Chiricahua Apache

Background

The Chiricahua Apache are named for the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona, a range inside their homeland. The bands ranged across what is now southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico, in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts. In 1886 Geronimo surrendered for the fourth and last time at Skeleton Canyon in southern Arizona. The government then held the Chiricahua as prisoners of war and sent them first to Florida, then to Alabama, then to Oklahoma. Descendants of those bands live today in Oklahoma and at Mescalero, New Mexico.

Parks on its homelands

Chiricahua National Park

The Chiricahua Mountains are the homeland the Chiricahua Apache are named for. In 1886 the last free bands surrendered, and the U.S. government held them as prisoners of war. Source

Sources

• https://www.nps.gov/chir/learn/historyculture/pre-apache-wars.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/chir/learn/historyculture/post-apache-wars.htm
• https://mescaleroapachetribe.com/our-culture/

Checked October 2026.

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