English: The Fort Apache Indian Reservation — located in Arizona.

• The home to the federally recognized White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, a Western Apache tribe.

LOCATION AND LAND STATUS

• The White Mountain Apache Reservation is located in east-central Arizona and consists of desert foothills, canyon beds, and forested mountains where elevations exceed 11,000 feet. The reservation is approximately 75 miles long and 45 miles wide.
• The community of White River serves as the business center for the tribe and is the location of the Bureau of Indian Affairs agency. Residential communities are located at McNary, North Fork, Seven Mile, East Fork, Canyon Day, Cedar Creek, Carrizo, Forestdale, and Cibecue.
• The joint White Mountain-San Carlos Apache Reservation was established by executive order of November 9, 1871, supplemented by executive order of December 14, 1872. It was set aside on lands surrounding White Mountain Apache, a military outpost initially known as Camp Ord, designed to protect white settlers in the Arizona Territory.

CULTURE AND HISTORY

The White Mountain Apaches, considered the easternmost group of the Western Apache peoples, traditionally lived in an area bounded by the Pinaleno Mountains on the south and the White Mountains on the north. The evidence is unclear as to what motivated these Athabascan-speaking people to relocate to this region from the plains of Texas and New Mexico, where they had settled, probably in the early 1500s, after leaving Canada or Alaska. The new geographic location and their contact with other area populations brought about linguistic, social, and cultural changes that set them apart from other Apache peoples. At the time of the Anglo-American occupancy of Arizona, the White Mountain Apaches represented the largest division of the Western Apache people, with an estimated 1,400 to 1,500 people.

While primarily nomadic people, the Western Apache learned agricultural techniques from the Navajo or the western Pueblos. Traditionally, the advent of spring signalled the time when people moved to their farms, where they cultivated limited quantities of corn, beans, and squash. When the firsts shoots of their crops appeared, they would split off into gathering groups of women and hunting groups of men, leaving the group's elders and children to tend the crops. The introduction of the horse greatly increased the range of the Western Apaches, allowing them to establish an intricate network of trade and raiding routes. This life-style continued, except for a brief time during the Spanish colonial period, until their forced relocation to reservations.

In reaction to Western Apache raids and attacks on Spanish settlements, which began in the mid-18th century, the Spanish unsuccessfully attempted to control and defeat them by military means. By 1786, it had become clear that the Spanish goal of exterminating the people was unrealistic. In response, the Viceroy Bernardo de Galvez conceived of a new "Indian policy," designed to placate the Western Apaches by settling them in villages near the Spanish military encampments and offering them supplies and, most significantly, alcohol. The Spanish hoped this policy would convince the Western Apaches to remain peaceful, and, through an addiction to alcohol, create a dependency upon them. For nearly 25 years this policy worked with moderate success, yet the Mexican War of Independence, ending in 1821, prevented its continuation.

When the new Mexican government, beset with serious financial problems, could no longer subsidize the Apaches, the people left to regroup in their traditional territories. By 1831, the Western Apaches had resumed their intensive raiding activities, throwing the Mexican state of Sonora into intense disarray. From then until the Anglo-Americans assumed control of Arizona in 1853, the Spanish population of Sonora declined dramatically.

After the ratification of the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, Anglo settlers and prospectors began to intrude upon the domain of the Western Apaches. At first the people were wary but peaceful, but when it became clear that the new settlers sought to control the Apaches and usurp their territory, the people responded with open hostility. This resulted in a nearly 40-year war of epic proportions, ending with the irreversible defeat of the Western Apaches and their relocation to reservations.

By 1870, it was becoming increasingly clear that the Territory of Arizona lacked the military means to exterminate the Apaches and that the Apaches in turn needed some protection from the genocidal practices of the local populace. Following the Camp Grant Massacre in 1871, during which a mob of enraged citizens from Tucson, together with a group of Papago Indians, slaughtered more than 75 Western Apache women and children, the federal government implemented a new "peace policy" in Arizona, calling for the collection of all Apaches on reservations. As part of this policy, indigenous peoples were settled on their own territories, provided with protection, and encouraged to make a living though agriculture and the raising of livestock.

While a large tract of land was marked off around White Mountain Apache for the Cibecue and the northern bands of the White Mountain division, in 1874 the Department of the Interior embarked upon a "removal campaign" designed to concentrate all the Western Apaches, the Chiricahuas, and Yavapais on the San Carlos Apache Reservation.

These peoples actively resisted, and many Apaches and others escaped the confines of the reservation. During this unrest, the U.S. Army under General Crook led a group of White Mountain Apaches deep into Sonora's Sierra Madres, where they entered into negotiations with Geronimo that ultimately resulted in his surrender and the surrender of nearly 400 other Chiricahuas.

With peace restored in 1884, several groups of Apaches, including Geronimo and a small band of dissident Chiricahuas, were returned to White Mountain Apache. Here, under strict military supervision, they worked to construct irrigation dams and plant crops. While suffering immense cultural loss, the Western Apaches were at least able to adapt to reservation life without further loss of life.

After the turn of the century, White Mountain Apache residents began working in the wage economy, to supplement their subsistence needs. In 1907, over 80 men were employed by the U.S. Cavalry to cut hay for horses stabled at White Mountain Apache, while others worked as cowboys for Anglo cattle ranchers who leased reservation grazing land. By 1918, the population had risen to 2,456, and the federal government issued 400 cattle to Apaches so that they could start their own livestock business.

By 1931, there were approximately 20,000 head of cattle on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The economic base of reservation society was further expanded during the early 1920s through the establishment of a lumbering operation which has since become a major industry, processing over 50 million board feet annually. In 1954, the White Mountain Apache Tribe, by this time a legally constituted body governed by an elected tribal council, responded to the outdoor interests of increasing numbers of tourists by creating a lucrative Recreation Enterprise.

GOVERNMENT

The White Mountain Apache Tribal Council was established under the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934, adopting a constitution in August, 1938; which was amended in 1958 and 1993. The elected council includes a chairperson, a vice-chairperson, and nine members at large. Council members are elected from four districts and serve four-year terms.