An outside name with an uncertain history
Apache is not a word that the peoples it describes used for themselves. It is a name applied by outsiders, which reached English through Spanish. The Spanish colonial documents of the Southwest begin using forms of the word in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and the name was then applied over time to a number of related peoples. Beyond that point, the story gets less certain.
The honest answer to “what does Apache mean?” is that scholars have proposed explanations, none of which is established beyond dispute. This article sets out the main ideas and why caution is needed.
The most common suggestion
The explanation most often repeated traces the name to a word in a neighboring language, commonly said to be a Zuni term meaning something like “enemy.” In some versions of the story, the Zuni word was used for the Navajo and then taken up by Spanish speakers, who applied it more widely. Other suggestions point to words in other languages of the region.
Treat these accounts with care. Different writers give different forms of the supposed source word, and the chain from a Pueblo or other language into Spanish is hard to document. Even if the “enemy” explanation is right, it would describe how others referred to the people at the time, not a verdict on them or a meaning in the Apache languages. Words borrowed between languages often shift in meaning, and a label that began as a neighbor’s term can come to be used in ways its first speakers did not intend.
What the word does not mean
Several popular claims should be set aside because they lack support:
- That Apache means “fierce” or “warrior” in any Apache language. It does not appear to.
- That the name comes from an Apache word for “the people.” That is a separate set of words, discussed below.
- That one definitive etymology has been proven. It has not.
When a website gives a single confident meaning without naming a source, that is a reason for skepticism. The question of the meaning of the name Apache is open in scholarship, and a careful writer says so.
One word, many peoples
Spanish officials and later English speakers used Apache as a broad label for peoples who looked alike to them in terms of mobility and language. Over time they added qualifiers, such as the names of regions or neighboring groups, to tell them apart. Some of those labels persisted, like Mescalero, which comes from the Spanish word for mescal, a plant food associated with the group, and Jicarilla, a Spanish word often explained as meaning “little basket.” These are also outsider names.
The label was applied sloppily at times. Some peoples who were not Apache were called Apache in older sources. For example, the Yavapai, who speak a Yuman language, were often misidentified in nineteenth-century records, with names such as “Apache-Mohave” that no longer reflect how they are understood. Meanwhile, the Navajo, whose language is closely related to Apache languages, were often distinguished from Apache in Spanish records, though they are still treated as a separate nation today. This shows that the term was never a precise one.
Another example involves the Plains Apache, who were long called Kiowa Apache because of their long association with the Kiowa, a name that does not describe a Kiowa origin and which many now avoid in favor of Plains Apache. The history of the Kiowa Apache name shows how labels follow relationships and not simply descent.
What Apache peoples call themselves
Many Apache groups use self-names in their own languages, and these differ by group, dialect and speaker. A widely cited family of terms, related to words meaning “the people,” appears in forms spelled Nde, Ndee, Inde or Indeh, depending on the group and the spelling system. The Navajo use a related word, Diné, for themselves, a reminder of the shared linguistic roots. Individual groups also have names for their own divisions, bands or local groups, which can differ again.
Spelling varies for reasons worth knowing. Apache languages were written down by outsiders using different systems, and only in recent decades have communities developed their own writing conventions, which also differ. A spelling seen in a book from the early 1900s may not match what a community uses now. The Nde self-name is one such case, appearing in several spellings.
Self-names of this kind deserve more attention than they usually receive. They are how people describe themselves, and they reflect a way of seeing community that outsiders’ labels do not capture. Where possible, use the name a particular nation uses for itself, and where an official name exists, such as that of a federally recognized tribe, use that.
Using the word today
Apache is the name in common English use and the official name in many contexts, including the names of several nations and tribal governments. Most Apache people use the word themselves in English. That does not mean the history of the word is irrelevant, or that every use is appropriate. Context matters, and the better practice is to use the name of the specific nation when known, and to avoid using the word for unrelated purposes or as a generic symbol of wildness.
For readers wanting more, the useful questions are: which nation is meant, what does it call itself, and how does it want to be named? The nations’ own websites are the most reliable place to find out.