Apache (pronounced /əˈpætʃiː/) is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the American Southwest. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) language, and are related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan speakers of Alaska and western Canada. The modern term Apache excludes the related Navajo people.

However, the Navajo and the other Apache groups are clearly related through culture and language and thus are considered Apachean. Apachean peoples formerly ranged over eastern Arizona, northwestern Mexico, New Mexico, and parts of Texas and the Great Plains. There was little political unity among the Apachean groups.

The groups spoke seven different languages. The current division of Apachean groups includes the Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan, and Plains Apache (formerly Kiowa-Apache). Apache groups are now in Oklahoma and Texas and on reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Many Navajo reside on a 16,000,000-acre (65,000 km2) reservation in the Four Corners region of the United States. Some Apacheans have moved to large metropolitan areas, such as New York City. The largest Apache urban communities are Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Phoenix, Denver, San Diego and Los Angeles.[citation needed] Some Apacheans were employed in migrant farm labor to be relocated to agricultural regions of Southern California like the Coachella, Imperial and Colorado River valleys, where now tens of thousands of Apacheans live.[citation needed] The Apachean tribes were historically very powerful, constantly at enmity with the Spaniards and Mexicans for centuries.

The first Apache raids on Sonora appear to have taken place during the late 17th century. The U.S. Army, in their various confrontations, found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategists. The warfare between Apachean peoples and Euro-Americans has led to a stereotypical focus on certain aspects of Apachean cultures that are often distorted through misperception as noted by anthropologist Keith Basso: The present-day Apache groups include the Jicarilla and Mescalero of New Mexico, the Chiricahua of the Arizona-New Mexico border area, the Western Apache of Arizona, the Lipan Apache of southwestern Texas, and the Plains Apache of Oklahoma.

There undoubtedly existed other Apache groups which are not as well-known by modern anthropologists and historians.

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