Ndé Bikéeyá is situated in the Cochise Stronghold, a rugged box canyon in the Dragoon Mountains on the west side of the former Chiricahua Apache Reservation, which the U.S. Government established in 1872 after peace negotiations with Chiricahua Apache Chief Cochise.

Cochise lived in the stronghold until he died in 1874. Two years later, the U.S. closed the reservation and forced the people to move to the San Carlos Apache reservation. Then, it closed the Chiricahua’s Ojo Caliente reservation in New Mexico and moved the people there to San Carlos.

When Geronimo surrendered in 1886, the U.S. removed all Chiricahua Apaches to Florida, Alabama, and finally Oklahoma as prisoners of war. The people remained united until 1913-1914, when the U.S. split them apart upon releasing them from imprisonment.

A mere forty years after Cochise’s death, his people had been separated from their homeland and each other. After one hundred and fifty years, we believe the time has come to reunite the people with their land and each other and have founded Ndè Bikéeyá to help make it happen.