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Spanish exploration of the Southwest had a significant impact on the indigenous population who thrived in the desert landscape. During the Spanish Colonial period, the Spanish introduced playing cards that were promptly adopted by the Mexicans and Apaches.
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Spanish exploration of the Southwest had a significant impact on the indigenous population who thrived in the desert landscape. During the Spanish Colonial period, the Spanish introduced playing cards that were promptly adopted by the Mexicans and Apaches. The Apache people began playing cards as early as the 1500s, and cards were widely embraced and played by the 1800s. Based on the card games Spanish Monte and El Leon, the Apaches adopted playing cards and made it their own.
The Apaches were the only Native American group in Arizona to make playing cards. The Apaches crafted cards out of deerskin or horsehide. To create the cards, deerskin or horsehide needed to be carefully cleaned, stretched and allowed to dry.
Each deck consists of 40 cards and has four suits including coins, swords, clubs and cups. Every deck created by the Apaches had these four suits with artistic variation in yellow, blue, white, and black. The card game played by the Apaches is called “Apache Playing Cards” and is still played today. Apache Playing Cards is similar to poker and games often go late into the evening.
The playing cards displayed on each greeting card are samples from the Apache deerskin playing cards in the Pinal County Historical Society’s (PCHS) permanent collection. PCHS houses 19 Apache playing cards that date back to the late 1800s. Four cards were chosen for reproduction, to provide a sample from each suit in the deck. The inside cover of each greeting card has the playing card name in both White Mountain (Whiteriver), a variety of the Western Apache language, and English. The White Mountain variety of Western Apache is very close in pronunciation and spelling to the San Carlos variety. PCHS sincerely thanks the San Carlos Apache culture, language and tradition group, the San Carlos Culture Center Museum, for providing insight into these cards and permitting us to reproduce them.
For more information refer to the following sources: Greenfield, Phillip J. 1971 “Playing Card Names in Western Apache.” International Journal of American Linguistics 37 (3): 195-196.; Wayland, Virginia, Harold Wayland, and Alan Ferg. 2006. Playing Cards of the Apaches: A Study in Cultural Adaptation. Screenfold Press, Tucson, Az.
