Chiricahua Apache Alliance

The , founded in 2004, is a grassroots social justice interest group of Chiricahua Apache descendants, rooted in communities throughout the Americas and abroad. Without borders or boundaries, we advance strategies to recover, preserve and protect Chiricahua Apache culture, sacred sites and ancestral homelands.

Our vision is one of promoting solidarity and unity. Membership is open to all Chiricahua Apache nations, Chiricahua descendants and supporters of all apache nations, respectively.

We are organized under traditional values from time immemorial. recognition and respect of each other, and we remember the stories of our ancestors.

Alliance goals:

  • Rebuild and strengthen relations among Chiricahua apaches and all apache nations, descendants, and supporters of the Chiricahua people.
  • Promote and defend Chiricahua apache self-determination, culture and landscapes throughout the ancestral territory in a spirit of respect for other peoples now living within that territory.
  • Develop plans for injustice redress, historical and cultural reclamation.
  • Compile, preserve, and disseminate Chiricahua apache oral histories,
    educating emerging generations.

Since creation…

Chiricahua Apache creation stories tell us and we believe, that Apache people have been here in our territory, the USA southwest and north central Mexico, from time immemorial. We were created here in our traditional homeland territory. Chiricahua Apache culture and people predate all other cultures who attempted to settle this area unsuccessfully.

We believe that any other theory, of Apache occupation, usually only advocated by dominant society interests, only reflects the land claims issues in which the dominant society is only attempting to  deny Chiricahua Apaches of their rightful claim to our traditional lands… Which in it’s pristine state, was and is very valuable for its resources, land, timber, water, minerals, grazing, and wildlife.

Demographics…

Of an estimated population of 200,000 Chiricahua Apaches at contact, there are less than 1,000 prisoner of war descendants living either on the Mescalero reservation, or on land allotments purchased from deceased Comanches in Oklahoma and what is known as Fort Sill Apache Reservation.

In contrast, the population of Chiricahua Apache that left the homelands or went underground in two countries exceed approximately 75,000 globally by some estimates. This population lives on and off several Apache reservations, in rural areas, and urban centers all over mother earth.

Joe Saenz