Based on his studies, Goodwin classified the Western Apache into five groups, but some of these divisions have been disputed by other anthropologists and linguists.
He contracted tuberculosis when young (when there was no cure) and was sent to the Mesa Ranch School in Arizona for its dry climate, believed to be more healthful.
[1] He studied informally and was largely self-taught, although he did some graduate work at the University of Chicago in 1939, when he completed his monograph on the social organization of the Western Apache.
"[2] Richard noted that while the issue of chieftainship had not been treated adequately in the academic literature, Goodwin devoted considerable attention to the subject, stressing the obligations of chiefs as well as their privileges.
Goodwin also discussed the origins of clans, which he said only the White Mountain Apache and Navajo had, of the Southern Athabaskan-speaking peoples.
Richard praised Goodwin's discussions of avoidance and joking behavior, for he included many exceptions (and the reasons for them) as well as the rules of practice, to show how the people varied in daily life.
[2] The book was reprinted by the University of Arizona Press in 1969, including a short biography of Goodwin by the anthropologist Edward H. Spicer and a new index.
[4] Willem de Reuse finds linguistic evidence supporting only three major groupings: White Mountain, San Carlos, and Dilzhe'e (Tonto), with San Carlos as the most divergent dialect and Dilzhe'e a remnant intermediate member of a dialect continuum previously spanning the Western Apache language and Navajo.
The anthropologist Edward H. Spicer wrote of Goodwin, "His promising work was cut short, but even so he succeeded in laying the foundations of a sound ethnology of a people whom he had learned during ten years to understand and respect.