Kuper replies
We are dealing here with very broad-brush characterizations, and the label ‘Apache’ covers a variety of pre-conquest lifestyles. However, it is generally agreed that farming was a minor aspect of pre-conquest Apache subsistence activities, and that raiding was very significant, particularly among the Western Apache. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the Chiricahua (Geronimo's division) “were perhaps the most nomadic and aggressive of the Apache west of the Rio Grande”. It was their nomadism that “made their predatory life-style possible”. It is true, nevertheless, that the equally aggressive settlers forced a number of Apache groups into heroic acts of self-defence which were wrongly represented as unjustified raids.
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Kuper, A. The Western front. Nature 395, 634 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/27061-c1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/27061-c1