Dismal River culture

[7] The Apache evolved from the Athabaskan peoples who migrated onto the North American continent through the current state of Alaska and northwestern Canada.

Most of the Dismal River people migrated south in the first half of the 18th century due to pressure from the Comanche from the west and Pawnee and French from the east.

[8] There have been no sites found to date of the period in which the Southern Athabaskans were nomadic, starting about 1500 A.D.[8] Dismal River villages generally had 15-20 structures and were located near streams.

[3] Round houses, shaped like hogans, were built slightly underground or on level ground, about 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter.

[3] The people of the Dismal River culture hunted, primarily bison,[2] using small side-notched, triangular or unnotched projectile points made of stone.

Valverde gives few details about the Cuartelejo but notably does not mention the existence of horses among them, commenting that they transported their goods with dogs.

On approaching the encampment, Bourgmont was met by 80 mounted men illustrating that some of the Dismal River people possessed horses by this time.

The explorer noticed that some of the Apache still used flint knives for skinning buffalo and felling trees, an indicator that not much European trade had reached them.

[10] Within a few years after Bourgmont's visit, the Padouca or Dismal River people whom he had met in Kansas were gone, pushed south by the Comanche.