Editing Chiricahua (section)

===European-Apache relations===
From the beginning of European-Apache relations, there was conflict between them. The two groups contested the control of land and trade routes in [[Apacheria]], and their cultural differences made it oftentimes difficult to negotiate treaties and policies between. Their encounters were preceded by more than 100 years of Spanish colonial and Mexican incursions and settlement on the Apache lands, which pushed Apache tribes northward and exacerbated the martial nature of their society.<ref>Thrapp pp. 6–8</ref> The United States settlers were newcomers to the competition for land and resources in the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]], but they inherited its complex history, and brought their own attitudes with them about American Indians and how to use the land. By the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] of 1848, the US took on the responsibility to prevent and punish cross-border incursions by Apache who were raiding in Mexico.<ref>Thrapp p. 7</ref>

The Apache viewed the United States colonists with ambivalence, and in some cases enlisted them as allies in the early years against the Mexicans. In 1852, the US and some of the Chiricahua signed a treaty, but it had little lasting effect.<ref>Thrapp p. 19</ref> During the 1850s, American miners and settlers began moving into Chiricahua territory, beginning encroachment that had been renewed in the migration to the Southwest of the previous two decades.

This forced the Apachean people to change their lives as nomads, free on the land. The US Army defeated them and forced them into the confinement of reservation life, on lands ill-suited for subsistence farming, which the US proffered as the model of civilization. Today, the Chiricahua are preserving their culture as much as possible, while forging new relationships with the peoples around them. The Chiricahua are a living and vibrant culture,<ref>{{cite news | title = Chiricahua Apache Indian Nation | url = http://www.chiricahuaapache.org|publisher=Chiricahuaapache.org | access-date = 2010-03-11
}}</ref> a part of the greater American whole and yet distinct based on their history and culture.