Playing Cards of the Apaches: A Study in Cultural Adaptation

When Chiricahuas and Western Apaches could no longer obtain Mexican printed playing cards, they made their own cards on horsehide rectangles. The results combined Spanish and Mexican designs with traditional Apache motifs to create a unique folk-art genre. At least as early as 1581, Indian tribes in contact with Spaniards had access to paper cards in what is now northwestern Mexico and the American Southwest. When renewed hostilities with Mexico stifled trade, Apache painting of rawhide cards began about 1830 and continued for another century, with Chiricahua fugitives in northern Mexico using such cards as late as 1932. Based on four decades of research by Virginia and Harold Wayland, here is the definitive history of more than 100 packs of Apache playing cards in museums and private collections around the world.

Virginia Wayland became interested in the history of playing cards in about 1956. She first saw a pack of Apache cards in Germany in 1959 and never lost interest in these uniquely American art works. Seminal publications on Apache cards in 1061 both dealt with the introduction of cards to one culture by another, and the ensuing evolution that occurred in card motifs. Harold Wayland was a Professor of Engineering Science at the California Institute of Technology. In 1962, he and Virginia published Of Carving, Cards & Cookery, combining a history of cards with his love of cooking. This collaboration launched a secondary career for the Waylands that led to more than 60 articles and books on various aspects of the history of playing cards. They were also members of the International Playing-Card Society, starting with its inception in 1972. Alan Ferg was the Archivist at the Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. He has done archaeology and material culture studies in the Southwest for more than 30 years. He is the editor of Western Apache Material Culture. The only card game he knows how to play is tsi bi din.