The Jicarilla Apache people are a proud people.  Cultural traditions are grounded in the ties to the land, natural resources, and ways of teaching.  To understand the Jicarilla Apache people today, it is important to comprehend a difficult history and story of cultural survival.

The aboriginal homelands of the Jicarilla Apache spanned four states, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas which represent over 50 million acres of land.  Oral stories relate that the Jicarilla Apache traveled as far north as Wyoming citing Jicarilla names for mountain ranges in the area.   Before the coming of the Europeans, an estimated 12 – 14 thousand Jicarilla Apaches lived upon the land, living with the environment and acting in accordance with the Creator’s instruction to honor and respect what was given to them.  Between the 1600s and 1800s, after the westward expansion of Spanish, Mexican and white settlers, prospectors and the trade enterprises, the number of Jicarilla Apaches dwindled to less than 1,000 due to warfare and disease.

As a result of political pressure to remove the Apaches from their homelands, the Jicarilla Apache Reservation was established in 1887 by Executive Order signed by President Grover Cleveland and subsequently President Theodore Roosevelt signed another Executive Order in 1907 establishing the southern portion of the Reservation totaling over 875,000 acres of land.  The Reservation is located in the upper reaches of the San Juan River Basin and the Rio Chama in north central New Mexico.  The northern boundary abuts the Colorado border.  The western boundary is about 15 miles east of the Navajo Reservoir.   Dulce, NM is the heart of the reservation and is home to the Jicarilla Apache Nation’s tribal headquarters. 

The Jicarilla Apaches are characterized by their Athapaskan language and are known for their prowess for hunting buffalo, elk, deer and other animals of the area.  Two clans exist today, the Red Clan (Llanero) and White Clan (Ollero).  Although the people have endured loss of their land base, sacred sites now in the control of private land owners, and rapidly losing elders who are the carriers of traditional knowledge, the people are hopeful.  In the spirit of holding on to what is left, the Jicarilla Apache Nation supports the initiatives of  the Jicarilla Apache Heritage Center and is grateful that it can satisfy a need for preserving and revitalizing the arts, stories and history.