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White Mountain Apache - Arizona (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 1 February 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

White Mountain Apache - Arizona

The White Mountain Reservation-sometimes still referred to as the Fort Apache Reservation-is the second-largest Apache reservation in the country. Located east of Phoenix, Arizona, it encompasses 1,665,000 acres and includes vast pine forests, mountains, and high desert. These environments are honored in the seal of the White Mountain Apaches.

The Flag

The flag is white, placing the tribal seal on a red outline map of the reservation (photo provided by All The King's Flags, the Phoenix, Arizona, manufacturer of the flag sometime after 1990). Within the seal a rainbow rises against a pale blue sky over a landscape and an elk stands by a river near a wikiyup. In the distance are snow-capped mountains while nearer, at the base of the seal, is a pine forest. An earthen Apache vase in the foreground is flanked by two feathers of red and yellow and a pair of lightning bolts in yellow near the outer edge of the seal.

Surrounding this very elaborate central area is a black ring, with " * WHITE MOUNTAIN * APACHE TRIBE * " below in white and "GREAT * SEAL" above in yellow. Four colored stars of eight points separate the parts of the tribal inscription. The stars are white at the top, black on the right, yellow on the left, and purple (sometimes shown as red) at the base. As on many tribal flags [see Miccosukee], the colors red, white, yellow, and black play a major symbolic role and the stars refer to the cardinal directions.

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 1 February 2008