Exchange in many directions
Apache peoples have never lived in isolation. For as long as historical and archaeological evidence can show, Apache groups traded, intermarried, made agreements, fought and learned from neighboring peoples, and in the last few centuries from Spanish, Mexican and American newcomers. “Cultural exchange” here means this wide range of contact, not only friendly or equal dealings. Some exchange was voluntary and mutually useful. Some happened under pressure or through violence.
It is also important not to speak of a single Apache experience. The Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan and Plains Apache had different neighbors and different histories. This article gives a general outline, and the other articles in this section look at particular periods.
Before Spanish arrival
Scholars generally discuss Apache ancestors as Athabaskan-speaking peoples who moved into the Southwest and southern Plains from the north, with the timing and routes still debated. Whatever the exact dates, evidence points to early contact with Pueblo communities along the Rio Grande and with Plains peoples to the east. Trade and visits between mobile groups and farming towns were common in the region, and a pattern often described as early Apache trade relations. Items that could pass between such communities include hides, dried meat and other products from mobile groups, and corn, cotton goods and pottery from farming villages.
Language, kinship and shared stories also moved. The close linguistic relationship between Apache and Navajo is well known, and scholars have long studied Apache and Navajo kinship in language, history and custom.
Contact with Spanish colonists
From the late sixteenth century, Spanish settlement in New Mexico introduced new animals, tools and foods, along with missions, forced labor systems and military force. Horses transformed life for many groups, especially on the southern Plains, where they changed hunting, travel and warfare. Metal tools and weapons, cloth and new crops also entered Apache communities, through trade, raiding and diplomacy. Apache and Spanish contact thus combined trade, diplomacy and violence.
Exchange cut both ways. Apache groups supplied hides, meat and other goods, and Spanish households and settlements also depended on trade, including trade in captives. Both Apache and Spanish communities took captives, and some of these people became members of the households that held them, or were later sold or returned. This shows how exchange was tied to power and suffering, not only to commerce.
Mexican and American periods
After Mexican independence in 1821 and the American takeover of the region in the 1840s and 1850s, new trading posts, army forts and agencies became points of contact. Rations, wages for labor and trade goods tied Apache families into the broader economy, sometimes by choice and sometimes because other options had been closed off. Some Apache men served as scouts for the army, a complicated chapter of loyalty and survival. Other individuals worked as guides, laborers or traders.
What each side took
Apache communities took in horses, new materials, foods and, for some groups, Christianity or elements of it. They shaped these influences to their own purposes. Items such as metal cones and trade cloth became part of dress and craft, and later glass beads were incorporated in the arts of Apache beadwork.
Newcomers and neighbors also learned from Apache peoples. Settlers and soldiers relied on Apache knowledge of terrain, water and plants, often without acknowledging the source. Place names across the Southwest came from Native languages. Foods such as agave, mesquite and local plants were part of the shared regional diet, and exchange continued in craft markets, where Apache baskets and other works found buyers beyond the community.
Language and ideas
Exchange included words and ideas. Apache languages borrowed some terms for introduced objects, and Spanish and English absorbed Native place names. Religious ideas also moved. Some Apache people took part in Christian churches, while Plains-origin movements and ceremonies such as the Sun Dance and the Ghost Dance had limited and varied Apache involvement, and should not be described as long-standing Apache ceremonies.
Exchange in the present
Today, exchange continues in new forms: school and museum partnerships, visits, craft markets, tribal enterprises and collaboration with universities. Apache cultural exchange programs vary by nation and are generally directed by the nations themselves, who decide what to share and what to keep within the community. Readers should check each nation’s official website for current information, since this site speaks for no tribe or nation.