Apache Mothers and Daughters

Apache Mothers and Daughters, an illustrated family history of four generations of Chiricahua Apache women from 1848 to the present, is an eloquent testimonial to the strength and the stamina of Apache women.  Over the course of thirty-five years, anthropologist Ruth McDonald Boyer collected the remembrances of Narcissus Duffy Gayton, great-great-granddaughter of the Apache chief Victorio. This intimate record of Apache life, told from an Apache perspective, highlights the key roles women play in tribal life.

The story begins with Dilth-cheyhen, Victorio’s daughter, whose life encompassed much of the traditional cultures of the Tchi-hèné band of the Chiricahua Apaches. Her daughter, Beshád-e, was just sixteen in 1886 when the twenty-seven-year incarceration of the Chiricahuas began. Beshád-e and her family were forced to move to Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and then New Mexico, where the Mescalero Apaches remain today. When Beshád-e’s daughter Christine died of tuberculosis in her twenties, she left her daughter Narcissus in Beshád-e’s care.  After struggling to complete her education, Narcissus returned to serve her tribe as a registered nurse and an advocate for health care.

This account documents rituals such as the puberty rite and the cradle-making ceremony, the importance of religion (traditional as well as Anglo) in Apache life, and the intense bond between Apache mothers and daughters.

Ruth McDonald Boyer was Professor Emerita in the California College of Arts and Crafts and Research Associate in the Boyer Research Institute.

Narcissus Duffy Gayton, a registered nurse and director of the Mescalero Apache Reservation’s Community Health Representative Program, also served as a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council.