Why follow the groups separately
A single narrative of “the Apache” tends to blur six or more distinct histories. They share a language family and many cultural connections, but they lived in different environments, met colonial powers at different times, and ended up on different reservations or lands. The sections below follow each group in turn. They are brief and general, since each deserves much longer treatment, and where sources or communities disagree, that is noted.
“Ancient times” here is used carefully. Written records begin in the 1500s and 1600s, and earlier history is reconstructed from archaeology, linguistics and oral tradition. Scholars generally think the ancestors of the Apache moved south from the Athabaskan-speaking north, but the timing is debated and Apache nations have their own accounts.
Western Apache
The Western Apache homeland is in what is now central and eastern Arizona. Scholars usually divide them into several groups, including the White Mountain, Cibecue, San Carlos and Tonto peoples, with extended-family clans and local groups within them. They hunted, gathered plants and, along streams, planted crops. Spanish and later American writers described them in the 1700s and 1800s, though outsiders often lumped them together with other Apache groups.
In the 1870s the U.S. government created reservations at Fort Apache and San Carlos and moved people between them, often bringing together groups that had not lived side by side. Tension on these reservations played a part in the Cibecue Creek incident of 1881, a confrontation that also involved scouts from the community. Many Western Apache men served as Army scouts in the 1870s and 1880s.
In the twentieth century, the White Mountain Apache Tribe and San Carlos Apache Tribe developed their own governments, and they remain separate nations today, along with other Western Apache communities in Arizona.
Chiricahua
The Chiricahua homeland included southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Four main local groups are usually named, the Chihenne (Warm Springs), Chokonen, Bedonkohe and Nednhi, and the Chihenne Apache and Chokonen in particular are connected with leaders such as Mangas Coloradas, Victorio and Cochise. Geronimo was Bedonkohe by birth.
Conflict with Mexico, and then the United States, shaped the later nineteenth century. After the surrender in 1886, almost the entire Chiricahua population, including scouts who had served the Army, was sent east as prisoners of war. They were held in Florida, Alabama and then Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and were not freed until 1913 and 1914. The Chiricahua at Fort Sill and their descendants are often discussed as a defining chapter. At release, some moved to the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico, and others remained in Oklahoma. The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is a federally recognized nation today, and Chiricahua descendants are also part of the Mescalero Apache Tribe.
Mescalero
The Mescalero lived in the mountains and basins of southern New Mexico and neighboring regions, including the Sacramento Mountains. The name refers to their use of mescal, or roasted agave, as a food. In the early 1860s many were confined at Bosque Redondo along with Navajo people, a hard experience that ended with many leaving in 1865. A Mescalero reservation was established in 1873, and over time it also became home to some Chiricahua and Lipan people.
The Mescalero Apache Tribe adopted a constitution in the 1930s under the Indian Reorganization Act and has since run its own enterprises, including forestry and tourism. Current details are on its official website.
Jicarilla
The Jicarilla lived in northern New Mexico and nearby parts of Colorado, in a region that mixed Plains and mountain life and was close to Taos and other pueblos. Their history includes dealings with Spanish, Mexican and American authorities, and warfare with the United States in the 1850s. After a period of uncertainty and moves, a reservation was established in northern New Mexico by executive order in 1887.
The Jicarilla Apache Nation today is governed under its own constitution and manages natural resources on its land, which has included oil and gas development.
Lipan
The Lipan Apache were historically a Plains people of Texas and northern Mexico, and they were pressured by Comanche expansion and by Texan settlement. In the nineteenth century many moved into Mexico or were displaced, and some Lipan families eventually joined the Mescalero reservation in the early 1900s. Others remained in Texas or Mexico. Today the Lipan are not a single federally recognized tribe, but Lipan descendants maintain communities, organizations and cultural work. How to describe Lipan status is a matter on which communities and governments can differ, and readers should consult Lipan organizations directly.
Plains Apache
The Plains Apache, also known as Kiowa Apache, lived on the southern Plains and were long allied with the Kiowa. They were never part of the same group as the Kiowa; they speak an Apache language. The Kiowa Apache name reflects that long partnership. In the late nineteenth century they were placed on a reservation in what became Oklahoma with the Kiowa and Comanche, and the land was allotted to individuals and opened to non-Native settlement in the early 1900s. Today the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, with offices in the Anadarko area, is a federally recognized nation.
What the comparison shows
Reading the groups side by side shows clear differences. Some, such as the Western Apache, remained near their homelands. The Chiricahua were exiled far away for a generation. The Mescalero and Jicarilla ended up with reservations within their broader historic ranges, and the Lipan did not receive their own reservation. The Plains Apache came to share a reservation with former allies. Yet all of these nations continue, and each is shaping its own future.