Apache Religion

 The Apache people believed that they existed because their god, Ussen, placed them on the earth. Their religion did not entirely answer their curiosity about why they exist; anthropologists believed that the Apache people spent most of their time on survival and battle preparations, and a minimum amount of it on religion and   customs(are.as.wvu.edu/ruvolo.htm). However, Apache people alive today say that it has always been an important ritual to celebrate the rites of passage in another person’s life: birth, entering womanhood/manhood, marriage and death. All rites of passage were celebrated through powwows and dances and lasted for four days(wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_Apache_believe_in). The most common rite of passage celebrated by Apache people was the Sunrise Dance, and it was meant for when girls entered womanhood at around the age of 13 or 14. During the Sunrise Dance, the Apache woman was dancing almost constantly to very precise choreography and almost 100 different songs throughout the four days. She was expected not to falter or stop as the Sunrise Dance was a test of her strength and endurance (greatdreams.com/apache/apache-tribe.htm). Since the Apaches weren’t quite sure about the meaning of their life, they expressed and celebrated themselves as much as possible.

 Apache people grew up knowing the creation story for their religion very well. There were at least two different versions of the story, and both are equally common and very similar. One version of the Apache people’s creation story was that in the beginning of the universe when nothing existed, a man came flying on a yellow and white disc. This man was Ussen (or sometimes spelled Ysen). He rubbed his eyes and looked into the eternal darkness, and he created light. Ussen wiped his sweaty forehead with his hands. The sweat that fell off of his hands became a girl. This girl was the first mother on earth and known as the girl with no parents. Ussen sang a song four times and was able to create more things. Four was a magic number.
Ussen created a boy and a sun god in addition to the girl with no parents. The four of them shook hands and Ussen rubbed his together, and their sweat became the earth. Earth was a round ball and as small as a bean. The gods took turns kicking it until it was as massive as it is now. Then the tarantula Ussen created it pulled on the earth from the four directions with white, black, blue and yellow cords, which is why those are the four sacred colours in Apache religion today. The gods found people on the earth with no faces, toes or fingers, and so they gave them faces, toes and fingers. The earth developed and was added to from then on by the gods. Today Apache people believe in Ussen, ga’ans, the mountain spirits, and Di-yin spirits who are the moon, sun and earth. All of the lesser spirits are believed to protect and provide for the people. When the earth was finished, Ussen left. Before he left, he gave the people fire (manataka.org/page87.html).

 The Apache religion did not include an afterlife. Again, anthropologists thought that Apache people were too busy surviving to have any specific beliefs. Europeans also said that Apache people had no death rituals either. In the Kiowa tribe, reaction to death was immediate. Close relatives and friends wailed loudly, tore their close and exposed themselves without shame. If some people were really sad, then they would shave their heads or even amputate a finger to show their mourning for that person. (http://www.jstor.org/pss/3628949)

 The Apaches had very strong beliefs about right and wrong. They even categorized the animals that lived in their environment under good or evil. For example, a coyote, owl or snake was considered evil because they harmed the people. A fish or buffalo was a good animal because they fed the people (ehow.com/about_456551_apache-beliefs.html). Of course, there were good and evil spirits. The ga’ans were protective spirits and were considered good because they provided for the people. Evil spirits did not have a name, although they were the supposed causes of famine, illness or death among tribes. The evil spirits were not believed to have been created by their god Ussen but said to have come from the blood of wicked, corrupted people. At powwows and formal ceremonies, Apache men were chosen to be devil-dancers. Devil-dancers danced and beat drums to scare away evil spirits, and were chosen because the people thought they were most faithful to Ussen (wiki.answers.com/Q/What_do_the_Apache_believe_in).

The Apache religion did not have a name in English, and according to any Apache person, the religion has not changed one bit over the centuries.

Artistic Expression

Dance was a large part of art in Apache culture. There were various dances for religious purposes where the people would pray to their gods for certain things and worship them, and there were other dances celebrating rites of passage. War dances were religious; they were meant to pray to the gods for blessings during the next upcoming battle. Spirit dances worshiped the spirits they believed in for all of their blessings. Gods and spirits they honored were Ussen, their creator, the ga'ans, protective mountain spirits, the sun god, and other lesser gods from the creation story and other myths.

The sunrise dance was one of the very important dances celebrating a girl's entrance to womanhood in the Apache people's culture. Most dances lasted for four days, because four was a magical and sacred number in their religion (more on the sunrise dance in my religion post). 

Stories and myths were another major part in Apache art. They were all sacred and were passed down from generation to generation. Many myths and stories were told to children by their grandparents so that they could learn from others' experiences, and the most important, ancient, and sacred myths were illustrated on pottery. These myths, like the creation story, were so well-known that the illustrations on the pottery would be all that was needed to tell the story. Pottery was both meant for every-day uses and religious purposes.

The basket women
wore on  their backs.

An example of a star design
artistically woven into the basket.

Apache women created baskets. Baskets were mainly used, like pottery, for every day causes. When Apache bands migrated and set up camp in another area, it was the Apache woman's job to wear a large basket on her back containing every crucial provision for her family such as clothing, food, tools and weapons. Other baskets that stored less important items and were kept in the house were woven with symbolic shapes on them and sacred colours.

