A Little History

APACHE
1895 Maps of Indian Nations

The name �Apache� is said to be a Zuni Indian word meaning �enemy.�� The Apache of Oklahoma are also called the Prairie Apache, a name applied to them through error, on the assumption that they were the same as the Apache people Arizona.� They are of the Athapascan linguistic family, but have had no political connection with the Apache tribes of the Southwest.� They came from the North as a component part of the Kiowa.� More� recent authorities, however, believe that the Apache did divide somewhere in Montana, the main body going southward on the west side of the mountains and a smaller body going northward to become allied on the east side of the� mountains with the Kiowa.� Whichever theory of their origin is correct, the Apache have a distinct language and called themselves �Nadiishdewa,� or �our people.��� The Pawnee and early French explorers and settlers called the �Gattacka� or �Gataka,� and these names appeared on the first treaty they signed with the United States in 1897.� Perhaps 1847 marked the beginning of the Apache being identified with the Kiowa, and the two tribes, for the most part, have had a common history.