How Did The Native Americans Influence The Apache Culture

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Before contact with the Europeans, the Apache lived amongst other tribes and themselves 500 miles east of west, 500 miles north of south through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. Around 850 A.D., the Apache and Navajo came from the Far North to settle in the Plains and Southwest. These areas contained desert lands, endless plains of grasslands, forested slopes, and alpine peaks. In these mountain ranges the apache would forage for food, make their own medicine, grow domesticated plants, and trade with other tribes. The Apache hunted the bison and used the skins as clothing and a food source, and their shelters varied from wickiups, teepees, to hogans. They lived in extended family units, which were connected through the lineage of a …show more content…

The Spanish explorer nicknamed them the Querechos after the many “cows”(bison) that that surrounded the tribe. When Coronado arrived he concluded that they were intelligent and gentle people. However, this viewpoint held by the Europeans would soon change. The Spanish explorer, along with his troops, returned to Mexico City in the autumn of 1542. During this period of contact with Europeans diseases, such as smallpox, had resulted in a massive decrease in population. During the years to follow, Spanish settlements formed in Northern Mexico. Spanish control over the area disrupted trade between the Pueblo and the different Apache and Navajo groups. However, the Apache continued to trade with the Spanish their buffalo hides in exchange for grain, objects, cattle, and eventually guns. The Apache rapidly acquired horses, which allowed them to have many successful raids on settlements and trade with other …show more content…

Many Apache chose to follow Roman Catholicism however some Apache resisted the conversion including an Apache named Juan Jóse. Juan set on obtaining priesthood, however when he heard Mexicans killed his father he was filled with rage. He joined a band of Apaches and frequently robbed the Spanish of important mail along with the messengers that held the crucial information. As time went on, the state of Sonora put a bounty on all of the Apache. In addition, the 1848 treaty between the US and Mexico negatively affected the Apache. The people of the US agreed to keep the Apache out of Mexico’s new lands and from keeping the Apache from raiding settlements in Mexico. As a result the Apache now had a new enemy,

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