University of Virginia Library

Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache Texts
Harry Hoijer
Originially published by University of Chicago Press, © 1938, All rights reserved.

Introduction and Acknowledgements

The Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache are two tribes, closely related in both language and culture, who formerly lived in adjacent areas of southern New Mexico and Arizona. The Chiricahua territory lay west of the Rio Grande, and the Chiricahua bands ranged through southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and the northern parts of Sonora and Chihuahua.

The Mescalero country was east of the Rio Grande and extended approximately from the Mexican border to the region south of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Mescalero are now living on the Mescalero Reservation in southern New Mexico which was set apart for them in 1878. The Chiricahua, after the surrender of Geronimo, were taken to a prison camp in Florida. After being shifted to similar camps in Alabama and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, they were released by the government in 1918 and given their choice of living in Oklahoma or on the Mescalero Reservation. The majority moved to New Mexico but a small group remained and were given land allotments near Apache, Oklahoma.

The Chiricahua and Mescalero, together with the Western Apache

, Navaho, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Kiowa-Apache, form the southern branch of the Athapaskan linguistic stock. Chiricahua and Mescalero differ very little; they are in fact, mutually intelligible. Their closest affiliates within the Southern Athapaskan family are Western Apache and Navaho. These four--which I have called the Western Group--may sharply be distinguished from the Jicarilla, Lipan, and Kiowa Apache which constitute the Eastern Group of the Southern Athapaskan stock.

Not a great deal of material has been published on the Southern Athapaskan languages. Navaho has been described in the grammars and dictionaries of the Franciscan Fathers

, and a volume of Navaho texts has been published by Goddard. Goddard has also collected texts from the San Carlos, White Mountain, and Jicarilla Apache. As far as I know, no linguistic data on Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache has ever been published.

The texts presented in this volume were collected in the summers of 1930 and 1931, and in the spring of 1934. My principal informants for the Chiricahua were Sam Kenoi and Duncan Belacho of Mescalero, New Mexico, and Lawrence Mithlo of Apache, Oklahoma. Texts 11 to 21, 24 to 30, and 32 to 34 were told by Sam Kenoi; 22, 23, 31, and 35 to 38 by Duncan Belacho; and 1 to 10, and 39 by Lawrence Mithlo. The song texts (nos. 40 to 46) were collected originally by Dr. Jules Henry from David Fatty, an old Chiricahua shaman. This material was later checked by Dr. M. E. Opler who also supplied additional material.

My principal informant for the Mescalero was Charles Smith from whom texts 1 to 5 were obtained. The rest of the Mescalero texts were told by Horace Torres (nos. 6 to 8), and Fred Pelman (no. 9).

The texts and translations have been printed in parallel columns--each paragraph of text adjacent to its translation and numbered the same. The translations have been made as close as is consistent with idiomatic English. Where it has been necessary to add words to the translation not specifically contained in the text, these have been placed within brackets. Words in parentheses are translations of forms in the text but not necessary to the English version.

The linguistic analysis of the texts (see Grammatical sketch and Linguistic Notes to the texts) has been made with two objectives in mind. The first purpose of these notes is to enable the reader to isolate the Apache words from their context and to associate them with their English counterparts. Secondly, I have attempted to provide a brief analysis of each form--dividing it into its constituent morphemes and indicating its function in the total context. To facilitate the latter purpose, I have included a brief sketch of Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache grammar in the introduction to the Linguistic notes to the Chiricahua Apache texts [in this electronic version, this appears as "Grammatical Sketch" on the title page, and in the header for any page with Apache language texts or linguistic notes---MEC]. Since a form is only analyzed completely on its first appearance in the text, the analytical notes will be found much more complete for the first few texts of each language.

Dr. M. E. Opler of Reed College, who prepared the ethnological notes, has worked for several years on the cultures of the Southern Athapaskan tribes. His notes to this volume are from his unpublished data on Chiricahua and Mescalero folklore and are intended to supply the ethnological background necessary to a thorough comprehension of the texts. Comparative materials on Southern Athapaskan folklore may be found in Dr. Opler's recent publication Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache

and in the publications of Goddard previously cited.

The funds for my first two field trips (in 1930 and 1931) were supplied by the Committee on Research in American Native Languages and I am indebted to that group for their support and cooperation. The Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago has supported the remainder of the work and has borne the cost of preparing and publishing the resultant data. My sincere thanks are due to Dr. Fay-Cooper Cole of the University of Chicago for his active furtherance of my researches.

Finally, I must express here my deep appreciation of the assistance given me by the many Apache who served as my informants and interpreters. I am especially grateful to Sam Kenoi and Dan Nicholas of the Chiricahua Apache, and to Charles Smith of the Mescalero for their patient and unremitting efforts in my behalf.

Notes to the Introduction