Fort Sill Apache Tribe - History

History

The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is composed of Chiricahua Apache, who were made up of 4 bands:

• Chihende (Chinde, Chihenne – ‘Red Painted People’, known as Warm Springs Apache Band or Gila Apaches, Eastern Chiricahua)
• Chukunende (Chokonende, Chokonen – ‘Ridge of the Mountainside People’, known as Chiricahua Band, proper or Central Chiricahua)
• Nde’ndai (Ndénai, Nednai, Ndé'ndai – ‘Enemy People’, ‘People who make trouble’, sometimes known as Pinery Apache Band, known as Sierre Madre Apaches, Southern Chiricahua)
• Bidánku (Bedonkohe – ‘In Front of the End People’, Bi-da-a-naka-enda – ‘Standing in front of the enemy’, sometimes known as Bronco Apache Band, known as Mogollon Apaches or Gila Apaches, Northeastern Chiricahua)

The Apache are southern Athabaskan-speaking peoples who migrated many centuries ago from the subarctic to the southwestern region of what would become the United States. The Chiricahua settled in southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico of the present-day United States, and northern Sonora, and northern Chihuahua of present-day Mexico. By the late 19th century, the Chiricahua Apache territory encompassed an estimated 15 millions acres.

In 1886 to break up the Apache Wars and resistance to European-American settlement, the US federal government took the Chiricahua into custody as prisoners of war and seized their land. The Army forcibly removed 400 members of the tribe from the Fort Apache and San Carlos Reservations in present-day Arizona, and transported them to U.S. Army installations in Alabama and Florida. Some warriors were held at Fort in Florida. Their ledger drawings are held in a collection by the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1894, the US Congress passed a special provision to allow the Chiricahua to be relocated to Indian Territory. They were the last Indian tribe to be relocated into what is now Oklahoma. When the Chiricahua arrived at Fort Sill, they had been promised the lands surrounding the fort as theirs to settle. Local non-Indians resisted Apache settlement, and the tribe was pressured to leave. Many wanted to return to their traditional lands in the Southwest, and the Mescalero Apache offered them land on their reservation.

A third of the Chiricahua stayed in Indian Territory, demanding that the US fulfill its promise to give them the Fort Sill lands. As a compromise, the government gave the remaining Chiricahua land which it had classified as surplus after allotment of tribal lands to individual households under the Dawes Act, on the nearby Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation. In 1914, the US government finally released 84 individuals from prisoner status and granted them household allotment lands around Fletcher and Apache, Oklahoma.

The Fort Sill Apache struggled for survival in the ensuing years in the economically depressed areas of southwestern Oklahoma. The tribe seized the opportunity afforded by Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936. Persevering through the difficulty of satisfying documentation requirements for tribal continuity, they were recognized by the federal government (Department of Interior) as a tribe in 1976.

The first chairperson, elected in 1976, was Mildred Cleghorn, one of the last Chiricahua Apache born under "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural leader among the elders. She served as tribal chairperson until 1995 and focused on sustaining history and traditional Chiricahua culture.

Allan Houser was the first Fort Sill Apache child to be born free. He became one of the most celebrated Native American sculptors of the 20th century. His sons, Bob Haozous and Philip Haozous, are successful sculptors today and are both enrolled members of the tribe.