The Plains Apache are also known as the Kiowa Apache, Naʼisha, or Na i sha Tindé, meaning "Thieves" as the old meaning. However, in more recent times the negative meaning is beginning to be replaced by just Na i sha. They also used the term Kalth Tindé or γát dìndé meaning "Cedar People" or Bá-ca-yé meaning "Whetstone People". To their close allies, the much larger Kiowa tribe, who speak a completely unrelated language, they were known as Semat meaning "Stealers." At major tribal events, the Kiowa Apache formed part of the Kiowa tribal "hoop". This may explain why the Kiowa named the Kiowa Apache Taugui meaning "Sitting Outside."
The Apache Tribe currently operates a casino. They also issue their own tribal license plates.
History
In the early 18th century, the Plains Apache lived around the upper Missouri River and were closely connected to the Kiowa people. They were ethnically different and spoke a different language. Plains Apache entered this alliance with the Kiowa for mutual protection against hostile tribes. It is recorded that many Kiowa Apache did not learn the Kiowa language, preferring to communicate with their allies using the sophisticated Plains Indian Sign Language, at which the Kiowa were past masters. Even before contact with Europeans, their numbers were never large, and in 1780 their population was estimated at 400. The Kiowa Apache and Kiowa had migrated into the Southern Plains sometime around 1800. By the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache settled in Western Oklahoma and Kansas. They were forced to move south of the Washita River to the Red River and Western Oklahoma with the Comanche and the Kiowa. The reservation period lasted from 1868 to 1906. The transition from the free life of Plains people to a restricted life of the reservation was more difficult for some families than others. The 1890 Census showed 1,598 Comanche at the Fort Sill reservation, which they shared with 1,140 Kiowa and 326 Kiowa Apache. Some groups of Plains Apache refused to settle on reservations and were involved in Kiowa and Comanche uprisings, most notably the First Battle of Adobe Walls which was the largest battle of the Indian Wars. It would be the last battle in which the Natives repelled the US Army in the Southern Plains. In 1966, the tribe organized a business committee and regained federal recognition.
Social organization
The Kiowa Apache social organization is split into numerous extended families, who camped together as local groups. The next level was the division or band, a grouping of a number of gonkas. In pre-reservation times there were at least four local groups or gonkas who frequently joined together for warring neighbouring tribes and settlements.
The Apache are linked to the Dismal River culture of the western Plains, generally attributed to the Paloma and Quartelejo Apaches. Jicarilla Apache pottery has also been found in some of the Dismal River complex sites. Some of the people of the Dismal River culture joined the Kiowa Apache in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Due to pressure from the Comanche from the west and Pawnee and French from the east, the Kiowa and remaining people of Dismal River culture migrated south where they later joined the Lipan Apache and Jicarilla Apache nations.
