In their own language the people of this land are Dził Łigai Si’án N’dee, and Dził Łigai is also the Western Apache name for Mount Baldy, one of the most sacred mountains to the Apache of Arizona. This map of the White Mountain Apache Tribe’s land prints the Tribal Council, the Cibecue Library, Canyon Day Junior High School, East Fork Mission School, Whiteriver Elementary School and Pacheta Lake, from Whiteriver out to Cibecue, with Amos Mountain, the Antelope Hills and Apache Butte giving shape to the land.
The Fort Apache Indian Reservation reaches across parts of Navajo County, Gila County and Apache County in eastern Arizona.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave modern data the look of a vintage atlas. The shaded relief of Amos Mountain, the Antelope Hills and Apache Butte comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. The reservation covers about 1.67 million acres, mostly pine forest, just south of the Mogollon Rim, and its largest community is Whiteriver.
On Top of Mountains People
The White Mountain Apache are a Western Apache people, and they were made up of three major groups, each built of bands and clans and, within them, families, with clan rules guiding marriages. In the White Mountain Apache dialect the largest group was known as the “On Top of Mountains People,” the second as the “Many Go to War People” and the third as the “At the Base of the Mountains People.” These names are older than any dealings with the United States, and some White Mountain Apache today have urged that they be used again.
Fort Apache, first called Camp Apache, was set up by the Army in 1870 at the suggestion of the White Mountain Apache leadership. In 1871 General George Crook enrolled 50 White Mountain Apache men as scouts, and because of their service he worked to let the tribe keep a large part of its homeland as its reservation. The Army left in 1922, and the next year the post went to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which opened the Theodore Roosevelt School there, a boarding school whose role in tribal assimilation is recognized along with the fort in its landmark designation. The tribe wrote its own constitution under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and in 1936 elected the tribal council that still governs the tribe and the reservation. Today the White Mountain Apache run the Roosevelt school themselves as a tribally controlled middle school, and the tribe operates the Sunrise ski resort, which its page calls the largest ski resort in Arizona, the Hon-Dah Resort Casino and Conference Center, and the Fort Apache Connection Transit bus service.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Streets and roads: Mogollon Rim Rd, Pinedale Rd, FS Rd 300, Rd 1046, FS Rd 107, Ridge Rd, Fs 139, Park Rd, Rim Dr, Burke Mountain Rd, Indian Trl, Mud Creek.
More street names, A to Z
43rd Rd, Bald Eagle Rd, Bia Rd, BIA Rd 1210, BIA Rd 1233, Carmel Rd, Cibecue Rd, Clear Creek, Clover Rd, Co Rd 332, Co Rd 3113, Co Rd B16, Co Rd B18, Co Rd B19, Co Rd B33, Co Rd B34, Co Rd R43, Elmer's Way, Fire Rd, Fr 185, Fs 117, Fs 271, FS Rd 2, FS Rd 64, FS Rd 65, FS Rd 96, FS Rd 118, Indian Rte 1, Indian Rte 12, Indian Rte 47, Indian Rte 55, Indian Rte 61, Mine Rd, N 3210, N Chief Ave, N Fork, Paradise Rd, Penrod Rd, Rd 1012, Rd 1100, Rd 1500, Rte 418, Sky Hi Rd, Tank Rd, Turkey Creek, Vernon County Rd, Vernon Mc Nary Rd, W Dish Chin Rd, Wildflower Rd.
The mountain, the fort and the ruins
Mount Baldy, Dził Łigai in Western Apache, is an extinct volcano whose summit lies within the reservation, the highest point in the White Mountains. It holds the headwaters of both the Little Colorado River and the Salt River, and its page says no other mountain in Arizona feeds as many rivers and streams. When Captain George M. Wheeler stood on top in 1873 he called the view “the most magnificent and effective” he had seen. The Western Apache lived within four sacred mountain ranges, and the White Mountains are one of them.
Fort Apache Historic Park, Tł’óghagai in Apache, is the tribe’s own historic park, about 4 miles south of Whiteriver. Its 288 acres hold 27 historic buildings and the old parade ground, and Buffalo Soldiers were among the troops once stationed there. The fort and the Theodore Roosevelt School together became a National Historic Landmark in 2012. At the park’s west end is the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center, Nohwike’ Bágowa, the “House of Our Footprints.” West of the fort, near Canyon Day, are the Kinishba Ruins, a 600-room great house that, by estimates, was built and lived in from the 1100s to the 1300s, which archaeologists link to both Hopi and Zuni history. The archaeologist Byron Cummings excavated it from 1931 to 1940 with students and Apache field assistants, and named it from the Apache words he recorded as the local name for the ruins, kin lishba, “brown house.” It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1964. The filmmaker and skateboarder Dustinn Craig, an enrolled White Mountain Apache who grew up on the reservation, has made films about his life as a White Mountain Apache person, including one about skateboarding at Fort Apache, and he directed the Geronimo episode of the PBS series We Shall Remain.
Around the map
Whiteriver, Ch’ilwózh in Western Apache, is the reservation’s largest settlement, with 4,520 people at the 2020 census. Cibecue, Dishchii’ Bikoh, “Horizontally Red Valley,” had 1,816 people at the same count, and education employs more of its people than any other work. Canyon Day, Yangongai, lies along the White River, which forms its southern edge. The Tribal Council, the Cibecue Library, Canyon Day Junior High School, East Fork Mission School, Whiteriver Elementary School, Pacheta Lake, Amos Mountain, the Antelope Hills and Apache Butte have their places on the sheet as well.
This map makes a good addition to an office, library or den, and it can help teach children the geography and history of the area. It’s made for everyone who calls White Mountain Apache Tribe home, from Whiteriver to Cibecue, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the land as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the White Mountain Apache Tribe map.
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