The materials that were used for artistic purposes in Apache culture were only what they could find around them in the environment. Baskets were made of cedar, and turquoise was a main material in their jewelry. The paints they used were dyes made from flowers and other colorful plants.

The drum was the only main Apache instrument. It was made from dried and stretched animal skins, and played only during powwows and dances. Devil-dancers played drums to scare away evil spirits(more about devil-dancers in my religion post).

Since survival was one of the main obstacles in Apache culture, they did not have a lot of free time, so they cleverly worked art into the creation of their everyday belongings. Pots and baskets were crafted by women and girls for the family, so the artists did not profit from their work.

Sources

1. bigorrin.org/apache_kids.htm  

2. greatdreams.com/apache/apache-tribe.htm

3. ehow.com/about_4566318_apache-arts-crafts.html

Apache Kinship Patterns

Tribal Organization

The Apachean people were organized into seven tribes: the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipans, Mescalero, Plains Apache, Western Apache, and the Navajo. The Navajo were later on considered a separate tribe. The seven Apache tribes had no unity amongst themselves; all tribes were enemies.
A local group of Apache people was called a band. Bands consisted of several units of extended families occupying a certain territory. Apache families were organized as nuclear families, consisting of parents and children. Apache clans were matrilineal, meaning the women play vital roles in each family. When Apache men got married, they would move in with the wife's
family(http://www.aaanativearts.com/apache/apache_clans.htm).

Roles of Men and Women

Women in Apache families were responsible for many things modern women do today: cook, clean the house, taking care of children. But what was unique about Apache women was that they were also responsible for building the houses for the families, called wickiups (more on wickiups in my Apache Education post). When Apache tribes migrated to different areas, it would be the women's main role to build the houses. When the men in the tribe went away to hunt, the women were also responsible for guarding the camp with weapons such as bows and arrows or spears. All weapons were crafted by the men. Arrowheads were made and carved out of flint they found in the ground, and spears were made of sharpened stones tied to wooden poles. These were the traditional weapons the Apaches used in battle, and all of them were created from natural resources based on the primitive technology they had in those days. Mothers would also be the ones to teach religion customs to their children (http://www.bigorrin.org/apache_kids.htm).

The roles of the men in Apache families were much more vital than the women's. Men hunted and supplied the tribes with food. The animals that were hunted by the Apaches were mostly deer, but their lesser targets were rabbits, squirrels, opossums, horses if there were too many of them, wild cattle, buffalo and elk. The people's prey selection all depended on what kinds of animals were around their area at what time of year.
It was usually only the men who would go into battle, although it was rare for Apache women to become warriors. If they were short on soldiers during a war, then women would be recruited to fight as well. Men would fight with the same weapons they used to hunt: spears, bows and arrows, and also shields made of stretched buffalo hide. These shields were informal in did not have an official name. Apache tribes would almost always do a surprise attack on other towns and raid them for their livestock and corn. Apacheans believed it was more skillful to do a sneaky and quiet attack then an open attack, but they were considered cowards by other cultures (http://www.ehow.com/about_4571617_weapons-used-apache-indians.html).

Men would also be the political leaders among their tribes. In all known Apache history, there has never been a female leader.
It was a great opinion of the Apache culture that people would be self-governed, so political leaders were humble and behind-the-scenes. Advice was given to the people by their elder relatives.

Apache Education

The frame of a wickiup was
crafted by the men out of bent saplings.

In Apache culture, it was believed that children should be taught from experience and observation, so they received no formal education. Children were taught by their parents and grandparents. The things girls learned and boys learned differed and had to match the kids’ roles as future adults. The child’s responsibilities in the family started at about eight years old. Girls were taught by their mothers how to cook, sew, make baskets, gather food, firewood, carry water, tan deer hides and build wickiups (members.tripod.com/archaeology_man/education.html).

One example of a basic wickiup or wigwam.

Wickiups, or wigwams, were built by many different Native American cultures. They were domed rooms designed to withstand harsh weather. When wickiups were built, the male in the family was responsible for cutting down sapling trees and stretching or bending them to construct the frame of the houses, while the women gathered twigs, leaves and grass to insulate the walls of the wickiups (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wigwam).

In Apache families, boys were taught how to hunt and raid towns, catch horses, and were well trained for battle. The fathers would craft bows and arrows for their sons and show them how to use them. Boys would listen to stories from their fathers or grandfathers about their hunting and battle experiences. Once a boy turned sixteen, he was expected to be a skillful hunter. The boy’s manhood test was to go with the rest of the men in the tribe and raid four towns. If all four raids were successful, the boy was considered a man. While the men were gone, the women would guard the camp. Both genders of children were trained for battle, although female warriors were rare (members.tripod.com/archaeology_man/family.html).
The mothers of a family would teach both boys and girls about ancient legends like the creations story, religious practices, and how to pray. If a child was rude or disobeyed their elders, they would have cold water splashed on their face or they would be ignored for a short period of time.

In the early 1900’s, Apache children were taken away from their families and forced to attend special boarding schools for Native Americans only where they would be taught English and Roman Catholicism. By the 1960’s, very few Apacheans graduated from high school still, and there are lots of Apache children who still stay home to be taught informally today, though the government vigorously encourages parents to send their kids to real schools (ehow.com/about_4569539_apache-tribe-education.html).