There is no single Apache view
It is tempting to ask how “the Apache” remember their scouts, but that question assumes one answer from one people. There are several Apache nations today, each with its own government, history and communities, and within each nation individuals and families hold different opinions. A person whose great-grandfather served as a scout may feel differently from a person whose ancestors were pursued by scouts, and both may be part of the same community.
For that reason, this article describes the kinds of views that are commonly discussed in public and avoids suggesting what any particular nation, family or person believes. For authoritative statements, readers should turn to the official websites and publications of the nations themselves.
Ways scouts are honored
In many places, service in the military is respected, and this extends to ancestors who served the United States Army. Families may preserve photographs, stories and objects connected to a scout, and they may speak of the skill, endurance and responsibility that the work demanded. Some communities recognize veterans of all periods at public events, and scouts may be mentioned among those who served. The later history of Apache veterans who served in the World Wars and afterward is often discussed within the same traditions of respect for those who served, although it is a distinct story.
Museums, historic sites and heritage programs also play a role. Places such as the Fort Apache historic site have been used to interpret the history of the region, including the scouts, and Apache cultural staff and advisers have been involved in such efforts in various ways. Because arrangements change, readers who want to visit or learn more should check current information from the nations and sites directly.
Ways the scouts are questioned
Other Apache voices emphasize the harm of the wars and of what followed them: loss of land, forced removal and confinement. From that standpoint, service that helped the army locate other Apache people can be painful to honor. The scouts’ work contributed, directly or indirectly, to the capture or death of Apache and other Native people, and the army’s victories led to the reservation system and the loss of homelands.
The Chiricahua experience adds a sharp edge. Men who had served the army as scouts were nonetheless imprisoned with the rest of their people after 1886. For descendants of the Chiricahua prisoners of war, including the community now known as the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the scout story cannot be separated from that exile. Prisoner of war memory is carried in families and in community remembrance, and it shapes how service is viewed.
Western Apache groups had a different history. Their scouts generally were not imprisoned, and their communities remained in or near their homelands in Arizona. That difference is one reason views can vary between nations as well as within them.
Why people can hold both views
Many people find that pride and discomfort do not cancel each other out. A descendant may admire a grandfather’s or great-grandfather’s courage and endurance while also feeling grief about the situation that made scout service attractive or necessary. Historians who study the question often stress that scouts acted under heavy constraints: reservation life offered limited options, and army service meant wages and rations, a defined role, and sometimes protection for family members. Understanding those constraints does not require excusing or condemning anyone.
This is why simple labels, whether of hero or of traitor, tend to fall short of what Apache people themselves say. The debate over scout loyalty is, in the end, partly a debate among Apache people, and outsiders are better placed to listen than to rule.
The role of oral history
Written records about scouts are mostly army documents, and they reflect the army’s concerns. Apache family and community accounts fill in what those documents miss: names, relationships, motives and consequences. Oral history as evidence is valued by many scholars and by communities, though it needs to be handled with respect, and some accounts are shared only within families or communities and are not meant for public use.
Several Apache nations and cultural organizations have undertaken Apache oral history projects, and some interviews and recordings are held in archives and museums. Whether and how a given account can be used is a matter for the people who hold it. Outside writers should not invent quotations or attribute sentiments to unnamed elders.
Teaching and public history
How the scouts are presented in schools, museums and media also affects memory. Popular films and books have often portrayed Apache scouts in simplified ways, sometimes as loyal sidekicks and sometimes as betrayers. Efforts at teaching Apache history increasingly rely on Apache perspectives on history, with attention to local context and to differences between nations. Readers who want to learn can look for materials produced by Apache authors and nations, and compare them with army and academic sources.
Approaching the topic as an outsider
A few habits make for respectful engagement.
- Name the specific nation or group, and avoid generalizing from one community to all Apache people.
- Avoid describing the scouts in heroic or villainous terms before listening to the people most connected to the history.
- Do not assume that a descendant’s pride, or discomfort, is representative of anyone else’s.
- Recognize that some knowledge is not shared publicly, and that this is a choice to respect.
- Remember that Apache nations are living communities, and that their relationship to this history is ongoing and not only a matter of the past.
This site is independent and speaks for no tribe. Its purpose is to describe the documented history and to point readers toward the people best placed to discuss what it means today.