About Apache Tracker

Apache Tracker is a resource about survival, being a Physical and Spiritual warrior, and oneness with nature or "the spirit that moves in all things." I named this site in honor of the Apache. The Apache was the ultimate, survivor, warrior, guerrilla fighter, and lived in tune with his surroundings, on a spiritual and physical level. However you will find many other topics of interest on this site. Tracking is a mind set and awareness that goes beyond the physical to all levels, including the spiritual.
-Thunderhands


"THUNDER" (wakiya)

"THUNDER" (wakiya)

About the Author

"Wakiya" (Thunder)

About the Author
Roger Thunderhands Gilbert is an accomplished writer, musician, and artist. In his lifetime, he has done many things. These would include aviation, the martial arts, and a life long study of spiritual and tribal ritual. In the martial arts, his study has included three disciplines, Aikido, Kung Fu San Soo, and Tai Chi. He also worked with the Special Forces in a training capacity. In the field of aviation, he obtained his private, commercial, and instrument ratings as a pilot, with multi-engine, and flight instructor qualifications. He learned tracking as a boy and has worked with the sheriff’s search and rescue in that capacity. His spiritual knowledge includes in-depth study, and personal experience, with many shamanistic and esoteric practices. He is a practitioner of Kriya yoga, Kundalini yoga, Tantrika, and Chinese inner alchemy. In addition, he received his certificate in acupressure and uses several modalities for healing. He considers himself an authority on the Biblical teachings of Yeshua or Jesus, but considers himself spiritual, not religious. And last but not least, he has done an exhaustive study and been an activist of North American Native tribes and ritual. His own roots are of Métis descent, and his spirituality is universal.

Monday

Tom Brown Jr. on nature


"There is a place I know where everything lives in harmony. Nothing is envied or stolen, or killed. Instead, everything is shared. The land is everyone's and no one's. Life is sacred there. A dweller in this place thinks highly of human life because he lives so close to the earth. He understands his part in the scheme of nature and is not lost or searching for Himself."
Tom Brown Jr. from the book "The Search"

Sunday

Gouyen


Gouyen

Gouyen, meaning "Wise Woman," was born into Chief Victorio's Warm Springs Apache band around 1880. One day, while the group was resting at Tres Castillos, New Mexico, it was attacked by Mexicans. When the offensive was over, seventy-eight Apaches had been murdered and only seventeen had escaped, including Gouyen and her young son, Kaywaykla. Her baby daughter, however, was murdered and shortly afterwards her husband was killed in a Comanche raid while visiting the Mescalero Apaches.

A legendary tale is told about the revenge of Gouyen. One night following her husband's death, she put on her buckskin puberty ceremony dress and left the camp carrying a water jug, dried meat, and a bone awl and sinew for repairing her moccasins. She was looking for the Comanche chief who had killed her husband. Finally, she found him engaged in a Victory Dance around a bonfire with her husband's scalp hanging from his belt. Gouyen slipped into the circle of dancers, seduced the chief, and killed him, avenging her husband's death. Then she scalped him, cut his beaded breechcloth from his body and tore off his moccasins. She then returned to her camp to present her in-laws with the Comanche leader's scalp, his clothing and his footwear.

Gouyen remarried an Apache warrior named Ka-ya-ten-nae. Later, she and her family were taken prisoner by the U.S. Army and held at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where she died.

Wednesday

Peaceful Blessings


Peaceful Blessings a video by "Thunder" the Native American Taoist.
Flute, drums, and relaxing imagery with a message.

Monday

Apache Nations and Tribes


Apache Nation


Apache is the collective name for several culturally related tribes of Native Americans, aboriginal inhabitants of North America, who speak a Southern Athabaskan language. The modern term excludes the related Navajo people.The origin of the name Apache is uncertain. It may derive from the Yavapai word epache, meaning "people". The origin has also been claimed to be the Zuni word apachu, meaning "enemy" (but this may have been the Zuni name for the Navajo people) or an unspecified Quechan word meaning "fighting-men".

