What Counts as a Primary Source
A primary source is a record made at the time of the events, or by someone who took part in them or interviewed those who did. For the conflicts between Apache peoples and Spain, Mexico and the United States, such records come in many forms: government reports, military correspondence, newspapers, diaries, photographs, and testimony given by Apache people themselves. Each type answers some questions well and others poorly.
The conflicts involved different peoples, including the Chiricahua, the Western Apache and the Mescalero, among others. A document may describe only one group, so it helps to note exactly which one.
Government and Military Records
Most of the surviving paper comes from federal agencies. Three kinds are especially important:
- Annual reports. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of War published yearly reports that summarize policy, agency conditions, and major events as seen from Washington. Indian agents’ reports from places such as San Carlos and Fort Apache are often included.
- Letters and orders. Army departments, posts and commands generated large quantities of correspondence, orders, scout reports and telegrams. Many are held in the National Archives records of the War Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and portions have been microfilmed or digitized.
- Congressional documents. When an event provoked public controversy, Congress or the executive branch sometimes printed related papers. Reports connected to the 1871 Camp Grant killings, for example, drew attention from officials in Washington.
These documents are indispensable for dates, troop movements and official policy. They were also written by people with reasons to justify their actions, to request more resources, or to avoid blame. A report that says an Apache group was “hostile” may reflect a decision by an officer rather than any settled fact. Reading military sources well means asking what the author wanted the reader to believe.
Spanish and Mexican Records
For the earlier period, documents from presidios, provincial governors and church officials survive in Spanish and Mexican archives, and many scholars have translated or summarized them. They record treaties, raids, rations and captives. As with U.S. records, they were written by officials for officials, and they may use general terms such as “Apache” for people who thought of themselves as belonging to separate groups. A reader should not assume that every mention of “Apaches” refers to the same people.
Newspapers and Settler Accounts
Territorial newspapers such as those printed in Tucson and elsewhere in the Southwest give a view of public opinion. They report news quickly and often with strong bias. Letters and recollections by miners, ranchers and travellers add local detail. Because many of these sources came from people with a stake in removing Apache people from the land, they should be read as evidence of attitudes and claims, and not as neutral accounts of what occurred.
Photographs
Photographs of the period, many taken by army-affiliated or commercial photographers, show people, places and daily life. The famous images of leaders and groups were often posed and sometimes labeled inaccurately. A caption written decades later may not be reliable, so it helps to compare several collections and check whether names and dates are consistent.
Apache Testimony
Records of what Apache people said about the events are scarcer but important. They include:
- Council and conference records. On several occasions, Apache leaders spoke in meetings with army officers or officials, and an interpreter’s version was written down. These are real voices, but filtered through translation and through the note-taker.
- Autobiographies and recorded life stories. Geronimo: His Own Story (1906) was told through an interpreter and edited by S. M. Barrett. Jason Betzinez’s I Fought with Geronimo (1959) was published with a co-writer. Eve Ball’s interviews with Chiricahua and Mescalero elders, published in books such as Indeh: An Apache Odyssey (1980), preserve memories of the imprisonment years and earlier events.
- Ethnographic fieldwork. Researchers such as Grenville Goodwin and Morris Opler recorded Apache accounts in the twentieth century. Their notes and publications include narratives of raiding, warfare and daily life.
- Community and tribal projects. Tribal cultural programs and museums sometimes hold recordings and archives. Access policies vary, and some knowledge is not shared publicly. Readers should check official tribal sources for what is available and what is appropriate to request.
Oral history and documents often differ. They may disagree on dates, on who started an incident, or on names. Treating oral and written evidence as partners rather than as rivals is usually the most productive approach. Where they conflict, the careful answer is often to say that the sources differ and to explain why.
Questions That Help With Any Source
- Who created it, and for whom?
- Was the author present, or repeating what others said?
- What language was spoken, and who translated?
- What might the author have wanted to emphasize or conceal?
- Whose voices are missing entirely?
- How was it preserved, edited or published, and when?
Practical Tips
Start with a good secondary book to learn names, places and the order of events, then move to the original documents. Check the finding aids of archives before visiting, and expect that handwriting, abbreviations and spellings of Apache names will vary a great deal. The same person may appear under several spellings, or under a nickname given by outsiders. For quotations that circulate online, try to trace them back to a source; many have no source at all.
Primary sources do not interpret themselves. Used with attention to their origins, they allow readers to see the conflicts through the words of people who lived them, while remembering that every record is partial.