of the Spaniards changed everything. Their prowess in battle became the stuff of legend. An Apache warrior, it was said, could run 50 miles without stopping and travel more swiftly than a troop of mounted soldiers. During the mid-1700's, one Apache raid caused as many as 4,000 colonists to lose their lives. In the late 1800's, one U.S. Army general who had fought them meant it as a grudging compliment when he described the Apache as "tigers of the human species." The Apache saw themselves differently, they faced constant struggle to survive. When they raided a village, they did so from pure necessity, to provide corn for their families when game was scarce. Most of the time they went their own way, moving from camp to camp in pursuit of deer and buffalo, collecting roots and berries, sometimes planting seeds that they later returned to harvest. Apache lived in extended family groups, all loosely related through the female line. Generally speaking, each group operated independently under a respected family leader....settling its own disputes, answering to no higher human authority. The main exception to this occurred during wartime, when neighboring groups banded together to fight a common enemy. Unlike ordinary raiding, where the main object was to acquire food and possessions, war meant lethal business: an act of vengeance for the deaths of band members in earlier raids or battles. Leaders of the local family groups would meet in council to elect a war chief, who led the campaign. But if any one group preferred to follow its own war chief, it was free to do so. A strict code of conduct governed Apache life, based on strong family ...
