About 1300 CE a new people arrived in the southwest who spoke an Athapaskan language. When they first appeared, the southwest was undergoing a profound cultural change as the sophisticated world of the Anazai centering on Chaco Canyon was shattering probably for ecological reasons. Their descendants would transform themselves into a new network of Puebloans villages which encompassed much of Arizona and New Mexico, from the Colorado to the Rio Grande Rivers. These settlements among others included Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, Jemez, Santa Fe and Taos. These were essentially farming villages raising beans, corn, and squash, and living in multi-story pueblos for community and safety. It was the Puebloans who named these strangers, who began to appear in their midst, Apache which translates as enemy or stranger. The Apaches, hunters and gatherers, upon entering a strange land went through a process of acculturalization, both geographical and cultural. Because of Pueblo locations and geography the Chiricahuas Apaches became a mountain people. This was especially true of Cochise’s people, named Chiricahuas, which means “Mountain Wild Turkeys”. Cochise Band, the Chokonen Chiricahuas, ultimately settled in southeast corner of Arizona and became the people of the Dragoon/ Chiricahuas Mountains which offered them incredible variety of food and protection. The Apaches adopted many themes/customs/ beliefs from the Puebloans which in time became integrated into their oral stories about migration, Creation, and belief. In addition, they often trade with Pueblos for food stuff, cloth, pottery and turquoise. At other times, they might raid Pueblos when climate and hunting made life difficult. Pueblos had a much greater influence on the Eastern Apache Bands then the Western like Cochise’ Chokonen because of geography and proximity.
