50 Fun Facts About Apache

Apache leader Geronimo rode on horseback in which US president's 1905 inaugural parade?

Theodore Roosevelt had the old warrior ride down Pennsylvania Avenue beside five chiefs. Days later he refused Geronimo's plea to let the Chiricahua return to their homeland.

Which US Army troops adopted the name of Apache leader Geronimo as their battle cry in 1940?

Paratroopers at Fort Benning are said to have taken up the shout after a private watched a Western about Geronimo the night before a jump. It spread to anyone leaping from a height.

In 2011, US forces used the name of Apache leader Geronimo as a code word in the raid on whom?

Osama bin Laden was reported dead with the radio call "Geronimo EKIA", meaning enemy killed in action. Officials in the Situation Room later confirmed the code name.

The US Army's AH-64 Apache, named for the tribe in 1981, is which kind of military aircraft?

Attack helicopter names follow a US Army tradition of honoring Native American tribes. The Apache was developed to replace the AH-1 Cobra.

Apache is an Athabaskan language, closely related to the language of which larger Southwestern tribe?

Navajo and the Apache languages form the southern branch of the family. Most other Athabaskan languages are spoken far to the north, in Alaska and western Canada.

Which dome-shaped brush shelter was the usual home of the Chiricahua Apache and other highland bands?

Wickiup frames stood about eight feet tall, lashed together with yucca fiber and covered in brush. If a family member died, the home was burned.

By traditional Apache custom, a married man had to avoid speaking to or even seeing which relative?

His mother-in-law was off limits even though a husband moved in with his wife's family. Among the Chiricahua he could not be within sight of her.

Which food, eaten freely by most tribes, was taboo for many Apache across the Southwest?

Fish was shunned because it was thought to resemble a snake, an evil animal. Bears, turkeys, owls and coyotes were also off the menu for some Apache groups.

Geronimo's Apache birth name, Goyaałé, is usually translated as which unwarlike phrase?

The one who yawns grew up to outrun thousands of soldiers. The name Geronimo came later, from the Mexican troops he fought at close quarters.

After the 1886 surrender, the US Army shipped hundreds of Chiricahua Apache by train to forts in which state?

Florida's Fort Marion, an old Spanish stronghold, held most of them, a continent away from the desert. The Chiricahua stayed prisoners of war for nearly three decades.

The Spanish nickname of Apache chief Mangas Coloradas, an ally of Cochise, translates as which phrase?

Red Sleeves was a name given to him by Mexicans. His daughter Dos-teh-seh married Cochise, which made the two chiefs family as well as allies.

Which Apache woman warrior, sister of chief Victorio, was said to sense where enemies were moving?

Lozen rode and fought beside her brother, who called her his right hand. Legend says her powers let her learn the enemy's movements in battle.

Apache chief Cochise was buried in 1874 at a secret spot in which Arizona mountain range?

Dragoon Mountains granite hid his favorite camp, now called Cochise Stronghold. Only his band and his friend Tom Jeffords knew the grave, and they never revealed it.

Apache leader Geronimo made his final 1886 surrender to General Nelson Miles at which Arizona site?

Skeleton Canyon sits in Arizona's far southeastern corner. Geronimo's worn-out band came in there after months of pursuit that gave them no time to rest.

Apache leader Geronimo spent his last years, died in 1909 and was buried at which Oklahoma army post?

Fort Sill held him as a prisoner of war to the end. He was still allowed out, under Army guard, to appear at fairs and parades.

The Mescalero Apache take their name from which desert plant they roasted as a staple food?

Agave hearts, known as mescal, were baked in large underground ovens and dried in the sun. Spanish colonists named the tribe after the plant.

The name of the Jicarilla Apache comes from a Mexican Spanish word with which meaning?

Little basket referred to the small sealed baskets the tribe used as drinking cups. The Jicarilla are renowned for basketry, beadwork and pottery.

The Apache Sunrise Dance, among the most important ceremonies of the tribe, celebrates which milestone?

A girl's coming of age is marked over four days of dancing, running and prayer that test her endurance. She is painted with clay and pollen during the rites.

Masked Apache Crown Dancers, also known as Gaan dancers, embody which protective beings?

Mountain spirits are called on to protect the community from disease and enemies. Each team has five dancers, and one of them plays a clown.

Tiswin, the Apache beer whose banning helped drive Geronimo off the reservation in 1885, was brewed from which crop?

Corn kernels were soaked until they sprouted, then ground into a mash and fermented. South of the border the same drink is known as tesgüino.

Allan Houser, a Chiricahua Apache whose father was Geronimo's translator, became famous as what?

Sculptor Allan Houser also painted and illustrated children's books, including a biography of Geronimo. He later cast a bronze bust of the old leader too.

Which US general was known to the Apache he fought as Nantan Lupan, or Chief Grey Wolf?

George Crook caught up with Geronimo just over the border in March 1886, only for him to slip away again. Nelson Miles then replaced Crook in command.

Which weapon drove Cochise's warriors from the heights at the 1862 Battle of Apache Pass?

Howitzers gave the US Army one of its first chances to use artillery against Native fighters in the Southwest. Fort Bowie was then built to hold the pass and its spring.

Which Hollywood star played Tom Jeffords, friend of Apache chief Cochise, in the 1950 Western Broken Arrow?

James Stewart led a film adapted from the novel Blood Brother, about the real friendship between the two men. It earned three Academy Award nominations.

Which signalling device did General Nelson Miles post on mountaintops to hunt Geronimo's Apache band?

