What the title gets wrong
The doubled word in the title is a mistake, and so is the idea of a single “tribe” meeting Christianity at one moment. Apache peoples include several nations whose contact with missionaries came at different times and in different forms. A Lipan family in Texas in the 1750s, a Jicarilla family near Spanish New Mexico, and a Western Apache family in 1880s Arizona faced very different circumstances. This article looks at the early missions, first under Spain and then under United States church agencies, and at how communities responded.
Spanish missions and Apache peoples
Spanish expansion into the Southwest and Texas brought Franciscan friars, who built missions among Pueblo communities along the Rio Grande from the early seventeenth century. Apache groups generally lived outside the mission system. They were mobile, lived in smaller local groups and had their own economies of hunting, gathering, farming in some regions and trade. A mission model that depended on settling people in one place and putting them to work did not suit most of them, and many did not want it.
There were attempts. The best known is Santa Cruz de San Saba, a mission established for Lipan Apache in central Texas in 1757. Spanish officials hoped it would draw Lipan families into a settled life and give Spain an ally against Comanche pressure. Few Lipan stayed there, and in 1758 the mission was attacked and burned by a large force of Comanche and allies; several people at the mission were killed. The episode shows how much the mission plans were tied up with regional politics and not just with religion. The Lipan were caught between enemies, and the Spanish plan misread the situation.
Baptism also happened in other ways. In Spanish New Mexico, Apache captives and children taken in raids and wars were often baptized and raised in Spanish households, a painful chapter in which Apache individuals were separated from their families. Those descendants contributed to the mixed communities of the region. Records of baptisms in presidio towns and mission registers survive in colonial archives, though they say little about what the people themselves believed.
Peace establishments
In the late 1700s Spain tried a different approach on the northern Mexican frontier. Rather than missions, officials set up what were called peace establishments, where Apache families received rations near presidios in exchange for peace. The system involved some contact with priests, but its main aim was political. The wider setting is the Spanish presidio frontier and, later, the years of Apache Mexico conflict. After Mexican independence the rations ended, and the Spanish-era mission network in the region was largely secularized, so Christianity among Apache communities in this period was limited and uneven.
United States church agencies
After the United States took control of the Southwest, missionary interest returned in a new form. In the 1870s the federal government invited churches to nominate Indian agents and to run schools and missions on reservations. Denominations such as Catholics, Lutherans and the Dutch Reformed Church took part in the broader Native mission field. What happened at each Apache reservation depended on which church was present, who the agent was and what the community wanted.
At this time, officials often saw conversion and assimilation as the same thing. For instance, a missionary might judge a child’s progress partly by whether the child dropped the Apache language and customs. Apache families, by contrast, often judged a missionary by whether he helped or harmed the community.
How communities responded
Apache responses were varied and often practical.
- Some families avoided missions altogether and kept their own religious life.
- Some accepted particular services such as medicine, clothing or schooling without accepting the message.
- Some individuals were baptized and joined churches, in some cases as lasting commitments.
- Some combined Christian worship with older practices, and people held both without seeing a conflict.
The same family might include members who took each of these paths. This variety is one reason that historians avoid broad statements such as “the Apache accepted” or “the Apache rejected” Christianity.
Language also mattered. Missionaries who learned Apache languages often found communities more willing to talk. Some translated hymns or scripture, work that later helped linguists and, in some cases, Apache language learners. Those records have value, though they were made with conversion in mind and should be read with that in mind.
Why the history matters now
The early mission period helps explain the religious landscape today, where Christian churches, traditional ceremonies and other movements exist side by side in many communities. It also explains why some Apache people feel strongly about the role of churches in the past, including their part in schooling and in efforts to end ceremonies. Understanding Apache religious change means holding both facts: that missions brought some support and some lasting opportunities, and that they were part of a wider effort to change Apache lives.
Some knowledge belongs to families and communities and is not shared with outsiders, so this article stays at a general level. For present-day information about faith life on a particular reservation, consult the nation’s own official website.