Total population |
---|
3,300[1] |
Regions with significant populations |
United States ( New Mexico) |
Languages |
Religion |
Christianity,[2] traditional tribal religion, Native American Church |
Related ethnic groups |
Southern Athabaskan peoples |
Jicarilla Apache refers to an Apache people currently living in New Mexico and speak a Southern Athabaskan language. The term jicarilla comes from Mexican Spanish meaning "little basket." Their autonym is Ndee or Dine'é, meaning "the People."[3] To neighboring Apache bands like the Mescalero and Lipan they were known as Kinya-Inde ("People who live in fixed houses"). They are enrolled in the Jicarilla Apache Nation.
Contents |
Geography
The Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, at 36°33′16″N 107°04′26″W / 36.55444°N 107.07389°W, is located within two northern New Mexico counties:
The reservation has a land area of 1,364.046 sq mi (3,532.864 km²) and had a population of 2,755 as of the 2000 census.[4] Its capital is Dulce, which comprises over 95 percent of the reservation's population, near the extreme north end. Most tribal offices are located in Dulce.
The tribe owns the Apache Nugget Casino, located on the reservation, north of Cuba, New Mexico and the Best Western Jicarilla Inn and Casino, located in Dulce.[5]
Before the coming of the Comanche the Jicarillas occupied the mountainous region of southern Colorado and northeast New Mexico, their territory ranged out into the plains of western Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and southeastern Nebraska. The Jicarillas were Semi-nomads, practicing seasonal agriculture along the rivers that flow through their territory. Beside agriculture they hunted antelopes, deer and buffaloes on the plains. When the Comanche with their close allies and kin, the Ute, were pushing out onto the plains, they were pillaging the various eastern Apache peoples (Jicarilla, Mescalero and Lipan) occopying the southern plains for control. 1724 several Apache bands were annihilated and the Jicarillas were forced to seek a refuge into the Raton Mountains and nearby regions of New Mexico and Colorado. There they looked for alliance with the Puebloan peoples, the former enemy Ute and the Spanish settlers. From this time on their territory were bounded by their four sacred Rivers: the Arkansas River, the Canadian River, the Rio Grande, and the Pecos River.[6]
Culture
The Jicarilla are traditionally matrilocal and are organized into matrilineal clans. They have incorporated some practices of their Pueblo neighbors into their own traditions. They are renowned for their fine basket making. They are known for their beadwork and keeping Apache fiddle-making alive.[7]
After being pushed out of the plains the Jicarilla were politically split into two large groupings:
- Ollero (span: ‘Potters’, autonym: Sai T`inde - ‘Sand People/Mountain People’, hence Spanish rendering as Hoyeros - ‘mountain-valley People’), who sought refuge in the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, settled down as farmers, became potters and lived partly in Pueblolike villages (6 local groups).
- Llanero (span: ‘Plains People’, Spanish rendering of the autonym Kolkhahin/Gulgahén), who still lived on the plains of New Mexico, Colorado and Texas as Nomads in Tipis (called kozhan by the Jicarilla) pursuing the American Bison (8 local groups).
The Ollero were planting along the Rivers, especially along the upper Arkansas River and its tributaries, a variety of crops, sometimes using irrigation to aid in growing squash, beans, pumpkins, cantaloupes, peas, wheat, tobacco, and maize. Corn, the most important crop, was stacked in rows and dried, and then a sufficient supply for winter food and spring seed corn was buried before the Jicarillas set out for the plains to hunt buffalo and other plains animals[citation needed].
The Jicarilla Band of Apache are the single band that refused to cooperate with the United States military in trying to locate Geronimo[citation needed].
The tribe owns and operates radio station KCIE (90.5 FM) in Dulce, NM[citation needed].
History
The Jicarilla Apaches are one of the six Athapascan groups that migrated out of Canada, between 1300 to 1500 CE. During that time, their traditional homelands spanned across New Mexico, southern Colorado and western Oklahoma.
