Tonto Apache people

The Tonto Apache (Dilzhę́’é, also Dilzhe'e, Dilzhe’eh Apache) is one of the groups of Western Apache people. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language (a Southern Athabaskan language). The Chiricahua living to the south called them Ben-et-dine or binii?e'dine' (“brainless people”, “people without minds”, i.e. "wild", "crazy", "Those who you don’t understand").^[1] The neighboring Western Apache ethnonym for them was Koun'nde ("wild rough People"), from which the Spanish derived their use of Tonto ("loose", "foolish") for the group.

Grenville Goodwin in The Social Organization of the Western Apache (1942) divided the Tonto into two groups: the Northern Tonto and Southern Tonto. Many Western Apache reject such a classification. They prefer groupings based on bands and clans.

Ethnonym

The name Dilzhę́’é is a Western Apache name that may mean 'people with high-pitched voices', but the etymology is unclear.

The Dilzhe’e Apache refer to themselves (autonym) as Dilzhę́’é, as do the San Carlos Apache. The Western Apache from Bylas use the word Dilzhę́’é to refer to both the San Carlos and Tonto Apache groups. The White Mountain Apache use the term Dilzhę́’é to refer to the Bylas, San Carlos, and Tonto Apache.

The name Tonto is considered offensive by some, due to its etymology and meaning in Spanish, although that usage was derived from their learning the names by which neighboring groups referred to the Dilzhe’e. The name Tonto Apache has been widely used by most people outside the Western Apache communities. The term Tonto is encountered the more frequently in anthropology literature, especially older works, than Dilzhe’e.

History

The Tonto Apache lived alongside the Wipukepa (“People from the Foot of the Red Rock”) and Kewevkapaya, two of the four subgroups of the Yavapai of central and western Arizona. The Tonto Apache territory stretched from the San Francisco Peaks, East Verde River and Oak Creek Canyon along the Verde River into the Mazatzal Mountains and to the Salt River in the SW and the Tonto Basin in the SE, extending eastwards towards the Little Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona. The Dilzhę́’é Apache (Tonto Apache) lived usually east of the Verde River (Tu Cho n'lin - “big water running”, or Tu'cho nLi'i'i - “big water flowing”),^[2] and most of the Yavapai bands west of it. The Wipukepa tribal areas in the San Francisco Peaks, along the Upper Verde River, Oak Creek Canyon and Fossil Creek overlapped with those of the Northern Tonto Apache. Likewise the Kwevkepaya shared hunting and gathering grounds east of the Verde River, along Fossil Creek, East Verde River, Salt River and in the Superstition Mountains, Sierra Ancha and Pinaleno Mountains with Southern Tonto Apache and bands of the San Carlos Apache. Therefore they formed bilingual mixed-tribal bands,^[3] whose members could not be readily distinguished by outsiders (Americans, Mexicans or Spanish) except by their languages. The Apache spoke the Tonto dialect of the Western Apache language (Ndee biyati' / Nnee biyati') and the Yavapai spoke the Yavapai language, a branch of Upland Yuman. Living together in common rancherias, whether they considered themselves to be Apaches or Yavapais, depended on their “Mother tongue” as the origin of the matrilineal society, directed by the mother. The ethnic Europeans referred to the Yavapai and Apache together as Tonto or Tonto Apache. The peoples raided and warred together against enemy tribes such as the Tohono O'odham and the Akimel O'odham. Scholars cannot tell from records whether the writers of the time, when using the term Tonto Apache, were referring to Yavapai or Apache, or those mixed bands. In addition, the Europeans often referred to the Wipukepa and Kwevkepaya incorrectly as the Yavapai Apache or Yuma Apache. To further confusion, the Europeans referred to the Tolkepaya, the southwestern group of Yavapai, and the Hualapai (who belonged to the Upland Yuma Peoples) as Yuma Apache or Mohave Apache.

The Western Apache groups, adjacent Tonto Apache bands and Chiricahua bands lived in relative peace with each other. There were occasional mutual raids, especially against the southern bands of the Chiricahua. The close connection with the Yavapai may have helped inform the dialect Tonto Apache, which is most distinct from the other two Apache dialects.

