"First-class . . . in the best ethnographic tradition. It fills a great gap in our anthropological knowledge and . . . deserves to be one of the most used of American tribal records."-Ruth Benedict, author of Patterns of Culture. Originally published in 1941, An Apache Life-Way remains one of the most important and innovative studies of southwestern Native Americans, drawing upon a rich and invaluable body of data gathered by the ethnographer Morris Edward Opler during the 1930s. Blending the analysis of individual Apache lives with the analysis of their culture, this landmark study tells of the ceremonies, religious beliefs, social life, and economy of the Chiricahua Apache. Opler traces, in fascinating detail, how a person "becomes an Apache, " beginning with conception, moving through puberty rites, marriage, and the various religious, domestic, and military duties and experiences of adulthood, and concluding with the rites and beliefs surrounding death. Morris Edward Opler is Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Charles R. Kaut is Associate Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Virginia.

Originally published in 1941, An Apache Life-Way remains one of the most important and innovative studies of southwestern Native Americans, drawing upon a rich and invaluable body of data gathered by the ethnographer Morris Edward Opler during the 1930s. Blending the analysis of individual Apache lives with the analysis of their culture, this landmark study tells of the ceremonies, religious beliefs, social life, and economy of the Chiricahua Apache. Opler traces, in fascinating detail, how a person “becomes an Apache,” beginning with conception, moving through puberty rites, marriage, and the various religious, domestic, and military duties and experiences of adulthood, and concluding with the rites and beliefs surrounding death.

In 1933, famed anthropologist Morris Opler met a Mescalero Apache he called Chris and worked with him to record the man's life story, from the bloody Apache Wars into the reservation years of the mid-twentieth century. Chris's vivid recollections are enriched at strategic moments with crucial background information on Apache history and culture, supplied by Opler. Chris was born around 1880, the son of a Chiricahua man and a Mescalero woman. At the age of six, he and his family and other Chiricahua Apaches became prisoners of war and were relocated by the U.S. government to Florida and Alabama. Eventually settling on the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico, Chris grew up expecting to become a shaman like his parents. Although Chris apprenticed as a shaman, his confidence in his healing ability waned after he was forced at the age of seventeen to attend federal government schools. Nonetheless, his interest in Mescalero religion, healing, and other traditional customs and beliefs remained, and that intimate knowledge of his people's world underscores and deepens the story of his own life.

“We are dealing here with a living literature,” wrote Morris Edward Opler in his preface to Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. First published in 1942, this is another classic study by the author of Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians. Opler conducted field work among the Chiricahuas in the American Southwest, as he had earlier among the Jicarillas. The result is a definitive collection of their myths. They range from an account of the world destroyed by water to descriptions of puberty rites and wonderful contests. The exploits of culture heroes involve the slaying of monsters and the assistance of Coyote. A large part of the book is devoted to the irrepressible Coyote, whose antics make cautionary tales for the young, tales that also allow harmless expression of the taboo. Other striking stories present supernatural beings and “foolish people.”

Text, illustrations and photographs present a history of the Apache Indians.

Lipan Apache are Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) Native Americans whose traditional territory included present-day Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, prior to the 17th century. Present-day Lipan live mostly throughout the U.S. Southwest, in Texas, New Mexico, and the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona, as well as with the Mescalero tribe on the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico; some currently live in urban and rural areas throughout North America (Mexico, United States, and Canada). “The myths and tales of this volume are of particular significance, perhaps, because they have reference to a tribe about which there is almost no published ethnographic material. The Lipan Apache were scattered and all but annihilated on the eve of the Southwestern reservation period. The survivors found refuge with other groups, and, except for a brief notice by Gatshet, they have been overlooked or neglected while investigations of numerically larger peoples have proceeded. “It is gratifying, therefore, to be able to present a fairly full collection of Lipan folklore, and to be in a position to report that this collection does much to illuminate the relations of Southern Athabaskan-speaking tribes and the movements of aboriginal populations in the American Southwest. “The myths and tales of this volume were recorded during the summer of 1935.”—Claremont Colleges

Based on exhaustive research, this graphic novel offers a remarkable glimpse into the raw themes of cultural differences, the horrors of war, the search for peace, and, ultimately, retribution. The Apache left an indelible mark on our perceptions of the American West; Indeh shows us why. The year is 1872. The place, the Apache nations, a region torn apart by decades of war. The people, like Goyahkla, lose his family and everything he loves. After having a vision, the young Goyahkla approaches the Apache leader Cochise, and the entire Apache nation, to lead an attack against the Mexican village of Azripe. It is this wild display of courage that transforms the young brave Goyakhla into the Native American hero Geronimo. But the war wages on. As they battle their enemies, lose loved ones, and desperately cling on to their land and culture, they would utter, "Indeh," or "the dead." When it looks like lasting peace has been reached, it seems like the war is over. Or is it? Indeh captures the deeply rich narrative of two nations at war -- as told through the eyes of Naiches and Geronimo -- who then try to find peace and forgiveness. Indeh not only paints a picture of some of the most magnificent characters in the history of our country, but also reveals the spiritual and emotional cost of the Apache Wars.