How to use this list
This is a reference list of events that are well documented in historical sources. It does not try to be complete, and it covers only a few of the many Apache communities. Dates are given as years or as specific days where those are firmly recorded. Where sources differ, or where the date is a scholarly estimate, the entry is marked “approximately” or “generally dated to.” Because “Apache” refers to several nations, each entry names the group involved where possible. Events from the later twentieth century and the present are covered in a separate timeline of modern milestones.
Before 1700
Approximately 1000 to 1500 CE: arrival in the Southwest. Southern Athabaskan-speaking ancestors of the Apache and Navajo are generally thought to have reached the Southwest or its edges in this wide window. The timing and route remain debated, so treat any exact year with suspicion.
1540 to 1542: Coronado expedition. The Spanish expedition through the Southwest left some of the earliest written descriptions of peoples on the Plains and in the region, which later writers connect with ancestors of the Plains Apache. Attributing particular names to groups described then is uncertain.
1598: Spanish colonization of New Mexico begins. Juan de Onate led the settlement effort, bringing Spanish authority, missions and ranching to the upper Rio Grande. Apache groups on its edges traded and clashed with the settlers and with Pueblo neighbors.
1680: Pueblo Revolt. Pueblo peoples drove Spanish colonists out of New Mexico. Apache involvement varied by group and is documented unevenly. The Spanish returned in the 1690s.
1700 to 1850
1700s: horses and shifting alliances. Throughout the century, Apache groups on the southern Plains came under pressure from Comanche expansion. This is a long process, not a single dated event, and it is one reason Lipan and other groups moved southward.
1786 and after: Spanish peace policy. Spain adopted a policy of offering rations and settlement near presidios (military posts) to Apache bands in exchange for peace. Its effects lasted several decades and varied by region.
1821: Mexican independence. Mexico took over Spanish borderland administration. Rations declined, and conflict increased in parts of Sonora and Chihuahua.
1830s and 1840s: scalp bounties in northern Mexico. Some Mexican states paid for Apache scalps. The policy is well documented and was devastating for Apache communities, and it also killed people who were not Apache.
1846 to 1848: Mexican-American War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) transferred much of the region to the United States. Apache nations were not parties to it.
1850 to 1886
1853 to 1854: Gadsden Purchase. The treaty was signed in 1853 and ratified in 1854, adding land in southern Arizona and New Mexico to the United States.
1861: the Bascom affair. A confrontation near Apache Pass involving Cochise and a U.S. Army officer is often named as a turning point for Chiricahua relations with the United States.
1862: Apache Pass fighting; start of Bosque Redondo. Fighting at Apache Pass occurred in July 1862. In the same period, Mescalero people were confined at Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. Mescalero at Bosque Redondo is a documented history of hardship and escape. Many left in 1865.
1871: Camp Grant massacre. In April 1871, a group of settlers and allies attacked a camp of Aravaipa Apache near Camp Grant in Arizona and killed well over a hundred people, mostly women and children.
1870s: reservations established. Several Apache reservations were created in this decade by executive order, including Mescalero (1873) and San Carlos (1872). Dates and boundaries were changed repeatedly afterward.
1872: agreement with Cochise. Cochise and General O. O. Howard reached an agreement that led to a Chiricahua reservation in southeastern Arizona, which was closed in 1876.
1874: Cochise dies. His death is generally dated to June 1874.
1879 to 1880: Victorio’s campaign. Victorio, a Chihenne (Warm Springs) leader, led a resistance against forced removal to San Carlos, and he was killed in October 1880 in Mexico.
1881: Cibecue Creek. In August, a confrontation at Cibecue Creek in Arizona involving a Western Apache religious leader and Army troops ended in deaths, including a mutiny by some scouts. The Cibecue Creek incident is still discussed, since sources differ on details.
1886: Geronimo surrenders. Geronimo’s final surrender was in September at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. In the weeks after, hundreds of Chiricahua, including scouts who had served the Army, were sent east as prisoners.
1886 to 1914
1886 to 1887: Florida imprisonment. Chiricahua prisoners were held at Fort Pickens and Fort Marion in Florida. The Fort Marion imprisonment, and the later moves, were harsh, and many died.
1887: the Dawes Act and the Jicarilla reservation. The Dawes Act of 1887 introduced allotment across the country. The Jicarilla reservation was set aside by executive order in the same year, after a long period of uncertainty.
1890: Medal of Honor awards. Several Apache scouts received Medals of Honor for actions in earlier campaigns. A fuller account appears in the discussion of scout Medal of Honor recipients.
1894: move to Fort Sill. The Chiricahua prisoners were relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, after years in Alabama.
1909: Geronimo dies. He died in February at Fort Sill, still formally a prisoner. Geronimo in captivity is a better-documented period than many realize.
1913 to 1914: release. In 1913 and 1914 the Chiricahua were released from prisoner-of-war status. Some moved to the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico, and others stayed in Oklahoma, where the Fort Sill Apache community continues.
A few later markers
1924: U.S. citizenship was extended to Native Americans born in the country.
1934: The Indian Reorganization Act encouraged tribal constitutions, adopted by several Apache nations in the 1930s.
1975: The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act began a shift toward tribal management of programs.
Later developments are better followed in the nations’ own histories and on their official websites.