Editing Chiricahua (section)

==Culture and organization==
Several loosely affiliated bands of Apache came improperly to be usually known as the Chiricahuas. These included the ''Chokonen'' ([[sic#recte|recte]]: Tsokanende), the ''Chihenne'' (recte: Tchihende), the ''Nednai'' (''Nednhi'') and ''Bedonkohe'' (recte, both of them together: Ndendahe). Today, all are commonly referred to as Chiricahua, but they were not historically a single band nor the same Apache division, being more correctly identified, all together, as "Central Apaches".

Many other bands and groups of [[Apachean language]]-speakers ranged over eastern Arizona and the American Southwest. The bands that are grouped under the Chiricahua term today had much history together: they intermarried and lived alongside each other, and they also occasionally fought with each other. They formed short-term as well as longer alliances that have caused scholars to classify them as one people.<ref>Debo, pp. 9–13.</ref>

The Apachean groups and the Navajo peoples were part of the [[Athabaskan]] migration into the North American continent from Asia, across the [[Bering Strait]] from [[Siberia]].<ref name="stockel">{{cite book |last1=Stockel |first1=Henrietta |title=Salvation Through Slavery: Chiricahua Apaches and Priests on the Spanish Colonial Frontier |date=15 September 2022 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-4327-7 |page=16 |language=en}}</ref>  As the people moved south and east into North America, groups splintered off and became differentiated by language and culture over time. Some anthropologists believe that the [[Lipan Apache people|Lipan Apache]] and the [[Navajo people|Navajo]] were pushed south and west into what is now New Mexico and Arizona by pressure from other [[Great Plains]] Indians, such as the [[Comanche]] and [[Kiowa]]. Among the last of such splits were those that resulted in the formation of the different Apachean bands whom the later Europeans encountered: the southwestern Apache groups and the Navajo. Although both speaking forms of Southern Athabaskan, the Navajo and Apache have become culturally distinct.

The "Chihenne (Tchihende)", "Nednai/Nednhi (Ndendahe)" and "Bedonkohe" intermarried sometimes with Mescalero Bands of New Mexico and Chihuahua and formed alliances with them; therefore their Mescalero kin did know the names of Chiricahua bands and local groups: ''Chíhéõde'' ("The People of Red Ceremonial Paint", "The Red Ceremonial Paint People"), ''Ndé'ndaa'õde / Ndé'ndaaõde'' ("The Apache People (who live among) Enemies") and ''Bidáõ'kaõde / Bidáõ'kahéõde'' ("The People whom We Met", "The People whom We Came Upon"), The Mescalero use the term -õde, -éõde, -néõde, or -héõde ("the people of") instead of the Chiricahua Nde, Ne, Néndé, Héndé, Hen-de or õne ("the people of").

=== Dances ===
Chiricahuas from Mexico participate every year in the ''Fiesta de los Remedios'' in [[Comonfort]], [[Guanajuato]] representing and performing their traditional dances and other ceremonies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Danza Apache Chiricahua in Comonfort | website=[[YouTube]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBOHBWZ5_SU}}</ref>

=== Religion ===
The major Chiricahuan deity is called Ussen, an all-powerful creator figure. Other figures in Chiricahuan mythology include White Painted Woman, a virgin who offered herself in sacrifice to end a drought, and her son, Child of the Waters.<ref name="stockel" />

''Hoddentin'', ceremonially prepared [[cattail]] pollen, is used in many Chiricahuan rituals. [[John Gregory Bourke]] recorded that the Chiricahua offered ''hoddentin'' to the sun, threw it after snakes, and used it in medicine dances and around dying people.<ref name="stockel" />

Other traditional practices include death rituals and puberty ceremonies for young women. Caves, waterways, and birthplaces hold special spiritual significance.<ref name="stockel" />