Homes That Fit the Land
Traditional Apache housing was shaped by climate, available materials and how often a family expected to move. There was no single “Apache house,” and traditional Apache homes varied widely. Two main types are described in the historical and ethnographic record: the wickiup, a dome-shaped dwelling, and the tipi, a conical hide-covered dwelling. Which one a group used depended largely on whether its way of life centred on mountains and deserts or on the southern Plains.
The focus here is the physical camp and the household work done in it, not the yearly movement of camps or the wider social structure.
Wickiups
The wickiup is most closely associated with the Western Apache, Chiricahua and Mescalero. Builders set a frame of flexible poles in the ground, bent them together into a rounded shape and covered the frame with brush, grass, bark, mats or, in some places, hides. Sources describe variations in size and in the materials used, depending on what grew nearby and on the season. Some wickiups had a central fire with a smoke opening; others were used mainly for sleeping and shelter from weather, with much daily work done outdoors.
Wickiup camps could be set up and taken down with little trouble: these dwellings could be built relatively quickly from local materials, which suited people who moved between camps during the year. Later, canvas and other trade goods were sometimes used as coverings. Shade structures, often called ramadas, were also used in warm weather for cooking, working and storing food, especially in farming areas where families stayed in one place for the growing season. Western Apache farming groups often had a more settled summer site near their fields and other camps elsewhere.
Tipis and Plains-Influenced Camps
The Plains Apache (formerly called Kiowa Apache), the Lipan and the Jicarilla are generally described as using hide tipis, especially when hunting bison on the Plains. A tipi was a pole frame covered with tanned hides, designed to be taken down, carried and set up again. The horse made it practical to move heavier loads, and sources link larger tipis to the period when horses were common.
Within this broad picture there were differences. The Jicarilla historically lived in country that included both Plains edges and mountain valleys, and accounts distinguish between groups with more Plains orientation and groups with more mountain and farming orientation. Where families lived near Pueblo communities and farmed, they may have used other kinds of dwellings as well. Sources differ on details, so it is best to treat any single description with caution. The Mescalero also hunted on the Plains at times and are described as using tipis on such trips, while using wickiups in their mountain homes.
How a Camp Was Arranged
An Apache camp was typically a cluster of related households rather than a lone dwelling. Under matrilocal residence, documented for the Western Apache, Chiricahua and Mescalero, a young couple generally lived with or near the wife’s family, so a camp often consisted of a senior woman, her daughters, their husbands and children. Dwellings were set close enough for cooperation but with space between families. Camps were commonly placed with attention to water, firewood, shelter from wind, and safety, and often near plant foods or farm plots.
Ethnographic accounts describe many dwellings as built and managed by the women of the household, though men helped with heavy tasks and with hunting-related structures. As always, practice could differ between families and nations.
When a person died, some groups are described as abandoning or no longer using the dwelling where the death occurred, which fits customs of care around death. The details are treated carefully and differ by group, and this article does not attempt to describe private family practices.
Household Work
Daily life in camp involved a steady round of tasks, usually divided by age and gender, though in practice people helped each other.
- Fetching water and gathering firewood, often several times a day.
- Cooking, including preparing stews, roasting plant foods, and drying or storing meat and fruits. Many details of Apache cooking methods depended on the group and the season.
- Grinding seeds, corn and other plant foods on stone surfaces.
- Working hides, which included scraping, softening and sewing. The craft of Apache hide tanning supplied clothing, containers and tipi coverings.
- Making baskets, water jars, cradleboards and tools. Basketry used local plants and was a skill passed from older to younger relatives.
- Caring for children, with grandparents often having a large teaching role.
- Hunting, tool making and the care of horses where horses were kept.
Elders and children took part in work in age-appropriate ways, and learning happened mostly through doing the work alongside relatives.
Changes Over Time
Housing changed as the reservation era approached, and the later story of Apache wickiup and tipi homes is one of adaptation. Canvas replaced hides and brush in many places, and families increasingly built log, adobe or frame houses. Wickiups continued in use for some purposes for a long time in some communities, and they are still built today for demonstrations, cultural programmes and sometimes personal use. Modern Apache communities live in contemporary homes, and the traditional forms described here are historical patterns that continue as part of cultural education.
Anyone wanting current information about a specific nation, or about visiting a cultural centre or museum, should consult that nation’s official website.