The Chiricahua Apache (NDE) are the Indigenous People of the Southwest, now known as New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Sonora, and Chihuahua, in northern Mexico. Over time, the Apache occupied and existed within their territories known to all as the "Apacheria" with each local group adapting to their own distinct environment, climate and or terrains by available food sources. Through creation stories and an oral history passed down for hundreds of generations the Apache have maintained their heritage and culture to this day.

The Chiricahua people are probably the widest known group of Apache based on the prolific and often time romanticized portrayals of two great leaders, Geronimo and Cochise. In truth leaders and all Apache displayed character traits like no others. After their surrender in 1886, the Chiricahua people were displaced and scattered, some were shuffled from prison sites in Florida, Alabama and Oklahoma as the longest held prisoners of war in history, 27 years. This experience has become an element of our identity one of adaptation to any environment which we continue to honor with organizations such as the Chiricahua Apache prisoner of War Decedents.