What are the difference between the Apache and the Navajo?

Question

I'm giving a speech on the Apache and wherever i go online, it says that there's really no difference between the Apache and the Navajo, other than the name. Is it true? Are there any reliable sources online where I can get more info on the Apache(my instructor said that we can't use Wikipedia).
Thanks

I won't be giving the speech for a while, just doing some research right now

Answer 1

The Apache and Navajo tribes are closely related as they are both part of a linguistic and cultural group that antropologists refer to as Athabaskan. Most Athabaskan tribes are located in Alaska and the northwest. Most scholars believe that the Apache and Navajo slowly migrated to the south and arrived at their current homelands in the American southwest shortly before the Spanish arrived (ie: in the 1400s).

While the Navajo and Apache are both more closely related to each other than they are to the surrounding Pueblo and Piman groups, there are still a lot of differences between the two.

For instance, even though their languages are based on the same underlying structure and similar grammer, they are still different enough that a Navajo speaker and an Apachean speaker would have a hard time having a full conversation with each other.

Other differences include Navajo historically living in semi-permanent wood (or sometimes stone) cabin-like houses called hogans (often with 6 sides) while Apache used very temporary brush huts called wikieups. Navajo tended to spread out and live in smaller groups centered around a specific family while Apache travelled in somewhat larger extended bands of multiple inter-grouped families. Navajo adopted sheep herding (and the associated skill of wool weaving) fairly early on while the Apache remained largely hunter/gatherers (and raiders) until almost the 20th century.

While online sources are a good place to get leads or very brief introductions to a subject, it is still not the best place to get in-depth research material. Part of the problem is that because anybody can put anything on the web, it is not easy to tell good from bad unless you already have a lot of background in a area (as opposed to books where the publishers will typically have a number of known experts review the content before investing thousands of dollars in publishing it).

I have listed a few of the better sites that talk about southwest Native American cultures below, but if you are serious about getting a detailed understanding than you will need to visit a library (or Amazon.com) and hit the books. And of course, if you live close enough, nothing beats actually visiting the reservations to talk with people there (most have some sort of museum or visitor center).

Here are a few good general reference books on the subject:

"Dine: A History of the Navajos" by Peter Iverson and Monty Roessel (Iverson is a historian at Arizona State University and Roessel is a well known Navajo photographer)

"The Social Organization of the Western Apache" by Grenville Goodwin. Goodwin actually lived with the Apache during the 1920s and 30s, made detailed studies of traditional cultural and social practice and even interviewed some of the older tribal members who had been warriors during the Apache Wars.

"Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest and Northern Mexico" by Thomas Sheridan and Nancy Parezo
A fairly recent basic introduction to the main characteristics and history of the major southwest tribes including a good balance of historical accounts and traditional stories of the cultures themselves.

Answer 2

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Both our languages are very similar, for some the similarities were so close that Navajos and Apaches could talk to each other with little difficulty. Aside from our languages, both tribes were also the first recorded tribes to use horses for pastoral purposes as well as warfare (Old Spanish sources). Other than that, the differences are clear as day. The Apache were more roamers as Navajos were more settled. The Apache were hunters and cattle drivers, but Navajos were farmers and shepherds. As well as some of our ceremonies and style of dress. Navajo clothing and life style was very similar to that of the Pueblos and Spanish. Navajos lived in log homes, they grew fields of corn, they tended sheep and horses to the point where our people's herds grew faster than the Spanish ones. Where as the Apache way of life hardly changed much, depending on which Apache band you look at. The ones who lived on the plains adopted a lifestyle that was pretty much the same to other Plains tribes, where as their cousins the Mescalero and Western Apaches who lived in the desert had a different lifestyle, and the Jicarllia Apaches led a semi-nomadic lifestyle and were pretty similar to Navajos. They would even be commonly mistaken as Navajos when the Americans would arrive in the region later on in the 1850's.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

They came from the same place in the Altai mountains in Mongolia, the language very similar, they physically look the same. they are both apart of the greater Dine family in Canada and the Athepascan people in Alaska. They are very different than all the Pueblo people who were here before them linguistically and culturally. nearly 4-500 years ago when they began to arrive in the southwest they were called Navapachu which means "raiders of the fields" by the Pueblo people who had lived here for a few thousand years already. These new people were aggressive and burned the Pueblo people s fields and took their livestock. There is still alot of animosity towards Navajo and Apache by the Pueblos and land disputes. Those who became known as Apache began to move out in several bands all over the southwest. They have different names like San Carlos Apache and White Mountain Apache and so on depending where they settled. Navajos adopted the Southwestern lifestyle of the Spanish settlers, weaving, pottery making, long cotton gathered skirts,using velvetine cloth, they began making Tourquise jewelry. The Apaches continued to wear their dresses from animal skins or woven cloth.

Answer 5

Try researching the clan systems in use among the tribes located in the southwest. You'll find that intermixing was quite common. Look at this list of clans in the Navajo tribe to see what I mean.

http://www.lapahie.com/Dine_Clans.cfm

In reality, the notion of tribes was a US government convention to create treaties for large groups of people at one time. Unfortunately, differing bands of each "tribe" did not recognize the validity of treaties signed by other bands of the "same tribe" which often lead to problems.

There are some similarities between all the tribes of the southwest; Navajo, Zuni, Pima, Apache, Hopi, Pueblo, Havasupai, Utes, etc. Although the languages each tribe uses today are quite distinct, that is due to homogenizition after each band of indians began identifying themselves with a particular tribe. Among the Navajo, there are different dialects and ceremonial rituals practiced on one side of the reservation that aren't practiced on the other side which is probably how things were 300 years ago.

Answer 6

Apache Resistance

Answer 7

difference apache navajo

Answer 8

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Answer 9

They are just different tribes. It is like the difference between Americans and Canadians.

Answer 10

Use wikipedia to LEAD you to a credible source.

So use wikipedia for an assesment of where to begin, just don't list it as a source...