Apache raiding was not simple banditry.

It was a sophisticated economic system that had developed over centuries in response to the specific conditions of the Apache homeland and the relationships between the Apache and their neighbors.

Raids were conducted according to specific protocols, with recognized leaders, defined objectives, and a distribution of proceeds that followed established conventions.

During the resistance period, raiding became the primary means by which the bands that were not on reservations obtained the material resources they needed to continue fighting.

The raids on ranches and settlements in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and northern Mexico that characterized this period were understood by the military and the settler press as savage attacks on innocent civilians.