By Ruben Leyva

J. Edward Chamberlain asks us, "If you claim this land as yours, where are the stories that belong to this place, the narratives that explain your history, culture, and identity?" During Native American Heritage Month, which is dedicated to honoring Native histories and cultures, I reflect on my family's deep-rooted connection to the Gila River. How far back do my people's stories (Ndé bii nagod'I'hii) connect to the Gila River? It is unclear (łaago yaak'os). FamilyTreeDNA's new feature, Globetrekker, a DNA mapping program that traces DNA travel, tells me that long ago (doo'aníína' 'ágodzaahí), my Native American DNA traveled south through Canada, through the present U.S., into Mexico, and back into Arizona. But who can trust that since DNA is constantly being updated?

All I know is that my father, Gilberto, told me we come from the Gila. The Leyva family married into the family documented as Pi-sa-ho or Pi-sa-go. The use of 'Ydalgo' for my ancestors was derived from Pisago by Spanish missionaries. When spelled correctly, the name Bi-sza-he or Bi-sza-ha means 'from the Riverbank or Cliff People.' Frederick Webb Hodge and Edward S. Curtis' 1907 book "The North American Indian" has documented the Coyotero Apache (White Mountain Apache) Pis-A-Ho clan. My mentor, Brother Juan Rojelio, a Chokonen Apache, tells me that our people do not practice a clan system, but the connection is compelling.

Apache oral histories say Biszahe(a) people originate between Kinishba and Cedar Creek. The Kinishba site, derived from the Apache word 'ki dałbaa,' meaning 'Brown House,' sits on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. The place (goz'áá ni' gost'án biká' yó) was the home of ancestral Mogollon Pueblo people living in large multi-family stone structures. A migration map of the Kayenta immigrants from the present Navajo Nation territory in northeastern Arizona around 1250 AD shows a southerly diaspora that feeds what became known as the ancestral Salado culture. The mention of the Salado culture interests me because of its association with the Blue and San Francisco Rivers. Also, the mention of obsidian trade from Mule Creek, just east of the region in New Mexico, presents a fascinating potential connection. According to archeologist Karl W. Laumbach, the Salado traded obsidian from Mule Creek sourced on the Upper Gila east of the Safford basin exclusively with other Salado diasporans.

Going back to 1250 AD feels like a reach. However, I have copies of my family's name on 18th and 19th-century maps near the Blue River, which feeds the Gila River in Arizona. French mapmaker Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697-1782) is one such person who likely used the discredited Peñalosa map that preceded him in creating his map, using the Leyva surname. The connection between that location on the Blue River and the oral histories of my Apache mentors in the first phase is fascinating. I am explicitly referencing an area north of the Gila River between the Blue River and the Mogollon Mountains (Dził Nadàza'ii) to the east. It is the location of modern Greenlee County in southeastern Arizona, particularly the Morenci and Clifton, Arizona communities. Greenlee County was the far western territorial boundaries of the Bedonkohe name 'In Front at the End (of our territory) People,' making us eastern neighbors to the San Carlos and White Mountain Apache with whom I have ties.

In 1965, William G. Pollard III wrote a meaningful and detailed thesis on the "Structure and Stress: Social Change Among the Fort Sill Apache and Their Ancestors 1870 – 1960," using interviews with Chiricahua band informants at Fort Sill. Like my family and others, Pollard insists that the Bedonkohe were initially a separate sub-tribe or band. Pollard's research placed the Bedonkohe closer to the Chihene, a more easterly allied band who also floodwater farmed. This differed from the other two bands, the Chokonen and Ndendahe. The area near Morenci and Clifton, Arizona, was the location of the historic Mogollon Apache. Between 1712 and 1715, Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon governed New Mexico. The Mogollon Mountains, where we roamed, are named after Governor Flores Mogollon and, as such, derives the name Mogollon Apache. Like Harry W. Basehart and other scholars, Pollard has opined that the Mogollon Apache and the Bedonkohe are the same.

The 1946 U.S. Indian Claims Commission (ICC) set out to assess land claims for Native American tribes that lost aboriginal lands to the U.S. In 1969, an ICC opinion asserted that the Greenlee County, Arizona, area was aboriginal Mogollon Apache territory. The Fort Sill Apache ICC opinion report (1968) claimed southern Greenlee County, including the community of present-day Duncan, but not Morenci and Clifton. This information is supported by anthropologist Albert H. Schroeder's territorial map - 'Chiricahua Apache Locales 1797-1876.'

The ICC confusingly attributes most of Greenlee County to the Western Apache. Bedonkohe Apache Geronimo said he was born in No-doyohn Canyon, a location currently in modern-day Arizona. My ancestral homeland in Clifton was not included in the Fort Sill ICC process. To that point, the late Morris E. Opler mentioned only three bands—Chokonen, Ndendahe, and Chihene— strangely omitting the Bedonkohe (Mogollon Apache) as separate. Opler grouped the Mogollon Apache with the Chihene.

Pollard reported that two informants said the Bedonkohe Apache were distinct from the other three bands. He reported being told, "...the Bedonkohe were a small tribe [band] who had migrated from Mexico to Arizona, where they had established themselves northeast of the Chiricahua." This location would presumably be southeast and east of the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache tribes. Interestingly, this information corresponds with my FamilyTree DNA Globetrekker result. On page 25, Pollard said, "Betzinez [Fort Sill Apache and Geronimo's relative] says that the Bedonkohe were concentrated around present-day Clifton, Arizona. Clifton, Duncan, and Maple Peak all lie within present-day Greenlee County, Arizona, east [west] of the Blue River." Pollard references Betzinez's book "I Fought with Geronimo," pages 14-15.

I am still determining how far my ancestry dates to this location, but most believe we have always existed here. Many of my ancestors' genealogy is corroborated by the late anthropologist William B. Griffen, like the 4th great-grandfather Maturán, AKA 'Francisco de Namiquipa,' Itán, AKA 'Julian,' Negrito, AKA 'Nerio,' and Tablishim, were sons of Maco. Maco, also spelled Mahko, was baptized as 'Marcelino.' In the autobiography Geronimo's Story of His Life, he said, "My grandfather, Maco, had been our chief. I never saw him, but my father (Tablishim) often told me of ... this old warrior." Questions exist about whether Maco was born for the Bedonkohe band or married into Bedonkohe-Mogollon Apache territory. Pollard's informants, who reported the Bedonkohe in Mexico and Arizona, have added to the confusion. Further, our family knows of Maco's ties to the interior of Mexico as far south as Indé, Durango, named after what we call ourselves 'Indé' or 'Ndé,' meaning 'the People.'

My family's ties to the Gila River and surrounding areas are deeply rooted in history and ancestral memory. FamilyTreeDNA results suggest ancient migrations through the Americas, while my father's oral histories highlight our enduring connection to the Gila. The relationship between the Mogollon Apache (Bedonkohe), our sister tribes and bands, and these landscapes is evident. Although further research is needed, our family's stories and connections remain strong. The Navajo (Diné) have a long and much-debated connection to the 12th-century Pueblos of Chaco Canyon. My Apache family has a similar oral history and respect (yińłsih) for Kinishba.