Jicarilla Apache

Jicarilla Apache

Jicarilla Apache, North American Indian tribe living in the southwestern United States, one of several loosely organized autonomous bands of the Eastern Apache. Their traditional lands included parts of present-day Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Jicarilla lived in wickiups—dwellings made of reeds or grass applied to an elliptical frame—and spoke an Eastern Apachean language. The name Jicarilla derives from a Spanish word meaning “little basket,” referring to the small sealed baskets they used as drinking vessels.

In 1716 the Jicarilla were driven from their lands by the Comanche. They settled in what is now northeastern New Mexico. Although the Jicarilla had long supplemented their predominantly hunting and gathering economy by planting small gardens, food production took on a new significance in the New Mexico environment. There the Jicarilla’s farming practices expanded to the point where they required considerable time and energy; as a result, the people became rather firmly settled and tended to engage in warfare less frequently than did other Eastern Apache groups. However, Jicarilla people continued to suffer the depredations of the Comanche: fighting in 1724 left most Jicarilla men dead and many women and children prisoners.

The surviving Jicarilla later tried to avoid warfare with Spanish and American settlers, although they did engage in some hostilities after the early 1850s. They were subdued by the U.S. Army in 1880, and in 1887 they were settled on land reserved for them in New Mexico.

In the early 21st century, population estimates indicated approximately 3,500 individuals of Jicarilla Apache descent.