A broad range of foods
There was no single “Apache diet.” The Apache peoples lived across a wide region, from Arizona’s mountains and river valleys to the plains and river country of New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, and what they ate reflected that variety. This article is a survey of the main categories of food documented in historical and ethnographic sources, grouped by type. It does not give a complete list, and a plant or animal being absent here does not mean it was unused. Some knowledge is held privately within families and communities.
Wild plants
Plants provided much of the food for many groups.
Agave. Often called mescal, agave was a major food in the drier parts of the range, particularly in southern Arizona and New Mexico. The heart of the plant was roasted in a pit. It is the reason the Mescalero are so named in Spanish and English sources.
Nuts and acorns. Piñon nuts, from pine trees of dry uplands, were gathered in autumn in good years. Acorns from several oak species were also an important food in places where oaks grew, and walnuts are mentioned in accounts of the Arizona mountains.
Fruits and berries. Prickly pear fruit, the fruit of yucca, juniper berries, sumac berries, wild grapes and other berries are all named in various sources. In lower, warmer country, the fruit of cacti such as saguaro is described in accounts of some Western Apache groups.
Seeds, pods and greens. Mesquite pods in lower country, grass seeds, wild greens and edible roots and bulbs were gathered according to season. Many of these were eaten fresh in the season they appeared, while others were dried and stored.
The use of plants overlapped with medicine, a subject covered under Apache medicinal plants. Some plants were considered foods, some medicines and some both, and the knowledge of which was which is not something to be reconstructed from outside sources.
Game
Animals were hunted for meat, hides and other materials.
- Large game: Deer were among the most widely hunted animals. Elk and pronghorn were hunted where they lived. Mountain sheep are mentioned in some regional accounts.
- Bison: Groups with access to the Plains, notably the Lipan, Plains Apache and, at times, the Jicarilla and Mescalero, hunted bison. Bison hunting is covered in more detail under the Southern Plains horse era.
- Small game: Rabbits, rodents, and birds provided a steady supply of food, and in many accounts they were more reliable than large game.
Food customs and taboos about animals varied among groups and families, and some outsiders’ accounts have oversimplified them. It is safer to say that practices differed than to list prohibitions as if universal. Apache hunting was shaped by season, terrain and group, and the topic gets fuller treatment under Apache hunting.
Cultivated crops
Not all groups relied on farming, but several did. Western Apache communities are described as growing corn, beans and squash in valley fields, in some cases using ditches. Jicarilla farming is described in some sources, and Lipan farming is mentioned in accounts from Texas. Plains Apache and other groups who depended more on bison tended to rely on hunting, gathering and trade for plant foods. Farming and its methods are the subject of the page on Apache farming, and the grain and goods traded with Pueblo neighbors are part of that picture.
Crops can also arrive from afar. Over time, groups added foods obtained through trade, such as wheat flour, and animals acquired from Spanish and later settlers, including horses, sheep and cattle. These additions changed diets, but Apache peoples continued to use wild foods alongside them.
Putting it together
A household’s year typically involved several of these sources at different times, and the importance of each differed.
| Region (general) | Foods commonly named in sources |
|---|---|
| Arizona mountains and valleys (Western Apache) | agave, acorns, walnuts, berries, deer, small game, corn, beans, squash |
| Southern New Mexico and borderlands (Chiricahua, Mescalero) | agave, piñon, acorns, fruits, deer, small game |
| Northern New Mexico (Jicarilla) | piñon, wild plants, deer, bison, some corn |
| Southern Plains and Texas (Lipan, Plains Apache) | bison, other game, wild fruits and roots, some corn through farming or trade |
This table simplifies a complicated picture. Groups moved and traded, and sources do not always agree.
Foods today
Many of these foods remain valued, and Apache communities include people who still gather, hunt and farm, as well as people who mainly buy food. Information about current programs, harvesting rules and the use of tribal lands comes from each nation’s own official channels, and readers should check them before assuming that gathering is permitted anywhere.