Western Apache

Western Apache refers to the Apache peoples living today primarily in east central Arizona, USA. Most live within reservations. The Fort Apache, San Carlos, Yavapai-Apache, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Indian reservations are home to the majority of Western Apache and are the bases of their federally recognized tribes. In addition, there are numerous bands. The Western Apache bands call themselves Ndee (Indee) (“The People”), because of dialectical differences the Pinaleño/Pinal and Arivaipa/Aravaipa bands of the San Carlos Apache use the softer term Innee.

The various dialects of Western Apache (called by them Ndee biyati' / Nnee biyati') are a form of Apachean, a branch of the Southern Athabaskan language family. The Navajo speak a related Athabaskan language, but the peoples separated long ago and are considered culturally distinct. Other indigenous peoples who are Athabaskan speakers are located in Alaska and Canada.

The anthropologist Grenville Goodwin (1938) classified the Western Apache into five groups based on Apachean dialect and culture:

• Cibecue,
• Northern Tonto,
• Southern Tonto,
• San Carlos, and
• White Mountain.

Since Goodwin, other researchers have disputed his conclusion of five linguistic groups, but have agreed on three main Apachean dialects with several subgroupings:

• San Carlos,
• White Mountain, and
• Dilzhe'e (Tonto).

Some 20,000 Western Apache still speak their native language, and efforts have been made to preserve it. Bilingual teachers are often employed in the lower elementary grades, to expedite this goal, but the tendency toward children learning to speak only English, mingled with occasional Spanish, remains dominant.

In relation to culture, tribal schools offer classes in native handicrafts, such as basket weaving, making bows, arrows, spears, shields; cradles for infants, native costumes from buckskin for the young women, and the making of silver jewelry (often by the men) at the elementary and secondary level.