Ethnological Notes
Morris Opler
[_]
Ethnological Note 1
These "foolish people" are said by the Chiricahua and
Mescalero Apache to have been an actual group, formerly living near or in
Mescalero territory and speaking an Apache language. Two persons now living on
the Mescalero Apache Reservation are pointed out as the last living descendants
of members of this group. It is barely possible that some small Mescalero family
or local group whose members were not considered over-bright and which has since
been decimated and scattered, has been made the butt of these stories. The
stories themselves are purely traditional, however, and are now used to rebuke
the stupid, to train the young [by teaching them what not to do], to furnish a
socially controlled outlet for pent up sexual interest and repression [most of
the episodes of this type do not appear in these texts], and to serve as good
stories for the long winter evenings. Other Apache tribes tell almost identical
stories.
