The Apacheans: A Comparative Study in Culture and Cultural Dynamics

FAIN: RO-11851-73

University of Oklahoma, Norman (Norman, OK 73019-3003)
Morris E. Opler (Project Director: September 1972 to present)

To complete a definitive study of the seven Apachean or Southern Athapaskan-speaking peoples encountered by the Spanish in northern Mexico, the American Southwest, and Southern Plains. Research will say something significant about when the Apacheans spearated from their northern or western kin, the route or routes by which they came into their historical territory, whether they represent one or more wave of migration, how long the process of cultural and tribal differentiation has taken, what common values, beliefs, and institutions have been preserved, what forces of change have been at work, and what cultural variations have developed.