The language is not forgotten
The word “forgotten” in this title does not describe the facts. Apache languages are spoken today, in homes, at community events, in classrooms and in places of work across Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. They are under real pressure, and some are in a precarious state, but a language that has living speakers, active learners and community programs has not been forgotten by the people who own it.
It also helps to be precise about what “the Apache language” means. There are several related languages, and their situations differ. Western Apache, Mescalero and Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan and Plains Apache are each distinct in history and in how many people speak them. A statement that is true of one can be quite wrong for another.
Who speaks the languages today
Western Apache is generally regarded as the most widely used of the Apachean languages outside Navajo. It is spoken in communities of central and eastern Arizona, including those of the White Mountain Apache and the San Carlos Apache, and in other Western Apache communities. Many fluent speakers are older adults, but there are also middle-aged speakers and younger people who have learned it from family or in school.
Mescalero, spoken at the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico, has a smaller group of fluent speakers. Chiricahua is closely related to Mescalero, and some descendants of the Chiricahua live at Mescalero and in Oklahoma. Jicarilla is spoken by a smaller number of people in northern New Mexico.
The situation for Plains Apache and Lipan is much more fragile. The Plains Apache nation in Oklahoma has had very few fluent speakers in recent decades, and descendant communities, including Lipan Apache descendants in Texas, have worked to retain whatever language knowledge survives through recordings and records. In these cases the work is closer to recovery than to maintenance.
Exact figures vary with the source and date, and the article on Apache language speaker numbers explains why they should be read cautiously.
How the idea of a forgotten tongue arose
Several things have encouraged the notion that Apache languages are gone.
- Older writing. Many books on Apache history were written when the authors treated Indigenous cultures as belonging to the past. That habit persists in some popular writing, where the languages appear only in a historical tense.
- Film and fiction. Apache characters in Westerns were often given invented language or only a few lines, which gave the impression that the languages had no everyday life.
- Real decline. The loss of fluent speakers is real, and the shift toward English is documented. A decline in numbers can be mistaken for disappearance.
- Boarding schools. Government and church policy for decades removed children from their homes and often punished them for using their own languages. This history of forced assimilation is covered in the discussion of Apache boarding schools, and its effects are still visible in many families.
None of this means that the languages have stopped being spoken. It means that the pattern of transmission, in which children learn the language from parents and grandparents, was disrupted. Much of the present effort is about repairing that disruption.
What keeps the languages in use
Several overlapping efforts support Apache languages today.
- Home and family. In some households the language is still the language of daily life, or of daily moments such as greetings, prayers, teasing and kin terms.
- Classes and schools. Some tribal schools and community programs offer classes, and some Apache tribal language classes are open to adults as well as children.
- Elders as teachers. Apache elders teaching, whether in a classroom, a camp or an informal setting, remain the main route by which fluent speech is passed on.
- Recordings and materials. Programs create dictionaries, audio recordings and storybooks, so that speakers’ knowledge is kept and can be used by learners.
- Storytelling and place. Apache storytelling and the many Apache place names across the Southwest continue to carry the language into new generations.
The specifics of what each nation offers are a matter for that nation, and readers can find them on the nations’ official websites. A broader view of the effort appears in the article on Apache language programs.
Speaking about the languages respectfully
A few simple habits help.
- Use the present tense. Say that the languages are spoken, not that they were.
- Name the language. Western Apache, Jicarilla or Mescalero is more accurate than “Apache.”
- Avoid language such as “dying” or “lost” unless it is truly accurate for a specific case, and then say it carefully.
- Do not treat the languages as a curiosity or a puzzle. They are the languages of nations that exist now.
- Respect that some language, especially in ceremony, is not for public sharing.
Looking ahead
The future of each language will depend on decisions made by the nations and on whether young people choose to learn and use it. Outcomes are uncertain, and progress is gradual. Still, the picture is not one of a forgotten tongue. It is one of languages with an unbroken line of speakers, some of them strained, some of them stronger, and communities who are working to see that line extended.