20 Research Essay Topics on Apache Native Americans

If you need to write a research essay on Apache Native Americans, consider the 20 excellent topics below. These are meant as a guide and can give you a great starting point from which to find a topic that is interesting to you personally and conforms with your writing assignment guidelines:

1. Federal Laws during the 1800’s That Influenced the Forced Removal of Many Apache Tribes
2. How the Customs of the Plains Apache Tribes in Oklahoma Differ from the Apache Native American Tribes in New Mexico and Arizona
3. Why the Tribes in Oklahoma Live on Trust Land in Lieu of a Reservation
4. How Living under the Apache Native American Laws and the U.S. Laws Can Present Legal Dilemmas
5. How Westward Expansion in the United States Impacted the Local Population of Apache Native Americans
6. Chores of Apache Native American Children Would Complete
7. Traditional Cradleboard Design Compared to Other Tribes
8. Factors That Have Influenced the Development of the Apache Native American Language
9. The Difference between the Tribal Council and the U.S. Congress
10. The Hunt of Apache Native Americans: Tools and Weapons
11. The Key Trading Partners of Apache Native Americans
12. Arts and Crafts of the Apache
13. The Main Apache Native American Legends in Comparison with Other Tribes
14. Gender Roles in the Apache Native American Tribes
15. The Apache Native American Homes Comparing to Other Tribes
16. Changes in Apache Native American Clothing over the Decades
17. Transportation Methods of the Apache Native American tribes
18. The Difference of Food in the Apache and Other Native American Tribes
19. Cultural Changes between the Five Tribes in Arizona
20. Cultural Changes between the Five Tribes in New Mexico

Aren’t those topics great? You can also find amazing facts on Apache Native Americans and a writing guide on a research essay. These will greatly boost your productivity. And below you will find an example essay on Native American Policies and Westward Expansion to help give you a better idea of what an essay on such topics might look like.

Native American Policies and Westward Expansion Sample Essay

Westward expansion in the United States toward the Great Plains, and federal Native American policies significantly impacted the local population of Apache Native Americans and further worsened the relationship between settlers and local Native Americans. Settlers impacted the local buffalo population which threated to decimate the local Apache population. As settlers moved, Native Americans were forced into reservations and off their native lands. The railroad construction only served to exacerbate this.

At the end of the Civil War, there were an increasing number of settlers moving toward the western part of the United States. Farmers, miners, and ranchers all moved across the Great Plains in spite of resistance from local Native Americans who currently resided in these regions. The soil, climate, railroads, and land laws like that of the Homestead Act were all significant factors that encouraged settlers to move toward the Plains areas. The large westward expansion was responsible for the culmination in the slaughter of significant numbers of wild buffaloes which had previously roamed freely in the area and sustained the local Native American populations. As the number of buffaloes decreased, the Native American way of life was significantly threatened. There arose an increasing number of conflicts in the area once the Federal government decided to relocate Native Americans from the traditional homeland toward reservations.

The conflict was not a new concept, but what was new was the construction of the transcontinental railroad which functioned as a significant catalyst for the conflicts emerging at the end of the Civil War. Americans previous to this were only able to move to the lands west with horseback or covered wagon. But the railroads allowed for thousands to migrate at a faster rate, in better comfort, and for far less money. The number of settlers increased and the conflicts with native tribes became more often which caused forced movement by the American settlers of the Native Americans, and led to increased legal ramifications that resulted in the creation of reservations.

New massacres took place at Sand Creek and at Wounded Knee, both of which were based on fights between native populations to keep their ancestral lands, and American settlers claiming the lands for their ranches, homesteads, and farms. The United States Army brought with them technology such as rifles which the Native Americans could not counter. Additionally, the troops had better supplies as a result of the railroad and could sustain fighting for longer periods of time. Eventually the population of the Apache Native Americans diminished rapidly with the continual swell of immigration. Diseases brought by Europeans and the famine resulting from the disappearance of buffalo both contributed to their demise.

References:

Amott, Teresa L., and Julie A. Matthaei. Race, gender, and work: A multi-cultural economic history of women in the United States. South End Press, 1996.
Basso, Keith H. Portraits of’the Whiteman’: Linguistic play and cultural symbols among the western Apache. Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Nabokov, Peter. Native American testimony: a chronicle of Indian-white relations from prophecy to the present, 1492-2000. Penguin Group USA, 1999.
Nagel, Joane. American Indian ethnic renewal: Red power and the resurgence of identity and culture. Oxford University Press, USA, 1997.
Opler, Morris Edward. An Apache life-way: The economic, social, and religious institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. U of Nebraska Press, 1941.
Opler, Edward Morris. Myths and tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians. Courier Corporation, 2012.
Tiller, Veronica E. Velarde. The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A History, 1846-1970. Univ of Nebraska Pr, 1983.