Their traditional territory was not flat, accessible country — it was the rugged terrain of the Dragoon Mountains, the Chiricahua Mountains, the Dos Cabezas Mountains, the Sierra Madre of Mexico.

This geography was home country for the Chiricahua; it was difficult, hostile terrain for everyone else.

The Apache world was organized around small, mobile groups — extended family units called local groups — that moved through this terrain following seasonal resources and conducting raiding activities against the more settled peoples to the south.

Raiding was not the same as warfare in Apache culture; it was a method of economic acquisition, distinct from warring, which was conducted for purposes of revenge or protection.

The distinction mattered in Apache practice but was not well understood by Spanish, Mexican, or American authorities, who typically experienced both as simply “Apache attacks.”