What counts as an Apache root
“Apache roots” can mean three different things, and the difference matters when reading a map. A name may come from an Apache word, from the name of an Apache group, or from an event or person in Apache history. Only the first kind is truly an Apache-language name. The second and third are far more common, and many of them reached the map through Spanish or English, with the spelling and sometimes the meaning changed along the way.
Because Apache nations lived across a large area and left few written records of their own before the twentieth century, claims about derivation often rest on guesses made by early settlers or travel writers. The sections below mark each name as secure, probable or disputed.
Arizona
Apache County and Apache Junction. Both use the outside name “Apache”, and both are named for the people in a general sense. Apache County lies in northeastern Arizona and includes part of the White Mountain Apache lands. Apache Junction, east of Phoenix, is a modern town whose name is tied to the Apache Trail road. The word is an exonym, so these are names about Apache peoples, not Apache names.
Cochise County. Named for Cochise, a Chiricahua leader of the nineteenth century. The connection is secure. The county name remembers a person and was chosen by non-Apache settlers.
The Chiricahua Mountains. The range is named for the Chiricahua Apache, who lived in the region. The word Chiricahua appears in Spanish records, and its ultimate origin is debated. Some writers connect it to a word from another language of the region, and no single derivation is generally accepted. The nearby Chiricahua and Dragoon ranges are part of a broader story of Apache homelands in southeastern Arizona.
Fort Apache and the White Mountains. Fort Apache is named for the Apache people the army expected to meet there; the White Mountains are named in English. The White Mountain Apache Tribe and its reservation now use the name too, and the site of the old fort is remembered as the Fort Apache historic site.
San Carlos. This is a Spanish saint’s name, not an Apache one. It attached first to the area and later to the reservation, and today the San Carlos Apache Tribe uses it as part of its own name.
Cibecue. The community of Cibecue is in Western Apache country, and the name is generally described as derived from an Apache word. English spellings vary and the meaning is given differently in different sources, so a single translation should not be treated as settled. Cibecue Apache people have their own names for places in the area, and those are often descriptive.
Aravaipa. Aravaipa Canyon and the Aravaipa Apache, a Western Apache group, share a name. Which came first, and from which language, is uncertain.
Tonto Basin. The name uses a Spanish word and was applied by outsiders to a group of Western Apache and others; it is not an Apache word.
Mount Graham. The English name honours an army officer. The mountain is of great importance to the San Carlos Apache, and its significance has been the subject of public debate. It is an example of a place whose English name says little about its meaning to Apache people.
New Mexico
Mescalero. The community and reservation name comes from a Spanish word that was applied to Apache people who used mescal, or roasted agave. The Mescalero Apache people live in the Sacramento Mountains homeland and surrounding country, and the name they use for themselves is a different one.
Jicarilla. A Spanish word, usually translated as “little basket”, given to the Apache people of northern New Mexico. Why Spanish speakers used it is not documented in a way that removes all doubt, although basketry and vessels are commonly mentioned. The Jicarilla Apache people have a reservation near Dulce.
Ruidoso and Alamogordo. These are Spanish names and are not Apache, although both lie near Mescalero Apache land.
The Black Range and Warm Springs. The Black Range homeland of the Chihenne, also called the Warm Springs Apache, is named in English. Warm Springs is an English name for the band and the springs associated with it, and the country is tied to leaders such as Victorio and Mangas Coloradas.
Lordsburg, Silver City and other mining towns. The towns are named after the settlers, railroads and industries that came after Apache lands were taken. They are part of the history of land loss rather than evidence of Apache naming.
Names that are not Apache
A number of well-known names are often listed as Apache in tourism materials and are not.
- Arizona. Proposed origins include an O’odham phrase and a Basque phrase. None is Apache, and the matter remains unsettled.
- Mogollon. Named for a Spanish colonial governor of New Mexico in the early eighteenth century, which is why Mogollon Rim country is a Spanish-derived name despite its Apache history.
- Gila. Generally considered a Spanish rendering of a word from another language, with explanations differing, so the rivers called the Gila and Salt rivers are not usually counted as Apache names.
- Navajo and Canyon de Chelly. These belong to the Navajo, a separate nation.
- Tucson, Sonoita, Pinal. Tucson and Sonoita are generally traced to O’odham, and Pinal is Spanish, referring to pines.
Spotting the difference
A reader who wants to check a claim can ask four questions. Does the name appear in Spanish records before English ones? Does it have a plain Spanish or English meaning? Does an Apache nation or language program use or explain it? And is the story told on a sign backed by a scholarly source? If the answer to the last two is no, the safest statement is that the origin is uncertain.
For current spellings and meanings, the nations’ own websites and cultural offices are the best sources, because they know their own names for these places, and those names do not always match the ones printed on road signs.