Apache Tribe of Oklahoma

Apache is the collective name for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States.The Apache tribe occupied primarily the mountains and plains of southern Arizona and New Mexico, and also lived in Mexico. Apachean people also roamed parts of Texas and the Great Plains. The Apache Tribe of Oklahoma is made up of remnants of three divisions of Apache people:

Chiricahua - Originally from southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and adjacent Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora - The band was the informal political unit, consisting of followers and a headman. They had no formal leader such as a tribal chief, or council, nor a decision making process. The core of the band was a "relative group," predominantly, but not nessarily, kinsmen. Named by the Spanish for the mescal cactus the Apaches used for food, drink, and fiber. The basic shelter of the Chiricahua was the domeshaped wickiup made of brush. Similar the Navajo, they also regarded coyotes, insects, and birds as having been human beings; the human race, then, but following in the tracks of those who have gone before.

Mescalero - Faraon - The Mescalero lived east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico, with the Pecos River as their eastern border.

Jicarilla - Tinde - The Jicarilla were from southeastern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and northwest Texas. During their zenith in the SouthWest, two divisions of the Jicarilla Apache were known: the Llanero, or "plains people," and the Hoyero, the "mountain people." They roamed from central and eastern Colorado into western Oklahoma, and as far south as Estancia, New Mexico. As a result of their eastern contacts, the Jicarilla adopted certain cultural traits of the Plains Indians, as did the Mescalero who also ranged the eastern plains.