By Cindy Carcamo
January 13, 2014, 8:36 p.m.
AKELA FLATS, N.M. Each year, Emily Haozous joins other Fort Sill Apache tribal members in a mountain spirit dance in Oklahoma.
But the spirits they pay tribute to and invoke for power and protection belong to a mountain more than 600 miles to the west, in the tribe’s ancestral homeland in southwestern New Mexico.
More than a century ago, Apaches with lineage to Geronimo were driven from New Mexico and taken as prisoners of war before eventually being released in Oklahoma. Now, the tribe’s 700-plus members want to return to the yucca-speckled desert town of Akela Flats.
“I feel like New Mexico is our home,” Haozous said. “I feel like the dirt is part of who I am.”
But a battle still lies ahead.
Read the full article at http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ff-apaches-new-mexico-20140114,0,3391820.story#ixzz2qV5X1z4f