This dissertation is a study of the Eastern Apache nations and their struggle to survive with their culture intact against numerous enemies intent on destroying them. It is a synthesis of published secondary and primary materials, supported with archival materials, primarily from the Béxar Archives. The Apaches living on the plains have suffered from a lack of a good comprehensive study, even though they played an important role in hindering Spanish expansion in the American Southwest. When the Spanish first encountered the Apaches they were living peacefully on the plains, although they occasionally raided nearby tribes. When the Spanish began settling in the Southwest they changed the dynamics of the region by introducing horses. The Apaches quickly adopted the animals into their culture and used them to dominate their neighbors. Apache power declined in the eighteenth century when their Caddoan enemies acquired guns from the French, and the powerful Comanches gained access to horses and began invading northern Apache territory. Surrounded by enemies, the Apaches increasingly turned to the Spanish for aid and protection rather than trade. The Spanish-Apache peace was fraught with problems. The Spaniards tended to lump all Apaches into one group even though, in reality, each band operated independently. Thus, when one Apache band raided a Spanish outpost, the Spanish considered the peace broken. On the other hand, since Apaches considered each Spanish settlement a distinct "band" they saw nothing wrong in making peace at one Spanish location while continuing to raid another. Eventually the Spanish encouraged other Indians tribes to launch a campaign of unrelenting war against the Apaches. Despite devastating attacks from their enemies, the Apaches were able to survive. When the Mexican Revolution removed the Spanish from the area, the Apaches remained and still occupied portions of the plains as late as the 1870s. Despite the pressures brought to bear upon them the Apaches prevailed, retaining their freedoms longer than almost any other tribe.

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Excerpt: A generally accurate appraisal of Western films might claim that Indians as hostiles are grouped into one undifferentiated mass. Popular hostile groups include the Sioux (without much differentiation between tribes or bands, the Apaches, and the Comanches).

abstract: Power relations among cultural, socio-economic, and political groups have been dynamic forces shaping American history. Within that changing world, relations between indigenous and non-indigenous groups have been complicated by a fundamental difference often ascribed to Western philosophy versus Native American spiritual traditions. In 1990, Congress codified that difference when it passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) stipulating that Indian tribes and Native Hawaiians are unique among United States cultural groups. At the same time, NAGPRA began breaking down the Western vs. indigenous paradigm. The legislative process of NAGPRA strongly encouraged cooperation among indigenous peoples and the non-indigenous peoples who had collected their bones and belongings under earlier policies. NAGPRA required museums and other agencies accepting federal monies to inventory any collections of Native American items with the intent of giving control to tribes over the disposition of culturally affiliated human remains and certain classes of objects. In the rearranging power relations NAGPRA instigated, people maneuvered for power over the "truth," over whose memory, meaning, and spiritual worldview held authenticity. This dissertation considers cases that pushed or broke the limits of cooperation fostered by NAGPRA. Ignoring the bones and related funerary objects, Tangled Truths analyzes repatriation disputes over cultural artifacts to illuminate changing power relations among cultural groups in the United States. The repatriation negotiations in which people would not compromise were cases in which there existed strong differences in spiritual worldviews, cultural memories, or material interests. Congress could encourage cooperation, but it could not legislate acceptance of others' spiritual worldviews, nor could it persuade people to relinquish engrained cultural memories. And without solid enforcement, the NAGPRA process could be outmaneuvered by those intent on pursuing their own material interests. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. History 2011

Using a genealogy of the narratives of the Guadalupes, I explore three moral identities. The Mescalero Apache exist as caretakers of sacred space. Spanish and Anglo settlers exist as conquerors of a hostile land. The park service exists as captives, imprisoned in the belief that economic justifications can protect the intrinsic value of wilderness. The narrative shift from oral to abstract text-based culture entails a shift from intrinsic to instrumental valuation. I conclude that interpretation of narratives, such as those of the Guadalupes, is not by itself a sufficient condition for change. Interpretation is, however, a necessary condition for expanding the cultural conversation beyond merely instrumental justifications to include caring for wilderness's intrinsic values.