DUALITY IN MODERN CHIRICAHUA APACHE SETTLEMENT PATTERNS

THE LOCATION AND EFFICIENCY OF SETTLEMENT PATTERNS ARE OFTEN THE RESULT OF CONFLICTS between political entities. Invading political powers have used relocation of population and destruction of first-world patterns of adaptation as methods to control geographic area. This paper interprets the changing settlement patterns of the Chiricahua Apache Indians of the American Southwest as indicative of a conflict in human territoriality. From the early nineteenth century the United States government sought to dominate the territoriality of the Chiricahua through historic policies aimed at assimilating American Indians into mainstream American culture. But human territoriality is based on mechanisms that can be enforced or withdrawn, and since 1950 a relaxation of U. S. territoriality in regard to the Chiricahua has occurred. In this context, modern Chiricahua settlement patterns now indicate a reassertion of traditional Chiricahua spatial patterns. This has, however, occurred in ways that are indicative of thirdworld spatial conditions and social relationships. The duality of Chiricahua settlement patterns over time allows a unique opportunity to investigate the difference between first-and thirdworld patterns for inhabiting the same area.