Jicarilla

Member of an American Indian people who migrated from Canada to the southwest USA (Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico) between 1300 and 1500. A subgroup of the Eastern Apache nation, their language belongs to the Athabaskan family. Originally nomadic hunters, they adopted some agriculture in the south and became more settled and peaceful. Traditional crafts included basketry, beadwork, and a sparkling golden or black micaceous pottery, made from mica-rich clays. They now live on the Jicarilla reservation, New Mexico, and number about 2,000 (1990). Most of their income comes from oil and gas production.

In the southwest the Jicarilla were divided into the Llaneros (plains people), and Olleros (mountain valley people), depending on the local geography. They lived in small groups of extended families, and remained seminomadic, establishing semi-permanent settlements according to the seasonal supply of food. Their portable dwellings were called wickiups, and consisted of reeds attached to an elliptically shaped frame.

In the early 1700s the Comanche drove the Jicarilla south into New Mexico and Arizona, where they became more settled and took up agriculture in addition to hunting. Less warlike than the Eastern Apache, they avoided warfare with white settlers until the 1850s. In 1887 they were moved to their 300,000-ha/750,000-acre reservation in New Mexico.