The Tonto Apache competed more with the Navajo (in Apache Yúdahá - 'Live Far Up' - 'Those who live up north') and the Enemy Navajo (Nda Yutahá- 'Navajo White Man' or 'Navajo who live like white men'), and the peoples engaged more in open conflict. From their sheepraising, the Navajo were able to acquire more European goods in trade, such as blankets, foods, and various tools, which the Tonto lacked. In addition, "Enemy Navajo" often served as scouts against the Tonto Apache for the hostile tribes and Europeans. Sometimes the Apache exchanged the stolen cattle and horses they had acquired in raids for the prestigious Navajo blankets, while maintaining peace with the Diné.

Typically hunter-gatherers, the Tonto Apache hunted (antelope, deer, birds, bush rats, etc.) and collected (agave, berries, wild plants, seeds). The women also cultivated watermelons, pumpkins, corn, later grain, etc. When stocks were running low and the stored food supplies were depleted, it was common that a respected woman (so-called 'woman chief' or elder) brought public attention to the plight. The woman asked the leaders of the rancheria to go on raids against other Indians and European-Americans to raid to acquire what was needed. The Western Apache raided over an area from the ​Colorado River in western Arizona, to the Zuni (Nashtizhé- 'black-dyed eyebrows') and Hopi (Tseka kiné `- 'people who dwell in stone houses') in the north, to the later Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango in the far south.

Reservation life

Yavapai-Apache Nation Indian Reservation

Main article: Yavapai-Apache Nation Indian Reservation

After being relocated to the Camp Verde Reservation, on the Verde River near Camp Verde, the Yavapai and Tonto Apache began to construct irrigation systems (including a five-mile (8 km) long ditch).^[4] These functioned well enough for them to reap sufficient harvests, making the tribe relatively self-sufficient. But, contractors who worked with the United States government to supply the reservations were disappointed, and petitioned to have the reservation revoked. The government complied, and in March 1875, the government closed the reservation. They forced the residents to travel by foot in winter 180 miles (290 km) to the San Carlos Reservation. More than 100 Yavapai died during the winter trek.^[5]

By the early 1900s, the Yavapai were drifting away from the San Carlos Reservation. They requested permission to live on the grounds of the original Camp Verde Reservation. In 1910, the US government set aside 40 acres (161,874 m²) as the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, and in the following decade added 248 acres (1,003,620 m²) in two parcels, which became the Middle Verde Indian Reservation. These two reservations were combined in 1937, and the people formed the federally recognized Camp Verde Yavapai-Apache Nation.^[6]

Today, the reservation spans 665 acres (2.7 km²), in four separate locales.^[7] Tourism contributes greatly to the economy of the tribe. Their reservation has many significant historic sites which have been preserved, including the Montezuma Castle National Monument. The Yavapai-Apache Nation is the amalgamation of two historically distinct tribes, each of whom occupied the Upper Verde prior to European invasion. The Tonto Apache, calling themselves Dilzhe'e, utilized the lands to the north, east and south; while the Wipukepa or Northeastern Yavapai were using country to the north, the west and the south. They overlapped in the Upper Verded.^[8]

Fort McDowell Reservation

The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation is located within Maricopa County, Arizona, approximately 20 miles from Phoenix. The 40 square miles (100 km²) reservation was authorized by President Theodore Roosevelt from the former Fort McDowell in 1903.^[9] By 1910, the Office of Indian Affairs was trying to relocate its residents to open up the area for development and enable other interests to use its water rights. A delegation of Yavapai and Tonto Apache testified to a Congressional Committee against this action, and won.