The Apaches formerly ranged over southeastern Arizona and north-western Mexico. The chief divisions of the Apaches were the Arivaipa, Chiricahua, Coyotero, Faraone Gileno, Llanero, Mescalero, Mimbreno, Mogollon, Naisha, Tchikun and Tchishi. They were a powerful and warlike tribe, constantly at enmity with the whites. The final surrender of the tribe took place in 1886, when the Chiricahuas, the division involved, were deported to Florida and Alabama, where they underwent military imprisonment. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists. The Apaches are now in reservations in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and number between 5000 and 6000.

The word "Apache" comes from the Yuma word for "fighting-men". It also comes from a Zuni word meaning "enemy". The Zuni name for Navajo was called "Apachis de Nabaju" by the earliest Spaniards exploring New Mexico. They called themselves Inde, or Nide "the people".

The Apache Nation is composed of six regional groups:

* Jicarilla - Tinde - an Apache people currently living in New Mexico and to the Southern Athabaskan language they speak. The term jicarilla comes from Mexican Spanish meaning 'little basket'. During their zenith in the SouthWest, two divisions of the Jicarilla Apache were known: the Llanero, or "plains people," and the Hoyero, the "mountain people." They roamed from central and eastern Colorado into western Oklahoma, and as far south as Estancia, New Mexico. As a result of their eastern contacts, the Jicarilla adopted certain cultural traits of the Plains Indians, as did the Mescalero who also ranged the eastern plains. The Jicarilla of northeastern New Mexico hunted buffalo in the plains, and planted corn in the mountains.

* Mescalero - Faraon - Native American tribe of Southern Athabaskan stock currently living on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico where they live with other Chiricahua and Lipan Apaches. The Reorganization Act of 1936 consolidated the tribes onto this reservation, which currently has an Apache population of approximately 4,000. The population is integrated with the rest of Lincoln county, which includes ranching and tourism as major sources of income.

The Mescalero to the south were originally hunter-gatherers who developed an appetite for the roasted heads of wild mescal plants. The Mescalero band consisted of followers and a headman. They had no formal leader such as a tribal chief, or council, nor a decision making process. The core of the band was a "relative group", predominantly--but not necessarily kinsmen. They were named by the Spanish for the mescal cactus the Apaches used for food, drink, and fiber.

They moved freely, wintering on the Rio Grande or farther south, ranging the buffalo plains in the summer, always following the sun and the food supply. They owned nothing and everything. They did as they pleased and bowed to no man. Their women were chaste. Their leaders kept their promises. They were mighty warriors who depended on success in raiding for wealth and honor. To their families they were kind and gentle, but they could be unbelievably cruel to their enemies - fierce and revengeful when they felt that they had been betrayed.

* Chiricahua - southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and adjacent Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. They were the fiercest of all tribal groups, raided along the Mexican border. The band was the informal political unit, consisting of followers and a headman. They had no formal leader such as a tribal chief, or council, nor a decision making process. The core of the band was a "relative group," predominantly, but not nessarily, kinsmen. Named by the Spanish for the mescal cactus the Apaches used for food, drink, and fiber. The basic shelter of the Chiricahua was the domeshaped wickiup made of brush. Similar the Navajo, they also regarded coyotes, insects, and birds as having been human beings; the human race, then, but following in the tracks of those who have gone before.

* Lipan - Lipan Apache are also known as Nide buffalo hunters, called by anthropologists and historians for many years as Eastern Apache, Apache de los Llanos, Lipan, Ipande, and other names. Today it is known that the Cuelgahen Nde Lipan Apache of Texas comprise the descendents of the Tall Grass People known as Lipan Apache - Apache following Chiefs Cuelga de Castro, John Castro, and Ramon Castro. Lipan Apache is also an Southern Athabaskan language spoken by Meredith Begay, Ted Rodriguez, and others on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The general consensus of the Lipan Apache Committee on the same reservation is that linguistic and anthropological considerations of their cultural extinction are mistaken and incorrect.