Heliograph stations flashed sunlight off mirrors to pass messages from peak to peak. Miles set up more than two dozen of them to coordinate 5,000 soldiers.

Around 1900, street gangs nicknamed "Les Apaches" after the Apache tribe terrorized which European capital?

Paris writers used the name to compare the gangs' savagery with the reputation Europeans attached to the tribe. The label later spread to street criminals in other countries.

The Incredible Bongo Band's 1973 cover of the tune "Apache" became a founding breakbeat of which genre?

Hip-hop pioneers such as DJ Kool Herc prized the record for its unusually long percussion break. The tune's composer wrote it after watching the 1954 Western film Apache.

Mount Graham, a peak sacred to the Western Apache, hosts a telescope run by which tiny European state?

Vatican City's observatory operates the telescope with the University of Arizona. Western Apache tribes, who count the peak among their four holiest, protested the building of it.

Oak Flat, an Arizona site sacred to the San Carlos Apache, sits above a huge deposit of which metal?

Copper lies 5,000 to 7,000 feet under Oak Flat. Plans to mine it led hundreds of Apache and their supporters to walk 45 miles to the site in protest.

The San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona is a leading world source of which green gemstone?

Peridot occurs as nodules in the volcanic rock of a mesa on the reservation. One of the reservation's communities is even named after the green gem.

Sunrise Park, which the White Mountain Apache Tribe owns and operates on its Arizona reservation, is what?

Ski resort slopes at Sunrise Park spread across three peaks. The tribe also runs the Hon-Dah casino on the same reservation.

Which animals hauled the belongings of the Plains Apache ancestors whom Coronado met in 1541?

Dogs pulled travois loaded with the family's poles and possessions. The Spanish described them as white with black spots and not much larger than water spaniels.

Cochise County, Arizona, named for the Apache chief, is home to which famous Wild West town?

Tombstone served as the county seat until 1929. The county was created in 1881, seven years after Cochise died, the same year as the famous gunfight.

Which Yale secret society has long been rumored to hold the stolen remains of Apache leader Geronimo?

Skull and Bones members posted to Oklahoma as Army volunteers in World War I were said to have robbed the grave. An Apache tribal chairman has called the story a hoax.

The Mescalero Apache and the Jicarilla Apache both have their reservations in which US state?

New Mexico holds both: the Mescalero in its south-central mountains and the Jicarilla on its northern edge, where the town of Dulce is their capital.

Geronimo was never an Apache chief; besides leading raids, he held which role among the Bedonkohe band?

Medicine man, or shaman, was his standing in the band. Fairgoers still paid to take a button from the coat of the famous Apache "chief".

Apache speakers call themselves Indé or Ndé, a word that carries which simple meaning?

The people, or simply person, is how speakers translate it. The label Apache came from outsiders, though the tribes now use that Spanish term for official business.

The Lipan Apache allied themselves in the 1830s with the Republic of Texas against which enemy tribe?

Comanche raiders were an enemy the Lipan and the young republic shared. Lipan warriors also served the Texans as scouts.

Apache leader Geronimo was thrown from his horse in February 1909 and died days later of which illness?

Pneumonia set in after he lay in the cold all night before a friend found him. On his deathbed he told his nephew he regretted ever surrendering.

The Plains Apache of Oklahoma have long been closely allied with which tribe of unrelated language?

Kiowa allies gave the group its other common name, the Kiowa Apache. In their allies' language the Plains Apache are known as Semat.

Which Spanish colonizer made the first known written record of the word Apache, in 1598?

Juan de Oñate used the term before he had met any Zuni, which is why the popular theory that the word comes from the Zuni language remains uncertain.

Apache leader Geronimo joined which Christian denomination in 1903, only to be expelled for gambling?

Dutch Reformed membership lasted just four years for the old warrior. In his memoir he said the church had helped him during his short time as a member.

At which city's 1904 World's Fair did Apache leader Geronimo sell his crafts under Army guard?

St. Louis hosted one of the two largest fairs he worked. An 1898 exposition in Omaha had already made him a celebrity, in demand at fairs for the rest of his life.

Apache warrior Massai escaped a prisoner transport in 1886 and did what, inspiring a 1954 film?

Massai walked 1,200 miles home with a companion after slipping off the eastbound prison train. Lancaster played him in the 1954 film Apache.

One popular story says Mexican soldiers gave Apache leader Geronimo his name by crying out to which saint?

Jerónimo is Spanish for St. Jerome, and the tale has soldiers appealing to him for help in battle. Historians dispute where the name really came from.

In the 1861 Bascom affair, Apache chief Cochise escaped arrest by an Army lieutenant in which dramatic way?

Cochise cut through a tent wall with his knife and ran while soldiers shot at him. Chiricahua descendants remember the incident as "Cut the Tent".

After Geronimo surrendered in 1886, the US Army also exiled which group that had helped it hunt him?

Its Apache scouts, loyal Chiricahua among them, were put on the same trains east as the men they had tracked and were held as prisoners of war for years.

The Apache instrument whose native name means "wood that sings" is a one- or two-stringed kind of what?

Fiddle makers start with a plant stalk, add a string of horsehair and play it with a bow rubbed with pine pitch.

Apache chief Juh, a close ally of Geronimo, often relied on him as a spokesman because of what?

A stutter made speaking hard for Juh, though he was a natural leader. Geronimo often acted as the conduit for his words, and some sources call the two cousins.

Which Last of the Mohicans actor played the Apache lead in 1993's Geronimo: An American Legend?

Wes Studi headed a cast that included Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall and Matt Damon in an early role.