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The Apache and the Spanish: A Turbulent Relationship
An overview of roughly two centuries of contact between Apache peoples and Spain, covering missions, presidios, raiding, captives and the peace establishments.
History and Conflict
Apache relations with Spanish and Mexican rule.
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An overview of roughly two centuries of contact between Apache peoples and Spain, covering missions, presidios, raiding, captives and the peace establishments.
How Sonora and Chihuahua became a lasting arena of conflict and occasional peace for Chiricahua bands, from the Sierra Madre refuges to the 1880s campaigns.
How the Spanish presidio line and military policy of the 1700s shaped conflict, treaties and displacement for Lipan, Mescalero and other Apache groups.
Apache relations with independent Mexico after 1821, including the decline of rations, scalp bounties in Chihuahua and Sonora, and cross-border raiding.
The earliest recorded Spanish meetings with Apachean groups on the plains and in New Mexico, and what those sixteenth-century sources can and cannot tell us.
A comparison of Apache experiences with Spanish and French colonial powers on different frontiers, from Texas and Louisiana to New Mexico and the Plains.
Who were the Querechos met by the Coronado expedition in 1541, why scholars link them to Apachean groups, and why the identification remains uncertain.
The long-term effects of Spanish and Mexican rule on Apache territory, economies, horses and trade goods, beyond the fighting itself.
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