* Kiowa - Gataka Nation of Native Americans who lived mostly in the plains of west Texas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico at the time of the arrival of Europeans. Currently the Kiowa Nation is a registered tribe, with about 6000 members living in southwestern Oklahoma in 1989. The Kiowas originated in the northern basin of the Missouri River, but migrated south to the Black Hills around 1650 and lived there with the Crow. Pushed southward by the invading Cheyennes and Sioux who were being pushed out of their lands in the great lake regions by the Objiwe tribes, the Kiowas moved down the Platte River basin to the Arkansas River area. There they fought with the Comanches, who already occupied the land. Around 1790, the two groups made an alliance and agreed to share the area. From that time on, the Comanches and Kiowas formed a deep bond; the peoples hunted, travelled, and made war together. An additional group, the Plains Apache (also called Kiowa-Apache), also affiliated with the Kiowas at this time.The Kiowas lived a not atypical Plains Indian lifestyle. Mostly nomadic, they survived on buffalo meat and gathered vegetables, living in tipis, and depended on their horses for hunting and military uses. The Kiowa were notorious for long-distance raids as far north as Canada and south into Mexico. After 1840 the Kiowas joined forces with their former enemies, the Cheyennes, as well as the Comanches and the Apaches, to fight and raid the Eastern natives then moving into the Indian Territory. The United States military intervened, and in the Treaty of Medicine Lodge of 1867 the Kiowa agreed to settle on a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. Some bands of Kiowas remained at large until 1875. On August 6, 1901 Kiowa land in Oklahoma was opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation. While each Kiowa head of household was alloted 80 acres, the only land remaining in Kiowa tribal ownership today is what was the scattered parcels of 'grass land' which had been leased to the white settlers for grazing before the reservation was opened for settlement.

* Western Apache - Pinal Coyotero - most of eastern Arizona which include the White Mountain, Cibuecue, San Carlos, and Northern and Southern Tonto bands. They are reputed by tradition to have been the first of the Apache to have penetrated below the Little Colorado among the Pueblo peoples, with whom they intermarried (Bourke in Jour. Am. Folklore, III, 112, 1890). They possessed the country from San Francisco mountains to the Gila until they were subdued by Gen. Crook in 1873. Since then they have peaceably tilled their land at San Carlos.

The Apaches are well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and inexhaustible endurance. Continuous wars among other tribes and invaders from Mexico followed the Apaches' growing reputation of warlike character. When they confronted Coronado in 1540, they lived in eastern New Mexico, and reached Arizona in the 1600s. The Apache are described as a gentel people; faithful in their friendship.

Friday

The Spirit that moves in all things


When I first begun to understand the essence of this "spirit" the things of the wild ceased being "wild" because I realized that my spirit was one with theirs. Our life force was the same.
-Tom Brown Jr.

Tuesday

Apache method of hunting antelope



Apache method of hunting antelope
as witnessed by John Cremony, ca. 1850

Indians hunting deer

"About eighteen or twenty miles east of the Copper Mines of Santa Rita, is a hot spring, the waters of which exhibit a heat of 125 degrees Fahrenheit, and after having crossed the Mimbres, the whole party directed its course to this spring. After examining it thoroughly and having the qualities of its water tested by Dr. Webb, we prosecuted our march; but my attention was soon after arrested by a number of antelopes feeding on the plain, not more than half a mile distant. Anxious to procure one, I left the party, and, galloping in the direction of the herd, arrived within five hundred yards of it, when I dismounted and tying my horse to a yucca bush, proceeded cautiously on foot, carbine in hand. Crawling from bush to bush, and hiding behind every stone that offered any shelter, I got within handsome range of a fine buck, and feeling sure that the animal could not escape me, I raised to fire, when, just as I was taking aim, I was astonished to see the animal raise erect upon its hind legs, and heard it cry out, in fair Spanish, "No tiras, no tiras!" --"don't fire, don't fire!" What I would have sworn was an antelope, proved to be a young Indian, the son of Ponce, a chief, who, having enveloped himself in an antelope's skin, with head, horns and all complete, had gradually crept up to the herd under his disguise until his operations were brought to an untimely end by perceiving my aim directed at him. The Apaches frequently adopt this method of hunting, and imitate the actions of the antelopes so exactly as to completely mislead those animals with the belief that their deadliest enemy is one of their number."

Sunday

Havasupai


The Havasu ’Baaja (meaning the-people-of-the-blue-green-waters), or more commonly the Havasupai, are a Native American tribe located in the northwestern part of the American state of Arizona. The tribe is well-known for being the only permanent inhabitants in the Grand Canyon, where they have lived for over 800 years. It also holds the distinction of being one of the only places left in America whose mail is still delivered by mule, the other being Phantom Ranch But the main "claim-to-fame" for the Tribe is its richly colored waters and its awe-inspiring waterfalls, both of which have made this small community become a bustling tourist hub that attracts thousands of people every year.

