Education without a school building
Long before government or mission schools reached Apache country, children grew up learning. The “early schools” in this title are best understood as families and camps, because there were no buildings or fixed curricula. Learning was part of daily life, and adults treated it as a responsibility shared among relatives. This article describes that teaching in general terms. Apache nations differ from one another, and practices varied by group, family and period, so the picture below should be read as a broad outline rather than a rule that applied everywhere. Sacred knowledge and ceremonial teaching are not described here, because much of it is not shared publicly.
Who taught
Children were taught by many people, not only by their parents. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, older siblings and cousins all had a part. Among several Apache groups, including the Western Apache, families were traditionally built around related women and their households, and maternal relatives often had a central role in a child’s upbringing. Grandparents are frequently described in the literature as especially important teachers, partly because they had the experience and often the time. This is one reason the idea of the Apache extended family is central to understanding how knowledge was passed on.
Learning by watching and joining in
Much practical learning relied on observation followed by gradual participation. A child might watch adults gather and prepare wild plants, then help with simple tasks, then take on more as skill and strength grew. Girls and boys often learned somewhat different tasks as they got older, though there was overlap, and the details differed between communities. Typical subjects included the following.
- Recognizing useful plants and where and when they could be found, a topic at the heart of Apache plant uses for food, fiber and medicine.
- Reading weather, water sources and animal behavior.
- Making and caring for tools, baskets, clothing and shelters.
- Tending animals once horses and other livestock became part of Apache life.
- Behaving properly toward relatives, elders and guests.
Because skills were learned in context, in the places and seasons where they were used, children understood not only how to do something but why and when. Seasonal movement between camps and resource areas, often called the seasonal round, gave learning a natural calendar.
Stories as teachers
Stories were a major way of teaching values and history. Many nations have narratives about the origin of the world and of their people, about animal characters and about historical events. Coyote stories, for example, appear across many Native traditions of the Southwest and are often told in part to show what happens when someone behaves foolishly or selfishly, though the humor is real too. In several Apache communities, certain stories were traditionally told in the colder months, a pattern often described as a winter storytelling season, and some stories carry rules about when and by whom they may be told. The broader subject is covered under Apache storytelling and Apache oral traditions.
Place was also part of the lesson. The anthropologist Keith Basso, working with Western Apache people at Cibecue, documented how place-names and stories tied to specific locations were used to remind people of how to live well, and to correct behavior gently. His work is often cited as an example of how the land itself could function as a teacher. It also reflects how closely knowledge and landscape were linked, a theme taken further in the idea of Western Apache place-names.
Play, practice and responsibility
Games and play were part of learning. Many traditional children’s games built strength, coordination and attention, and children copied adult activities in play. Responsibility was added step by step. Children were expected to help, and being useful to the family was a source of pride. Correction was often indirect, through teasing, example or a story, rather than through harsh punishment, though accounts differ and no single description fits every family.
Moving into adulthood
As children matured, teaching became more formal in some respects. Puberty ceremonies for girls, which remain important in some Apache communities, marked a transition and involved guidance from respected women and ceremonial practitioners. Boys’ training for adult roles also involved older male relatives. These Apache coming-of-age ceremonies are sacred, and the public record only touches on them in general terms. This site does not describe their content.
What this teaching is not
It is easy to misunderstand traditional teaching as informal or unstructured. It had expectations, standards and recognized teachers, even if it had no classrooms or grades. It is also not a thing of the past only: many Apache families continue to teach children in these ways, now alongside school. The later arrival of boarding schools did not replace this system but interrupted it, separating many children from relatives and from the language in which much of this teaching took place. Understanding the strength of family teaching is the best way to see what was at stake in those later changes, a subject for other articles in this section.
Learning more
For authoritative accounts, look to the cultural departments and official websites of the individual Apache nations, to books by Apache authors, and to work published in cooperation with Apache communities. Older ethnographies exist, but they were written by outsiders, with limits worth keeping in mind.