache Wars, he led an uprising that began in 1861 and persisted until a peace treaty was negotiated in 1872. Cochise County is named after him.
The Apache are several Southern Athabaskan language–speaking peoples of the Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan homelands in the north into the Southwest between 1000 and 1500 CE.
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-central New Mexico.
Jicarilla Apache, one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache, refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language. The term jicarilla comes from Mexican Spanish meaning "little basket", referring to the small sealed baskets they used as drinking vessels. To neighboring Apache bands, such as the Mescalero and Lipan, they were known as Kinya-Inde.
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States annexed conflicted territory from Mexico which was the home of both settlers and Apache tribes. Conflicts continued as American settlers came into traditional Apache lands to raise livestock and crops and to mine minerals.
Massai was a member of the Mimbres/Mimbreños local group of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apache. He was a warrior who was captured but escaped from a train that was sending the scouts and renegades to Florida to be held with Geronimo and Chihuahua.
Dahteste was a Chokonen Apache woman warrior.
The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, in southeastern Arizona, United States, was established in 1872 as a reservation for the Chiricahua Apache tribe as well as surrounding Yavapai and Apache bands removed from their original homelands under a strategy devised by General George Crook of setting the various Apache tribes against one another. Once nicknamed "Hell's Forty Acres" during the late 19th century due to poor health and environmental conditions, modern San Carlos Apaches operate a Chamber of Commerce, the Apache Gold and Apache Sky Casinos, a Language Preservation program, a Culture Center, and a Tribal College.
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in Arizona, United States, encompassing parts of Navajo, Gila, and Apache counties. It is home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, a Western Apache tribe. It has a land area of 1.6 million acres and a population of 12,429 people as of the 2000 census. The largest community is in Whiteriver.
Allan Capron Houser or Haozous was a Chiricahua Apache sculptor, painter, and book illustrator born in Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century.
Mildred Imoch Cleghorn was first chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe. Her Apache names were Eh-Ohn and Lay-a-Bet, and she was one of the last Chiricahua Apaches born under "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural leader. She worked as a home extension agent and as a home economics teacher. She served as tribal chairperson from 1976 until 1995 and focused on sustaining history and traditional Chiricahua culture.
Chief Naiche was the final hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Indians.
Kas-tziden or Haškɛnadɨltla, more widely known by his Mexican-Spanish appellation Nana, was a warrior and chief of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apache. A trusted lieutenant to Cuchillo Negro and Mangas Coloradas, in the 1850s and 1860s he was one of the best known leaders of the Chihenne (Tchiende), along with Tudeevia, Ponce and Loco. He was a nephew of Delgadito, and married a sister of Geronimo.
Bob Haozous is a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is enrolled in the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.
Chato was a Chiricahua Apache subchief who carried out several raids on settlers in Arizona in the 1870s. His Apache name was Bidayajislnl or Pedes-klinje. He was a protege of Cochise, and he surrendered with Cochise in 1872 going to live on the San Carlos Reservation in southern Arizona, where he became an Apache Scout. Following his service as a scout he was taken prisoner after being coerced to travel to Washington, D.C. Chato was imprisoned in St. Augustine, Florida along with almost 500 other Apache at Fort Marion.
Arizona, a state in the southwestern region of the United States of America, is known for its high population of Native Americans. Arizona has the third highest number of Native Americans of any state in the Union. Out of the entire US population of 2.9 million Native Americans, roughly 286,680 live in Arizona, representing 10% of the country's total Native American population. Only California and Oklahoma have more Native Americans than Arizona by number. Arizona also has the highest proportion of land allocated to Native American reservations, at 28%. Arizona has five of the twelve largest Indian reservations in the United States, including the largest, the Navajo Nation, and the third-largest, the Tohono O'odham Nation. Also, Arizona has the largest number of Native American language speakers in the United States.
Chihuahua or Chewawa,, was chief of the Chokonen local group of the Tsokanende Band of Chiricahua Apache who carried out several raids on settlers in Arizona in the 1870s and 1880s. His elder brother Ulzana, who would later become known as leader of a very famous raid through New Mexico and Arizona in 1885, was his war chief (segundo). Chihuahua's name in the Mescalero-Chiricahua language was Kla-esh or Tłá'í'ez.
Carnoviste was a southern (Guadalupe) Mescalero chief, his band—presumably Tsehitcihéndé or Niit'ahénde—lived in the Texan Big Bend Country, ranging on both sides of the Rio Grande from the Guadalupe Mountains towards east of the Limpia Mountains onto the edge of the Southern Plains.