Click here for more

Friday

Leonard Peltier's Long ride home





Below is a letter that you can copy and send (snail Mail) to the address indicated. This is of supreme importance that you do this before his parole hearing on July 27, 2009. We have hopes that with the new administration something good will happen. Take a few minutes of your time please, because the more letters they get the better the chances. You can make a difference. For more Information, go to The group on Facebook called Leonard Peltier Global.

Parole boards are parole boards and if it doesn't come out with a good result, we will try other means, like marching on Washington.

PAROLE HEARING LETTER TEMPLATE

United States Parole Commission

5550 Friendship Blvd., Ste. 420

Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286

(Insert Date)

Re: LEONARD PELTIER #89637-132

Dear Commissioners,

I am writing in behalf of support for Parole for Leonard Peltier . While I am aware of the seriousness of the conviction I am also aware that people have the ability to go forward out of the past and give to the larger society. I believe that is the case with Leonard Peltier.

I ask you to consider the humanitarian work he has done during his 33 years of incarceration. More than most people can ever do who are not locked up.

I ask you to consider his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize for the 6th straight year. There are those who make light of this but who else among us have had that honor.

He consistently donates his art work for charities such as battered women's shelters, half way houses, alcohol and drug treatment programs, and Native American scholarship funds.

Mr. Peltier has won several awards including the North Star Frederick Douglas Award; Federation of Labor (Ontario, Canada) Humanist of the Year Award; Human Rights Commission of Spain International Human Rights Prize; and 2004 Silver Arrow Award for Lifetime Achievement.

He has expressed sadness for the tragedy that occurred that day at Oglala and pain for the families of the two agents and the Indian man that died that day.

Thirty-three years is a long time. I ask you to look with empathy upon a 64 year old man who over the 33 years has done so much good while in prison, and I think has the ability to do even more good for the community if he were to be allowed parole.

While I know of the misconduct by government officials in his case, I will not bring details up because I am certain that you are aware of the misconduct, and will consider that as you have the discretion to rule above or below the guidelines. I would hope that you will exercise that discretion in favor of Leonard Peltier. It seems to me it would be a gross miscarriage of justice if he were left to die in prison.

Please grant parole.

Respectfully


Your name

Wednesday

The Apache Knife: A Way of Life

Yes, an Apache always has a lot of different blades on him for multiple uses. He'll holster them in different places and deploys them at different times. In close-range fighting, Apaches preferred the knife over any other weapon. Warriors and women alike always carried a knife, whether they used it around the camp, or for combat. In using the lance, war club, knife or empty-hands, the Apache warrior was extremely aggressive, but never to the point of recklessness. The Apache strategy in battle centered on overrunning and completely overwhelming the enemy. This tactic worked well (before firearms), as the Apaches were generally outnumbered. One warrior would most likely face several opponents. If the odds were too great, or if a chance for the entire war party to escape unharmed presented itself, warriors would gladly retire. For life was, and still is, quite dear to the Apaches. The legendary skills and endurance of the Apache warriors have been documented through the testimonies of the soldiers who fought them. They even referred to them as the ‘tigers of the human race’ as they were deemed most ideally adapted to fighting in their rugged homeland. Warriors wore a shirt, breech cloth, and moccasins normally reaching above the knee; they carried a rope, blanket, water jar, fire stick, rations of mescal or jerky, and their weapons. The Apache might employ a shield, bow, arrows, lance, club, Knife, and during the Apache Wars, a gun and cartridge belt. They also blackened their weapons to camouflage them.

The Apache attitude toward pain was altogether different from that of the Mexicans and Americans. Pain was a fact of life and to endure it stoically and silently was the sign of good character. From early on, boys were taught how to endure pain. The Apaches, in contrast to the Plains Indians, applauded courage but derided heroics; their numbers were too few for flamboyant risks and needless loss of life. Stealth and caution were encouraged. However, when the Apache was wounded or cornered, there was no more ferocious adversary.

Tuesday

The Ultimate Track.


"The first Track is the end of a string. At the far end, a being is moving; a mystery, dropping a hint about itself every so many feet, telling you more about itself until you can almost see it, even before you come to it. The mystery reveals itself slowly, track by track, giving it's genealogy early to coax you in. Further on, it will tell you the intimate details of it's life and work, until you know the maker of the track like a life long friend."

"A skull is the ultimate track a creature leaves. When everything else has been unshaped by time, when every scratch and print is gone, the skull remains. When I find a skull, It's as if I am standing within touch of the second greatest mystery in the universe, the mystery of where creatures go when they leave this greatest mystery of all, the pattern of life living itself, the visible design of the invisible we call nature.
-Tom Brown Jr.

We all leave a track in this life as we walk the path, sometimes it might be beneficial to observe what kind of track we are leaving. This in turn can give you insight as to where you are and which way to go. -Thunderhands

Saturday

Mangas Colorado


Mangas Colorado
as witnessed by John Cremony, ca. 1850

"Mangas Colorado, or Red Sleeves, was, undoubtedly, the most prominent and influential Apache who has existed for a century. Gifted with a large and powerful frame, corded with iron-like sinews and muscles, and possessed of far more than an ordinary amount of brain strength, he succeeded at an early age, in winning a reputation unequaled in his tribe. His daring exploits, his wonderful resources, his diplomatic abilities, and his wise teachings in council soon surrounded him with a large and influential band, which gave him a sort of prestige and sway among the various branches of his race, and carried his influence from the Colorado river to the Guadalupe mountains. Throughout Arizona and New Mexico, Mangas Colorado was a power in the land. Yet he could assume no authority not delegated to him by his people. He never presumed to speak for them as one having authority, but invariably said he would use his influence to perform certain promises and engagements. Mangas, in one of his raids into Sonora, carried off a handsome and intelligent Mexican girl, whom he made his wife, to the exclusion of his Apache squaws. This singular favoritism bred some trouble in the tribe for a short time, but was suddenly ended by Mangas challenging any of the offended brothers or relatives of his discarded wives. Two accepted the wager, and both were killed in fair duel. By his Mexican wife Mangas had three really beautiful daughters, and through his diplomatic ability, he managed to wive one with the chief of the Navajoes, another with the leading man of the Mescalero Apaches, and the third with the war chief of the Coyoteros. By so doing, he acquired a very great influence in these tribes, and, whenever he desired, could obtain their assistance in his raids. His height was about six feet; his head was enormously large, with a broad, bold forehead, a large acquiline nose, a most capacious mouth, and broad, heavy chin. His eyes were rather small, but exceedingly brilliant and flashing when under any excitement--although his outside demeanor was as imperturbable as brass. This is the man we met at the Copper Mines; but as his name will be mentioned in the course of this narrative, in connection with his acts, no more need be added at present. His most immediate counselors and attaches were Delgadito, Ponce, Cuchillo Negro, Coletto Amarillo, El Chico, and Pedro Azul. These were all appellations bestowed by Mexicans, and not their Apache names, which I never learned."

Mangas Colorado's New Clothes
as witnessed by John Cremony, ca. 1850

"Mr. Bartlett, in order to retain the supposed friendship of Mangas, had a fine pair of blue pants, ornamented with a wide red stripe down the outside of the legs, made for that respectable individual. To this were added a good field officer's uniform and epaulettes, given by Col. Craig, a new white shirt, black cravat, and an excellent pair of new shoes, such as are furnished to our soldiers. It was my duty to invest Mangas in his new suit, but some difficulty was experienced in getting him to wear his shirt inside of his pants instead of outside. After a time he made his appearance in grande tenue, evidently in love with his own elegant person. During the whole day he strutted about the camp, the envied of all beholders, and as vain of his new dress as a peacock of his feathers. The next day Mangas failed to put in an appearance; but the day after he came, with his pantaloons wrapped around his waist; his shirt, dirty and partly torn outside; his uniform coat buttoned to his chin; one epaulet on his breast, and the other fastened, bullion down, between the hind buttons of his coat. In this guise he fancied himself an object worthy of universal admiration; and as he walked along, he would turn his eyes over his shoulder to relish the brilliant flashes of his posterior ornament. In less than a week, coat, shirt, pants and epaulettes were sported by another Indian after his fashion. Mangas had gambled them away, and the wearer was the fortunate winner."