Today, the tribal community consists of 900 members, 600 of whom live on the reservation. The Kwevikopaya or Southeastern Yavapai on Fort McDowell Reservation call themselves Abaja (″The People”). Some anthropologists and linguists believe that the name Apache for the various Southern Athabascan peoples derives from the autonym of the Yavapai. The population of Fort McDowell consists of two distinct American Indian peoples, the Kwevikopaya Yavapai and the Dilzhe'e Apache or Tonto Apache. Historically they have intermarried, formed mixed bilingual bands, and were allies against enemy tribes and white settlers.^[10]

Tonto Apache Reservation

The Tonto Apache Reservation, located south of Payson, Arizona, was created in 1972. Within the Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix, it consists of 85 acres (344,000 m²). With the smallest land base of any reservation in the state of Arizona, it serves about 100 tribal members of the 140 total; 110 are enrolled tribal members. The reservation is located adjacent to the town of Payson (originally named Te-go-suk (“Place of the Yellow Water”), in northwestern Gila County, approximately 95 miles northeast of Phoenix and 100 miles southeast of Flagstaff.

The Tonto Apache are the direct descendants of the Dilzhe'e Apache who lived in the Payson vicinity long before the advent of European Americans. During the first reservation era, they were moved to the large Rio Verde Reserve, near Camp Verde, which was established in 1871 for the Tonto and Wipukepa or Northeastern Yavapai. The Reserve was dissolved in 1875 and the peoples forced to relocate to the San Carlos Reservation. Some Tonto Apache gradually returned to Payson after 20 years of exile to find white settlers had taken much of their land. Today, legislation is pending to provide them with trust title to the land on which they reside. The majority of the Tonto Apache, however, had decided to return together with their Yavapai allies and relatives to the Camp Verde Reservation. They have formed the Yavapai-Apache Nation of today.

Western Apache Indian Reservations

Because of their forced relocation in 1875, today some Tonto Apache live in two reserves dominated by other Western Apache groups, the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and Fort Apache Indian Reservation.

Socio-political organization

Like the other Western Apache groups, the Tonto Apache were not centrally organized. The smallest social unit was the matrilocal and matrilineal family living in one wickiup (kowa or gowa); each wife lived with her children in a separate wickiup. Some kindred families lived together as an extended family (so-called gotah) in a rancheria together. Several gotah (extended families) formed local groups. Together, these claimed hunting and gathering areas. The highest organizational unit was the group or band, which are usually composed of several smaller local groups; it was organized mostly for military purposes and for common defense. (Band organization was strongest in Chiricahua society). The Tonto Apache were divided into the following bands:

Northern Tonto

• Bald Mountain band (Dasziné Dasdaayé Indee - ‘Porcupine Sitting Above People’)
• Fossil Creek band (Tú Dotłʼizh Indee - ‘Blue Water People’, formed bilingual mixed bands living together with the Matkitwawipa band of the Wipukepa-Yavapai)
• Mormon Lake band (Dotl`izhi Ha´it`Indee - ‘Turqoise Road Coming Up People’)
• Oak Creek band (Tsé Hichii Indee - ‘Horizontal Red Rock People’, formed bilingual mixed bands living together with the Wipukepa band of the Wipukepa-Yavapai)

Southern Tonto

• Mazatzal band (Tsé Nołtłʼizhn - ‘Rocks in a Line of Greenness People’, formed bilingual mixed bands living together with the Hakayopa and Hichapulvapa bands of the Wikedjasapa, a subgroup of the Kwevkepaya -Yavapai)
• Dil Zhęʼé semi-band (‘People with high-pitched voices’, first and most important semi-band under which name the other five remaining semi-bands were known)
• second semi-band
• third semi-band
• fourth semi-band
• fifth semi-band
• sixth semi-band

