Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan speakers of Alaska and western Canada.
Apachean peoples formerly ranged over eastern Arizona, northern Mexico, New Mexico, west and southwest Texas, and southern Colorado. The Apachería consisted of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern Great Plains.
The Apachean groups had little political unity; the major groups spoke seven different languages and developed distinct and competitive cultures. The current division of Apachean groups includes the Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache (formerly Kiowa-Apache). Throughout the mid- to late- 19th Century, the Apache battled both the governments of Mexico and the United States, until they were finally defeated and relegated to reservations in the 1880s.
Apache in Southern Victory[]
In the Second Mexican War, Apaches led by Geronimo aligned themselves with the Confederate forces under Jeb Stuart, winning decisive victories over US garrisons in southern New Mexico. In the aftermath of the war, the Apaches quarrelled with the CSA's new Hispanic subjects in Cananea, resulting in a vicious war between the Apache and the CS Army that claimed Stuart's life, among others.
