# Apaches today in USA **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apaches-today-in-usa/855069 "2020-06-04T20:08:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apaches-today-in-usa/855069/1 "2020-06-04T20:08:10Z")
Are there any descendants of Apaches today who are famous in their field. How many present day Americans speak any of the Apache languages or even understand it. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apaches-today-in-usa/855069/2 "2020-06-04T20:26:03Z")
well, I know of two people … my cousin and her husband whos helping with a ministry based charity group… although she says the res she works (its been 4-5 years) at is worse than Compton/south-central la could ever be… ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apaches-today-in-usa/855069/3 "2020-06-04T20:55:54Z")
> [@Nansbread1](#): > > How many present day Americans speak any of the Apache languages or even understand it. There are about 30,000 Apaches at present. They speak at least two distinct languages (and a variety of dialects), including [Western Apache](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Apache_language) with 14,000 speakers (although only 20% are fluent), and Eastern Apache, which seems to have fewer than 1,000 speakers. > [@](#): > > Are there any descendants of Apaches today who are famous in their field. The Wiki page on the tribe includes [notable Apache](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache#Notable_Apache), including a number of artists. Two of the most prominent are [Deborah Parker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Parker) and [Mary Kim Titla.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kim_Titla) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apaches-today-in-usa/855069/4 "2020-06-04T21:13:46Z")
Apparently there are something like 200,000 speakers of Apache languages: > **[Southern Athabaskan languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Athabaskan_languages)** > > Southern Athabaskan (also Apachean) is a subfamily of Athabaskan languages spoken primarily in the Southwestern United States (including Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) with two outliers in Oklahoma and Texas. The language is spoken to a much lesser degree in the northern Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, and Nuevo León. Those languages are spoken by various groups of Apache and Navajo peoples. Elsewhere, Athabaskan is spoken by many indigenous groups of peoples in... You have to click on each of the links for the individual languages. This Wikipedia entry says that Navajo is an Apache language, which I didn’t know before. This entry is for the Southwestern Athabaskan language subfamily, which is a part of the Na-Dené language family. Most of the languages in the Southwestern Athabaskan subfamily are usually referred to as Apache languages, but Navajo is usually not called that. If you don’t count Navajo, there are probably less than 10,000 speakers of Apache languages. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apaches-today-in-usa/855069/5 "2020-06-04T21:56:22Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > This entry is for the Southwestern Athabaskan language subfamily, which is a part of the Na-Dené language family. The other members of the Na-Dene group are found in Northwestern North America. The Na-Dene are also [genetically distinct from other Native Americans](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Kos/publication/29444958/figure/fig7/AS:669465637302292@1536624454498/Distribution-of-mtDNA-haplogroup-frequencies-among-Native-American-populations-modified.ppm) (Amerinds), and seem to have originated from a later migration. Most stopped in the Northwest, but the Navaho/Apache kept going until they reached the Southwest.