Chiefs of the Tonto Apache

• Delshay (Delshe, Delchea, Delacha - ‘Big Rump’, Kwevkepaya-Tonto Apache leader, about 200 band members, not to be confused with Wah-poo-eta, * about 1835; killed † 29. July 1874)
• Wah-poo-eta (Wapotehe - ‘Big Rump’, in Apache Delacha or Delshe, Kwevkepaya-Tonto-Apache leader, about 750 band members, mostly Kwevkepaya and some Southern Tonto of the Mazatzal band, lived in the southern Mazatzal Mountains, not to be confused with Delshay, *?; killed † 15. August 1869 by a band of 44 Maricopa and Akimel O'odham under the Maricopa war leader Juan Chivaria in Castle Creek Canyon)
• Chuntz (Chunz, Tonto Apache leader, killed † 25. July 1874)
• Chan-deisi (‘Broken Nose’, called by George Crook John Daisy, Tonto Apache leader)
• Cochinay (‘Yellow Thunder’, Tonto Apache leader, killed † 26. May 1874)
• Eschetlepan (Chalipun, Cha-Thle-Pah, Choltepun, called by the US Army Charlie Pan, Kwevkepaya-Tonto Apache leader, was himself a Southern Tonto of the Mazatzal band, his band consisted mostly of Wikedjasapa-Kwevkepaya, his Apache following belonged to the Mazatzal and four of the six semi-bands of the Southern Tonto)
• Ashcavotil (Ascavotil, in Apache Escavotil, Kwevkepaya-Pinaleno Apache leader, lived in the Pinaleno Mountains)
• Oshkolte (Hascalté, Has-Kay-Ah-Yol-Tel, Tonto Apache-Kwevkepaya leader, to his band belonged 70 warriors, 20 women and 20 children, made up mostly of Southern Tonto Apache and some Kwevkepaya, close ally of Ashcavotil and Wah-poo-eta, lived east of the Four Peaks in the Mazatzal Mountains towards the Salt River, killed † March 1873)
• Nanni-chaddi (Tonto Apache-Kwevkepaya leader, *?; killed † 28. December 1872 in the Battle of Salt River Canyon, also called Skeleton Cave Massacre, 130 troopers from the 5th Cavalry Regiment led by Captain William H. Brown and 30 Indian Scouts, killed 76 men, women and children, 15 more were dying, only 18 women and 6 children survived and were taken into captivity)
• Skiitlanoyah (Skitianoyah, in Yavapai Skitlavisyah, Kwevkepaya-Tonto Apache leader)
• Piyahgonte (Tonto Apache leader in the 1860s and 1870s)
• Natatotel (Natokel, Tonto Apache leader, killed † June 1873)
• Naqui-Naquis (Tonto Apache leader, killed † June 1873)
• Ba-coon (Bacon, also called Eskimo-tzin, Esqinosquin, Tonto Apache leader)

See also

Indigenous peoples of North America portal

• Western Apache
• Yavapai-Apache Nation
• Southern Athabaskan languages

References

1. ^ Etymology
2. ^ The Verde River: Jewel of the Southwest
3. ^ Timothy Braatz: Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples, 2003, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 978-0-8032-2242-7
4. ^ Pritzker, p. 104
5. ^ Salzmann, p. 59
6. ^ Braatz, p. 221
7. ^ "Official website of the Yavapai-Apache Nation". Archived from the original on December 9, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071209220954/http://www.yavapai-apache.org/home.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 
8. ^ Yavapai-Apache Nation, ITCA -
9. ^ Hoxie, p.457
10. ^ "Yavapai History". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928094035/http://www.ftmcdowell.org/History+&+Culture.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-01. 

Further reading

• Goodwin, Grenville. (1971). Western Apache Raiding and Warfare, Basso, Keith H. (Ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-8165-0297-8
• Donald E. Worcester: The Apaches - Eagles of the Southwest, University of Oklahoma Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8061-1495-9 (engl.)
• Nikolaus Baumhauer: Die Apachen: - Entstehung der Rivalität, Verlag für Amerikanistik, 1993, ISBN 3-924696-88-8
• James L. Haley (1981): Apaches: A History and Culture Portrait, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, ISBN 0-8061-2978-6
• Ian. W. Record (1971): Big Sycamore Stands Alone: The Western Apaches, Aravaipa, and the Struggle for Place, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, ISBN 978-0-8061-3972-2
• de Reuse, Willem J. (2006). A practical grammar of the San Carlos Apache language. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 51. LINCOM. ISBN 3-89586-861-2.
• Goodwin, Grenville. (1942). The Social Organization of the Western Apache. Goodwin, Janice T. (Ed.). The University of Chicago publications in anthropology: Ethnological series. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [reprinted 1969 by Tucson: University of Arizona Press].

External links

• Yavapai-Apache Nation website
• Yavapai-Apache Nation (Inter Tribal Council of Arizona)
• Mazatzal Hotel & Casino - Tonto Apache Tribe
• Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation website