Fort Sill Apache Tribe
Encyclopedia
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is the federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache in Oklahoma
.
Apache
. The Apache are southern Athabaskan-speaking peoples who migrated many centuries ago from the subarctic to the southwestern region of what would become United States. The Chiricahua settled in southeastern Arizona
, southwestern New Mexico
of the present-day United States, and northern Sonora
, and northern Chihuahua of present-day Mexico. By the late 19th century, the Chiricahua Apache territory encompassed an estimated 15 millions acres.
In 1886 to break up the Apache Wars
and resistance to European-American settlement, the US federal government took the Chiricahua into custody as prisoners of war and seized their land. The Army forcibly removed 400 members of the tribe from the Fort Apache and San Carlos Reservations in present-day Arizona and transported them to U.S. Army installations in Alabama
and Florida
. Some warriors were held at Fort in Florida. Their ledger drawings are held in a collection by the Smithsonian Institution
.
In 1894, the US Congress passed a special provision to allow the Chiricahua to be relocated to Indian Territory
. They were the last Indian tribe to be relocated into what is now Oklahoma
. When the Chiricahua arrived at Fort Sill
, they had been promised the lands surrounding the fort as theirs to settle. Local non-Indians resisted Apache settlement, and the tribe was pressured to leave. Many wanted to return to their traditional lands in the Southwest, and the Mescalero Apache offered them land on their reservation.
A third of the Chiricahua stayed in Indian Territory, demanding that the US fulfill its promise to give them the Fort Sill lands. As a compromise, the government gave the remaining Chiricahua land which it had classified as surplus after allotment of tribal lands to individual households under the Dawes Act
, on the nearby Kiowa
-Comanche
-Apache
Reservation. In 1914, the US government finally released 84 individuals from prisoner status and granted them household allotment lands around Fletcher
and Apache, Oklahoma
.
The Fort Sill Apache struggled for survival in the ensuing years in the economically depressed areas of southwestern Oklahoma. The tribe seized the opportunity afforded by Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act
of 1936. Persevering through the difficulty of satisfying documentation requirements for tribal continuity, they were recognized by the federal government (Department of Interior) as a tribe in 1976.
The first chairperson, elected in 1976, was Mildred Cleghorn
, one of the last Chiricahua Apache born under "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural leader among the elders. She served as tribal chairperson until 1995 and focused on sustaining history and traditional Chiricahua culture.
Allan Houser
was the first Fort Sill Apache child to be born free. He became one of the most celebrated Native American sculptors of the 20th century. His sons, Bob Haozous
and Philip Haozous, are successful sculptors today and are both enrolled members of the tribe.
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is headquartered in Apache, Oklahoma
. Tribal member enrollment, which requires a 1/16 minimum blood quantum (equivalent to one great-great-grandparent), stands at 640. The tribe continues to maintain close connections to the Chiricahua Apache who moved to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in the late nineteenth century.
Jeff Houser is the elected tribal chairman; the position has a two-year term, as do the elected tribal council positions. The tribal jurisdictional area, as opposed to a reservation, spans Caddo, Comanche, and Grady counties in Oklahoma, as it includes some trust lands outside the reservation. The tribe operates its own housing program, Fort Sill Apache Industries, and the Fort Sill Apache Casino in Lawton
. The tribe's 2008 economic impact was $10 million.
Working with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2007 the Fort Sill Tribe began to set up an environmental protection office: to abate illegal dumping, encourage recycling
, train certified water operators, and to educate the public about environmental issues.
A private landholder returned four acres of sacred land in Cochise County, Arizona
to the tribe, and it is included in their trust lands.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
History
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is composed of ChiricahuaChiricahua
Chiricahua are a group of Apache Native Americans who live in the Southwest United States. At the time of European encounter, they were living in 15 million acres of territory in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico...
Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
. The Apache are southern Athabaskan-speaking peoples who migrated many centuries ago from the subarctic to the southwestern region of what would become United States. The Chiricahua settled in southeastern Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, southwestern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
of the present-day United States, and northern Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
, and northern Chihuahua of present-day Mexico. By the late 19th century, the Chiricahua Apache territory encompassed an estimated 15 millions acres.
In 1886 to break up the Apache Wars
Apache Wars
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States and Apaches fought in the Southwest from 1849 to 1886, though other minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s, for instance in Texas, before being...
and resistance to European-American settlement, the US federal government took the Chiricahua into custody as prisoners of war and seized their land. The Army forcibly removed 400 members of the tribe from the Fort Apache and San Carlos Reservations in present-day Arizona and transported them to U.S. Army installations in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Some warriors were held at Fort in Florida. Their ledger drawings are held in a collection by the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
.
In 1894, the US Congress passed a special provision to allow the Chiricahua to be relocated to Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
. They were the last Indian tribe to be relocated into what is now Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. When the Chiricahua arrived at Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
, they had been promised the lands surrounding the fort as theirs to settle. Local non-Indians resisted Apache settlement, and the tribe was pressured to leave. Many wanted to return to their traditional lands in the Southwest, and the Mescalero Apache offered them land on their reservation.
