Tonto Apache People
The Tonto Apache (Dilzhę́’é, also Dilzhe'e, Dilzhe’eh Apache) is one of the groups of Western Apache people. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language (a Southern Athabaskan language). The Chiricahua living to the south called them Ben-et-dine or binii?e'dine' (“brainless people”, “people without minds”, i.e. "wild", "crazy", "Those who you don’t understand"). The neighboring Western Apache ethnonym for them was Koun'nde ("wild rough People"), from which the Spanish derived their use of Tonto ("loose", "foolish") for the group. The kindred but enemy Navajo to the north called both, the Tonto Apache and their allies, the Yavapai, Dilzhʼíʼ dinéʼiʼ - “People with high-pitched voices”).
Grenville Goodwin in The Social Organization of the Western Apache (1942) divided the Tonto into two groups: the Northern Tonto and Southern Tonto. Many Western Apache reject such a classification. They prefer groupings based on bands and clans.
The following Tonto Apache tribes are federally recognized:
- Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, Arizona
- Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Arizona
- Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona
Together with other groups of the Western Apache they form additional the federally recognized tribes:
- White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona
- San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona
Read more about Tonto Apache People: Ethnonym, Socio-political Organization, Chiefs of The Tonto Apache
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