# Plains Apache

The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan tribe who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are headquartered in Southwestern Oklahoma and are federally recognized as the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. They mostly live in Comanche and Caddo County, Oklahoma.

## Name

Their autonym is Ná'ishą, or "takers" based on their skill at stealing horses, or Naishadena, meaning "our people." This is also written Na-i-shan Dine.
They were also called Káłt'inde or γát dìndé meaning "cedar people" or Bek'áhe meaning "whetstone people".
The Plains Apache are also known as the Kiowa Apache. To their Kiowa allies, who speak an unrelated language, the Plains Apache are known as Semat. At major historical tribal events, the Plains Apache formed part of the Kiowa tribal "hoop" (ring of tipis). This may explain why the Kiowa named the Plains Apache Taugui meaning "sitting outside".

## Government

Today the tribe is headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area covers parts of Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Greer, Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman and Harmon Counties in Oklahoma.
In 2011, the tribe had 2,263 total members, of whom 1,814 lived in-state. Tribal membership is based on 1/8 blood quantum, meaning a person must be able to prove they have at least 1/8 Native American ancestry to be considered eligible for tribal enrollment.
As of 2024, the Tribe Chairman is Durell Cooper, supported by Vice Chairman Matt Tselee, Secretary/Treasurer Ruth Bert and committee members Donald Komardley and Dustin Cozard. In addition to the Apache Business Committee outlined above, the tribe also operates the following tribal departments:
* AOA (Administration on Aging)
** Director: Billy Harris
* Housing Authority of the Apache Tribe
** Director: Ronald Twohatchet
* Child Welfare
* EPA (Environmental Program)
** Director: Wamblee Smith
* Finance
** Director: Wendy Whiteshield
* Food Distribution
** Director: Jennifer Boynton
* Human Resources
** Director: Tamara Paukei
* Procurement Director:
** Joann Belgarde
* Social Services
** Supervisory Social Worker: Sallie Allen
* Tax Commission Tax Clerk: Sandy Jay
* Vocational Rehab
** Director: Tanner Mahseet
* CHR (Community Health Rep)
** Director: Antionette Short
* (Violence Against Indian Women)
* Apache Tribal Enrollment
** Director: Lisa Bower VAIW

## Economic Development

The Apache Tribe of Oklahoma owns and operates the Apache Golden Eagle Casino in Apache, Oklahoma. The Golden Eagle Casino was previously closed in 2013 due to a tribal dispute, along with the Silver Buffalo Casino in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Only the Golden Eagle Casino reopened once the dispute was settled. The casino is under the jurisdiction of the Apache Gaming Commission, headed by Gaming Commissioner Ryan Adudell. There is also a smokeshop and a gas station on the reservation.
The tribe issues their own tribal license plates through the Tax Commission.

## History

Their oral history states that the Plains Apache broke away from the Tsuutʼina, an Athabascan people who moved onto the Great Plains in Alberta, Canada. They migrated south, where the Lakota gave them territory south of the Black Hills in what became South Dakota and Wyoming.
The Apache are associated with the Dismal River culture (ca. 1650–1750) of the western Plains, generally attributed to the Paloma and Cuartelejo Apaches. Jicarilla Apache pottery has also been found in some of the Dismal River complex sites. Some of the people from the Dismal River culture joined the Plains Apache in the Black Hills.

### 18th century

Due to pressure from the Comanche from the west and Pawnee and French from the east, the Kiowa and remaining people of Dismal River culture migrated south where they later joined the Lipan Apache and Jicarilla Apache nations.
In the early 18th century, the Plains Apache lived around the upper Missouri River and maintained close connections to the Kiowa. They were ethnically different and spoke different languages. They communicated with their allies using the sophisticated Plains Indian Sign Language.
The Plains Apache continued migrating south along the eastern Rocky Mountains and hunting bison. They allied with the Pawnee, Arapaho, and Kiowa.
Even before contact with Europeans, their numbers were never large, and their 1780 population was estimated at 400.

### 19th century

The Plains Apache and Kiowa had migrated into the Southern Plains sometime around 1800. The Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 established an Indian Reservation for the Kiowa, Plains Apache, and Comanche in Western Oklahoma. They were forced to move south of the Washita River to the Red River and Western Oklahoma with the Comanche and the Kiowa. The 1890 Census showed 1,598 Comanche at the Fort Sill reservation, which they shared with 1,140 Kiowa and 326 Plains Apache.
Some groups of Plains Apache refused to settle on reservations and were involved in Kiowa and Comanche uprisings, most notably the First Battle of Adobe Walls which was the largest battle of the Indian Wars. It would be the last battle in which the Natives repelled the U.S. Army in the Southern Plains.
The Kiowa-Comanche-Apache (KCA) Reservation was broken up into individual allotments under the 1889 Springer Amendment to the Indian Appropriations Act.

### 20th century

The so-called "surplus" lands of the KCA Reservation were opened up to white settlement in 1901. The U.S. federal government took more KCA lands in 1906. Despite tribal opposition to the land sessions, the U.S. courts upheld allotment. Most Plains Apache families chose land north of the Wichita Mountains.
In 1966, the tribe organized a business committee and regained federal recognition. In 1972, the Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache legally separated.

## Social organization

The Plains Apache social organization is split into numerous extended families (kustcrae), who camped together (for hunting and gathering) as local groups (gonka). The next level was the division or band, a grouping of several gonkas (who would come together, for mutual protection, especially in times of war).
In pre-reservation times there were at least four local groups or gonkas who frequently joined together for warring neighboring tribes and settlements.
Historically, the tribe was led by an elder council, chiefs, medicine men, and warriors. Women controlled and maintained family belongings, including tipis. Skilled artists joined women's societies.

## Language

The Plains Apache language is a member of the Southern Athabaskan language family, a division of the Na-Dene languages. The Plains Apache language, also referred to as Plains Apache, was the most divergent member of the subfamily. While three people spoke the language in 2006, the last fluent speaker died in 2008.

## Historical chiefs

* Gonkon (Gonkan – "Stays in Tipi" or "Defends His Tipi", also known as "Apache John"). A shortened form of his full name Gon-kon-chey-has-tay-yah (Man Over His Camp).
* Tsayaditl-ti (Ta-Ka-I-Tai-Di or Da-Kana-Dit-Ta-I – "White Man", ca. *1830 – ca. †1900)
* Koon-Ka-Zachey (Kootz-Zah). A shortened form of his full name Gon-kon-chey-has-tay-yah (Man Over His Camp).
* Essa-queta (better known as Pacer or Peso, derived from Pay-Sus, ca. *unknown – † 1875, Pacer was the leader of the Kiowa Apache tribe. Actually, Pacer was part of the peace faction and kept the main group of Plains Apaches on the reservation during the Red River War of 1874–75)
* Si-tah-le ("Poor Wolf")
* Oh-ah-te-kah ("Poor Bear")
* Ah-zaah ("Prairie Wolf")

## Notable tribal members

* Vanessa Jennings, Plains Apache/Kiowa/Pima beadwork artist and regalia-maker