A third of the Chiricahua stayed in Indian Territory, demanding that the US fulfill its promise to give them the Fort Sill lands. As a compromise, the government gave the remaining Chiricahua land which it had classified as surplus after allotment of tribal lands to individual households under the Dawes Act
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act, adopted by Congress in 1887, authorized the President of the United States to survey Indian tribal land and divide the land into allotments for individual Indians. The Act was named for its sponsor, Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts. The Dawes Act was amended in 1891 and again...
, on the nearby Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
-Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
-Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
Reservation. In 1914, the US government finally released 84 individuals from prisoner status and granted them household allotment lands around Fletcher
Fletcher, Oklahoma
Fletcher is a town in Comanche County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,177 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Lawton, Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Fletcher is located at ....
and Apache, Oklahoma
Apache, Oklahoma
Apache is a town in Caddo County, Oklahoma, USA. The population was 1,616 at the 2000 census.- Geography :Apache is located at ....
.
The Fort Sill Apache struggled for survival in the ensuing years in the economically depressed areas of southwestern Oklahoma. The tribe seized the opportunity afforded by Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act
Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act
The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936, also known as the Thomas-Rogers Act, is a United States federal law that extended the US Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. It sought to return some form of tribal government to the many tribes in former Indian Territory...
of 1936. Persevering through the difficulty of satisfying documentation requirements for tribal continuity, they were recognized by the federal government (Department of Interior) as a tribe in 1976.
The first chairperson, elected in 1976, was Mildred Cleghorn
Mildred Cleghorn
Mildred Cleghorn was first chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.Mildred Imoch Cleghorn, whose Apache names were Eh-Ohn and Lay-a-Bet, was one of the last Chiricahua Apaches born under a "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural...
, one of the last Chiricahua Apache born under "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural leader among the elders. She served as tribal chairperson until 1995 and focused on sustaining history and traditional Chiricahua culture.
Allan Houser
Allan Houser
Allan Capron Houser or Haozous a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century....
was the first Fort Sill Apache child to be born free. He became one of the most celebrated Native American sculptors of the 20th century. His sons, Bob Haozous
Bob Haozous
Bob Haozous is a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is enrolled in the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.-Background:Bob Haozous was born on 1 April 1943 in Los Angeles, California. His parents are Anna Marie Gallegos, a Diné-Mestiza textile artist, and the late Allan Houser , a famous...
and Philip Haozous, are successful sculptors today and are both enrolled members of the tribe.
Today
Apache, Oklahoma
Apache is a town in Caddo County, Oklahoma, USA. The population was 1,616 at the 2000 census.- Geography :Apache is located at ....
. Tribal member enrollment, which requires a 1/16 minimum blood quantum (equivalent to one great-great-grandparent), stands at 640. The tribe continues to maintain close connections to the Chiricahua Apache who moved to the Mescalero Apache Reservation in the late nineteenth century.
Jeff Houser is the elected tribal chairman; the position has a two-year term, as do the elected tribal council positions. The tribal jurisdictional area, as opposed to a reservation, spans Caddo, Comanche, and Grady counties in Oklahoma, as it includes some trust lands outside the reservation. The tribe operates its own housing program, Fort Sill Apache Industries, and the Fort Sill Apache Casino in Lawton
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. The tribe's 2008 economic impact was $10 million.
Working with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2007 the Fort Sill Tribe began to set up an environmental protection office: to abate illegal dumping, encourage recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
, train certified water operators, and to educate the public about environmental issues.
A private landholder returned four acres of sacred land in Cochise County, Arizona
Cochise County, Arizona
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*78.5% White*4.2% Black*1.2% Native American*1.9% Asian*0.3% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*4.0% Two or more races*9.6% Other races*32.4% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
to the tribe, and it is included in their trust lands.
Notable tribal members
- Mildred CleghornMildred CleghornMildred Cleghorn was first chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.Mildred Imoch Cleghorn, whose Apache names were Eh-Ohn and Lay-a-Bet, was one of the last Chiricahua Apaches born under a "prisoner of war" status. She was an educator and traditional doll maker, and was regarded as a cultural...
(1910–1997), first chairperson of the tribe, and one of the first women elected as tribal chairperson in the United States - Bob HaozousBob HaozousBob Haozous is a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is enrolled in the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.-Background:Bob Haozous was born on 1 April 1943 in Los Angeles, California. His parents are Anna Marie Gallegos, a Diné-Mestiza textile artist, and the late Allan Houser , a famous...
(b. 1943), post-modern sculptor - Allan HouserAllan HouserAllan Capron Houser or Haozous a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Oklahoma. He was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century....
(1914–1994), Modernist sculptor and painter
External links
- Website of the Fort Apache Tribe
- "Constitution and By-Laws", Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma