Apache Foods, Subsistence and Recipes

Apache Foods, Subsistence and Recipes

All Apaches relied primarily on hunting of wild game and gathering of cactus fruits and other wild plant foods.

Hunting was a part of daily life and provided food, clothing, shelter, and blankets. The Apache hunted deer, wild turkeys, jackrabbits, coyote, javelin, fox, beavers, buffalo, bears, and mountain lions. There was no fishing. Eagles were hunted for their feathers and released after two or three feathers were plucked. Buffalo were the primary animal hunted and provided for most of the daily needs for food, shelter, clothing and tools.

The Apache believed prairie dogs, snakes and other reptiles, anphibians, and fish were unclean, so they didn't eat them.

Apache boys were taught to move quickly and quietly through the forest to catch food for their family. Every Apache male hunted. A young man was not permitted to marry until he had killed his first big animal, such as a bear or mountain lion. The Apaches greased their bodies with animal fat to mask their human smell so the animals being hunted wouldn't smell them and run away.

The Apache exchanged buffalo hides, tallow and meat, bones that could be worked into needles and scrapers for hides, and salt to the Pueblo tribes for pottery, cotton, blankets, turquoise, corn and other goods. But at times they simply saw what they wanted and took it. Raids on other villages were a primary way Apaches procured food, increased their wealth, and obtained captives for brides or slaves.

Articles explaining the Apache foods, hunting methods, gathering methods, farming practices, and recipes of the Apache people.

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Apache Foods, Subsistence and Recipes

Apache Foods, Subsistence and Recipes

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