Due to increase in other populations, Manifest Destiny, and Indian Wars, the Apaches' traditional cultural and economic lifeways became strained. Many had died due to famine, Indian Wars, including the Battle of Cieneguilla and new diseases for which they had no resistance. During their declining nomadic history, the Jicarilla Apaches started settling the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico.
During this time, the Jicarilla Apaches began subsidizing their livelihood through sales of micaceous clay pottery and basketry. They also learned farming from their Pueblo neighbors. Eventually, United State President Grover Cleveland created the Jicarilla Apache Reservation through a United States executive order signed on February 11, 1887.
In 1982, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 455 U.S. 130 (1982) that the tribe had the authority to impose severance taxes on oil companies that were drilling for oil and natural gas on reservation land.
Notable Jicarilla
- Tammie Allen, (born 1964), potter
- Flechas Rayada, 19th century chief
See also
- Jicarilla language
- Battle of Cieneguilla
- Dulce Base
- KCIE (FM)
- List of Indian reservations in the United States
- Mescalero
- Morris Edward Opler, ethnographer who wrote about the Jicarilla
Notes
- ^ "Historic Jicarilla Apache Land." Jicarilla Apache Nation. (retrieved 23 Dec 2009)
- ^ Pritzker, 15
- ^ Pritzker, 12
- ^ Jicarilla Reservation, New Mexico. United States Census Bureau.
- ^ "New Mexico Indian Casinos." 500 Nations. (retrieved 23 Dec 2009)
- ^ Spanish Relations with the Apache Nations east of the Rio Grande, Jeffrey D. Carlisle, B.S., M.A., University of North Texas, May 2001, page 5
- ^ Pritzker, 14
References
- Pritzker, Barry M. A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0195138771.
External links
- Jicarilla Apache Nation website
- Jicarilla Apache Culture (Jicarilla Apache Cultural Affairs Office)
- Jicarilla Apache Tribe (New Mexico's Blue Book On-Line)
- Jicarilla Apache: Tinde
- Myths of the Jicarilla Apache (University of Virginia Electronic Text Center)
- The Jicarilla Genesis (University of Virginia Electronic Text Center)
- An Apache Medicine Dance (University of Virginia Electronic Text Center)
- Jicarilla Texts (Internet Sacred Text Archive)
- Jicarilla Apache Nation (New Mexico Magazine)
- Jicarilla Apache Nation History (Apache Nugget Corporation)
- Early Jicarilla Apache Nation Photos (Apache Nugget Corporation)
- Jicarilla Apache Pottery/Walking Spirit Pottery (Sample of Micaceous Clay Pottery)
- Jicarilla Apache Oil and Gas Administration (Jicarilla Natural Resources)
- Jicarilla Apache Game and Fish (Jicarilla Hunting and Wildlife)
Bibliography
- Goddard, Pliny E. (1911). Jicarilla Apache texts. Anthropological papers of the American Museum of Natural History (Vol. 8). New York: The American Museum of Natural History.
- Opler, Morris. (1941). A Jicarilla expedition and scalp dance. (Narrated by Alasco Tisnado).
- Opler, Morris. (1942). Myths and tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians.
- Opler, Morris. (1947). Mythology and folk belief in the maintenance of Jicarilla Apache tribal endogamy.
- Phone, Wilma; & Torivio, Patricia. (1981). Jicarilla mizaa medaóołkai dáłáéé. Albuquerque: Native American Materials Development Center.
- Phone, Wilhelmina; Olson, Maureen; & Martinez, Matilda. (2007). Dictionary of Jicarilla Apache: Abáachi Mizaa Iłkee' Siijai. Axelrod, Melissa; Gómez de García, Jule; Lachler, Jordan; & Burke, Sean M. (Eds.). UNM Press. ISBN 0826340784
- Tuttle, Siri G.; & Sandoval, Merton. (2002). Jicarilla Apache. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 32, 105-112.
- Wilson, Alan, & Vigil Martine, Rita. (1996). Apache (Jicarilla). Guilford, CT: Audio-Forum. ISBN 0-88432-903-8. (Includes book and cassette recording).