A note on the title
“The Apache Nation” in this title refers loosely to several Apache nations, namely the Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan and Plains Apache, whose roles in the borderlands were not identical. “The American West” is also a large phrase. This article concentrates on the Southwest, where the record of Apache influence on Spanish, Mexican and American policy is best documented.
Apache nations as regional powers
Much of the popular picture of the frontier treats Native peoples as obstacles to settlement or as background. Documents from the period suggest something different. For roughly three centuries, Spanish, Mexican and U.S. officials had to take Apache nations into account when deciding where to build forts, where to place settlers, which roads to use and how to spend limited funds. In the Spanish northern provinces in particular, officials wrote constantly about the danger and cost of Apache conflict and about efforts to make treaties with them. This was how a political and military power was treated, whatever one thinks of the policies.
At the same time, Apache nations were not a single force. Different groups were at peace or at war with the Spanish, Mexicans, Americans, Pueblo peoples, Comanche and each other at different times. The fact that peace with one band did not bind another was a long-running source of misunderstanding for outside governments. Apache relations with Comanche, for example, varied by group and period, from conflict on the southern Plains to trade and uneasy coexistence elsewhere.
Presidios, settlement and the northern frontier
Spain’s northern frontier, in what is now northern Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, was lined with presidios, which were military posts. A major reorganization of these posts was ordered in 1772, and its design was influenced by the need to deal with Apache and other Native groups. Settlers in frontier areas sometimes withdrew from exposed ranches and farms, and the pattern of settlement in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan borderlands was shaped by this insecurity. Spanish policy in the 1780s also offered rations and land near presidios to Apache bands that agreed to peace, a program that worked in some places for a time. These approaches were reversed or abandoned when funds ran out, especially after Mexican independence in 1821. The long record of Apache trade and diplomacy is more complex than a simple history of warfare.
Trade routes and travel
Routes through Apache country were important to merchants, mail carriers and migrants. Apache Pass in southeastern Arizona, where a spring made travel possible, became a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route in the late 1850s, and it was the site of fighting in 1862. In northern New Mexico, Jicarilla and other Apache groups were active along the Santa Fe Trail’s western approaches in the 1850s, including conflicts with the U.S. Army. Roads, forts and later railroads were routed with Apache territory in mind, and military posts were set up to protect them. Apache people were also traders, and some were employed by the Army as scouts and guides, a service covered in the Apache scout history.
Shaping the border itself
The U.S.-Mexico boundary was set in 1848 and adjusted in 1853, and as US expansion reached the region, Apache nations became part of why the boundary was so contested. In the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the United States agreed to restrain Native raids into Mexico, a clause that proved impossible to fulfill and caused years of diplomatic friction. The Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which added land in southern Arizona and New Mexico, was negotiated partly to settle disputes over the boundary and the treaty’s obligations. Other considerations, such as a potential southern railroad route, were also important. The border also created a practical problem for the Apache groups of the borderlands, since it divided their traditional range and gave soldiers and officials on each side a reason to stop at the line.
Wars and their consequences
From the 1850s through 1886, U.S. military campaigns against Apache groups were among the most expensive and long-lasting of the Indian wars of the West. The conflicts of those years, often grouped as the Apache Wars, absorbed thousands of soldiers and large budgets for forts, supplies and scouts. They also shaped U.S. policy in more lasting ways. The use of Native scouts, the practice of confining groups at distant sites and the idea of reservations as places of control were all tested or expanded in these campaigns. The human cost was heavy for Apache families and also for settlers, soldiers and Mexican civilians in the region.
Why this role has often been overlooked
For much of the twentieth century, popular accounts told the story from the settlers’ or soldiers’ side, leaving out Apache diplomacy, economic life and political choices. Fictional Westerns also compressed the many nations into one image. Revisiting the documents, many historians now describe Apache nations as active shapers of the borderlands, not just as targets of campaigns. This is a scholarly view that continues to develop, and the sources, which were written mostly by outsiders, require care.
What continued after the frontier closed
The frontier phase ended, but Apache nations did not. They remain sovereign governments today, and their history in the borderlands is part of how they understand the present. For current information about any nation, consult its official site.