Western Apache Heritage: People of the Mountain Corridor

by Richard J. Perry

Publisher:

University of Texas Press

, 2022

Overview

A reconstruction of Apachean history and culture that sheds much light on the origins, dispersions, and relationships of Apache groups.
 
Mention “Apaches,” and many Anglo-Americans picture the “marauding savages” of western movies or impoverished reservations beset by a host of social problems. But, like most stereotypes, these images distort the complex history and rich cultural heritage of the Apachean peoples, who include the Navajo, as well as the Western, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Kiowa Apaches. In this pioneering study, Richard Perry synthesizes the findings of anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, archaeology, and ethnohistory to reconstruct the Apachean past and offer a fuller understanding of the forces that have shaped modern Apache culture.
 
While scholars generally agree that the Apacheans are part of a larger group of Athapaskan-speaking peoples who originated in the western Subarctic, there are few archaeological remains to prove when, where, and why those northern cold dwellers migrated to the hot deserts of the American Southwest. Using an innovative method of ethnographic reconstruction, however, Perry hypothesizes that these nomadic hunters were highly adaptable and used to exploiting the resources of a wide range of mountainous habitats. When changes in their surroundings forced the ancient Apacheans to expand their food quest, it was natural for them to migrate down the “mountain corridor” formed by the Rocky Mountain chain.
 
Perry is the first researcher to attempt such an extensive reconstruction, and his study is the first to deal with the full range of Athapaskan-speaking peoples. His method will be instructive to students of other cultures who face a similar lack of historical and archaeological data.

Product Details

• Title: Western Apache Heritage: People of the Mountain Corridor
• Author: Richard J. Perry
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 314
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780292762763, 9780292765252, 0292765258, 0292762763
• Resource ID: LLS:9780292762763
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-21T19:23:39Z

About Richard J. Perry

Richard J. Perry, Jr., associate professor of church and society and urban ministry, has been on the faculty of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago since 1996. After his ordination in 1977, Perry served Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church, Gary, Ind., for three years. His experience in urban and multi-cultural ministries was honed as director of inclusive ministries for the North Carolina Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, and as director for Black ministries for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In 1999, he co-chaired the International Planning Committee for the Conference of International Black Lutherans held in Wittenberg, Germany, where he presented the paper “Justification and Racial Justice.” He was also a presenter at the first consultation between African and African-American Lutheran Theologians in Harare, Zimbabwe; and chaired the working group on racism in the church and society at the Lutheran World Federation’s Seventh Assembly in Budapest, Hungary. A published author, Perry contributed the chapter, “African American Lutheran Ethical Action,” to the book “The Promise of Lutheran Ethics” (Fortress Press 1998). His essay, “Justification by Grace and Its Social Implications,” was included in “Theology and the Black Experience” (Fortress 1988), and he co-authored with Albert Pero and Cheryl Stewart “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters...,” a Black cultural awareness resource published by Augsburg Fortress. Perry received the bachelor of arts degree from Carthage College, Kenosha, Wis. The master of divinity, master of theology and doctor of theology degrees were bestowed by the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.