GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGINS
The Chiricahua Apache are an Athabaskan people.
This means they speak a language that originated in northwestern North America. It is generally believed they were pushed south from this area by warring tribes. They entered into what would become the southwestern United States somewhere between 1400 and 1500, based on recent archaeological evidence.
The Chiricahua were a group of different Apache bands that settled in what is now southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. The Chiricahua were named after the Chiricahua Mountains in southeast Arizona.
NDE = “People”
The Apaches did not refer to themselves as “Apache” which was a word that translated to enemy in Zuni and was later adopted by the Spanish. Apaches instead referred to themselves with variants of “nde,” simply meaning “the people.”
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ARTICLE:
https://www.nps.gov/chir/learn/historyculture/pre-apache-wars.htm
UNIVERSITY OF FAIRBANKS, ALASKA ARTICLE:
https://www.uaf.edu/alc/about/
ATHABASKAN LANGUAGE FAMILY (BRITANNICA):
https://school.eb.co.uk/levels/intermediate/article/Athabaskan-language-family/437706
WIKIPEDIA ATHABASKAN LANGUAGE ARTICLE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabaskan_languages
ATHABASCAN MIGRATION
The earliest known dates (A.D. 1300s and 1400s) for ancestral Athabascans are found along the Rio Grande valley in the Southwest and in the bordering mountains of southern New Mexico and Arizona.
This evidence suggests that there was at least one mountain or intermontane route into the Southwest, probably in addition to Plains routes.
Still unanswered has been why the earliest Athabascan sites are located where they are and not in adjacent areas. New, geographically specific information about restrictions to travel suggests that early Athabascan site distributions may result from more than just sampling deficiencies.
Limited access routes (or gateways) were available to the migrants in low lying areas west of the Rocky Mountains owing to deeply incised and impassable canyons. Recent investigations of these restricted passageways provide clues as to why ancestral populations were funneled through the Four Corners area, which brought them down the Rio Grande valley and into the adjacent mountains.
This information is important for those who study Athabascans or who are concerned with ethnicity and culture change in the terminal Prehistoric and Historic periods on the Plains. These data indicate that parallel or even earlier developments were occurring in the mountains that must now be considered.
DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE HERE
ATHABASCAN MIGRATION ROUTES FROM ALASKA TO MEXICO
MOGOLLON CULTURE
SEE FULL ARTICLE HERE: Mogollon Culture Article by Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank
The Mogollon cultural area spanned across what is today northern Mexico into Arizona and New Mexico. Archaeologists named the Mogollon cultural group after a mountain range in southern New Mexico centuries later. While there are traits that characterize the broader Mogollon tradition, there were distinct features found among six more localized regions (Mimbres, Black River, San Simon, Jornada, Pine Lawn, and Forestdale) in the larger cultural area.
Paquimé
Genetic evidence shows that the Paquimé and the Mimbres, also known as the Mogollon, are all one people.
The city of Paquimé, largely built of adobe, would have rivaled other large cities and settlements of the region such as Chaco (which flourished earlier). It had large plazas and marketplaces; big domestic, multistory structures to accommodate its once sizable population (some buildings had 1000+ rooms); at least two ball courts; and platform mounds. One mound, called the Mound of the Cross, has a cross-shaped platform that is oriented toward the four cardinal directions, suggesting it played an astronomical or calendrical role perhaps to track equinoxes and solstices. The exact function of most mounds remains unknown. Feasting areas are filled with huge ovens to be able to cook for large numbers of people. A complex water system brought water from miles away to a reservoir, from where water flowed to the city.
THE MIMBRE CULTURE
Encyclopedia Brittanica:
Mimbres, a prehistoric North American people who formed a branch of the classic Mogollon culture and who lived principally along the Mimbres River in the rugged Gila Mountains of what is present-day southwestern New Mexico, U.S. They also lived along nearby stretches of the Gila River and the Rio Grande. At the height of their culture, between AD 1000 and 1150 (known as the Classic Mimbres Period), the Mimbres lived in compact pueblolike villages of adobe and masonry, each village containing perhaps 200 people. Because of sparse rainfall in the area, they relied on irrigation to grow corn (maize), beans, and squash; they also hunted small game. The Mimbres are perhaps most famous for their pottery, which was decorated with imaginative black-on-white designs of insects, animals, and birds or of geometric lines.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MIMBRENOS CULTURE:
Archeology Southwest
Mimbres Culture
The Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History
Mimbreno Irrigation Systems
MIMBRES MYTHOLOGY