Rugged Chiricahua Apache Life In The Old West...

     The Chiricahua Apache lived in the dry, mountainous region of the Southwest,  mostly in southeast Arizona.  They were an extremely tough people.  Their land was a difficult place to find food, one of the harshest parts of the whole country.  And, yet, the Chiricahua survived, and even, thrived.   (At one time in their history great efforts were made to exterminate all Apaches, of course, including the Chiricahua, and bounties were placed on all Apache scalps,---man, woman and child.)

     The tactic of destroying their food sources would not work on the Apache, as it did on the Native Americans of the Plains, who were devastated by the mass slaughter of their buffalo.  The Apache  who were used to the hardship of never having plentiful food or supplies and to whom raiding was a way of life survived in spite of practically all efforts to destroy them.  If they didn't have enough they would get what they needed by taking it.

     Raiding was usually done on foot and at night.  Apaches could sneak in and make off with what they desired before anyone noticed; their stealth was amazing.  The scarcity of food meant that they were a nomadic people, moving around a lot.  But, although they were very tough; there were never that many Apache.

     They were, in general, a very healthy people.  Their isolated territory, nomadic nature and basically unsubmissive attitude protected them from the onslaught of European invaders (Ugh, the explorers and missionaries.) so that the Apache didn't suffer greatly from "white man's diseases": smallpox, measles and cholera.  Venereal disease was unknown among them.

     A rigorous, athletic outdoor life made Apache endurance nothing short of astounding!  An Apache warrior in his prime could cover thirty miles a day on foot.   On horseback, he could go seventy miles in one day!  You can imagine how hard it might have been to catch an Apache.  It was said that only an Apache could catch another Apache. An Apache could live outdoors in freezing temperatures and in conditions that would kill almost anyone else in a matter of days.

     Apache boys were taught to run up hills and down continuously, holding water in their mouths, to train.  And, girls were encouraged to run too.  Both boys and girls were taught be be excellent on horseback, their skill rivaling the Comanche,  who could shoot arrows from a galloping horse bending over, using the horses body as a shield and who could retrieve a fallen comrade at a gallop, reaching down to grab him, of course, without stopping.

     Apaches were taught to swim and enjoyed it very much.  Apache girls, especially, swam a lot because they believed that swimming kept them from developing a lot of body hair, something that was detestible to all Apache.

     Apache women often went to war with their men and were very fierce in battle.  The Chiricahua, clever mountain people that they were, were skilled ambushers, going to the edges of their cliffs and raining obsidian-tipped arrows and big rocks down on their enemies, taunting them too, by waving their breech cloths and slapping their asses... (Sort of reminds me of the defiant Scots in "Braveheart"!)

     *** The Apache nation consisted of quite a few tribes: the Chiricahua, the Lipans, the Mescalero, the Jicarillas, the Mimbrenos, the Mogollones, and the Western Apaches, - the Tontos, the Coyoteros and the Pinalenos.  Of them all, the Chiricahua were considered the most fierce.