A note on the title
The repeated word in the title is an error; the subject is simply missionaries and Apache peoples. The phrase “the tribe” is also misleading, since there are several Apache nations with different histories. This article concentrates on the reservation era, roughly the 1870s onward, when churches and the federal government worked closely together. Contact under Spain came earlier and followed a different pattern.
Churches and the reservation agency
In 1869 President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration adopted what was called the Peace Policy. One part of it invited Christian denominations to nominate people to serve as Indian agents and to open schools and churches on reservations. The goal, as officials described it, was to “civilize” and convert. Both parts of that goal assumed that Native religion and ways of life were something to be replaced.
How this played out varied by reservation. Some agents had church sponsorship; others were army officers or political appointees. By the 1880s the arrangement was fading, but the missions did not leave. Catholic, Lutheran, Dutch Reformed and other Protestant groups established themselves in different Apache communities, and different denominations became prominent on different reservations. The specifics differ from one nation to the next, and each nation’s own sources are the place to look for them.
What missions offered, and what they asked
Missionaries often brought things people needed: schools, medical help, food and clothing at times of hardship, and a link to government officials. On reservations where rations were short and sickness common, such help mattered. Some families sought it out for that reason.
The same missions also asked a great deal. Conversion typically meant giving up ceremonies, and the federal government backed that pressure. The 1883 Code of Indian Offenses allowed agency officials to penalize certain Native ceremonies and the work of healers. Missionaries and officials often described the ceremonies of Apache communities as obstacles. The general point is that many families kept Apache ceremonies going quietly or in modified forms despite the pressure; details of the ceremonies themselves are not discussed here.
Church-run schools
Education was a main way missions reached children. Some schools were day schools on the reservation; others were boarding schools, where children lived away from their families for months or years. Some were run by churches, some by the government, and some by churches under government contract. In many places, children were punished for speaking their own language and were given English names. The wider Apache boarding school history involved a federal policy that is generally understood as forced assimilation with lasting harm. Some individuals later recalled particular teachers or lessons with respect, and others recalled loss and pain. Both kinds of memories belong in the record.
Mission schools also provided one of the few routes to literacy and training. Several Apache people later became teachers, church leaders and community advocates in part through that education, and then used those skills for their own nations. It is a complicated legacy, and it is unfair to reduce it to a single judgment.
Responses from Apache communities
Apache responses were not uniform. Some families declined to take part and stayed away from the mission. Some sent children to school while continuing to keep ceremonies at home. Some individuals became active members of churches. Others joined more than one tradition, treating them as compatible, and some communities developed their own congregations with Apache pastors and Apache-language services.
The Apache religious change that took place over the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries therefore cannot be summarized as a simple replacement of old beliefs by new ones. In many communities, new and older practices sit side by side, and they have often been shaped by internal debate. A few Apache communities also saw the arrival of other religious movements in the twentieth century, including the Native American Church, which is practiced by some Native people in the Southwest and whose members describe it in their own terms.
Religious freedom and the present
Federal restrictions on Native ceremonies were eased only gradually. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 stated a federal policy of protecting Native religious practices, though debates over its enforcement, especially at sacred places, continue. These questions are touched on in the history of Apache religious freedom.
Today it is common to find Apache people who are practicing Christians, people who follow traditional ceremonial life, people who do both, and people who do neither. Describing Apache religion today as one thing would be inaccurate. Some ceremonial knowledge is not shared with outsiders, and this site does not describe it. Anyone wanting to learn more about a particular community’s faith life should consult that nation’s official website or cultural office and respect any limits it sets on visitors.
Reading the sources
Much of what is written about missions comes from missionary reports, which tend to stress conversions and progress. Agency reports, school records and Apache memories frequently tell a different story. When reading about this period, it helps to ask who wrote the account and what they wanted readers to conclude, and to look for Apache voices, including those of Apache authors and tribal historians.