Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to the oppression of Indigenous Americans. 

The Apache people are a group of tribes from the Southwest and Southern Plains. There are several Apache tribes who function as autonomous units and speak various Southern Athabaskan languages. Deloria explains that many white audiences see Apache people, such as the Mescalero, as particularly violent.

This is an anthropological term describing an individual or group whose way of life juggles two different cultural traditions. Certain anthropologists have declared Indigenous Americans as “bicultural.” Deloria sees this as the type of overly simplistic analysis that leads to ineffective aid to tribal people.

One of the “five civilized tribes,” the Chippewas are used as an example of an Indigenous group that largely assimilated into white culture very early in the United States’ history.