[4] The neighboring Western Apache ethnonym for them was Koun'nde ('wild rough people'), from which the Spanish derived their use of Tonto ('loose, foolish') for the group.

The kindred but enemy Navajo to the north called both the Tonto Apache and their allies, the Yavapai, Dilzhʼíʼ dinéʼiʼ, literally translated as 'people with high-pitched voices'.

The Tonto Apache lived alongside the Wipukepa (“People from the Foot of the Red Rock”) and Kewevkapaya, two of the four subgroups of the Yavapai of central and western Arizona.

Therefore they formed bilingual mixed-tribal bands,[6] whose members could not be readily distinguished by outsiders (Americans, Mexicans or Spanish) except by their languages.

From their sheep raising, the Navajo were able to acquire more European goods in trade, such as blankets, foods, and various tools, which the Tonto lacked.

In addition, "Enemy Navajo" often served as scouts against the Tonto Apache for the hostile tribes and Europeans.

Typically hunter-gatherers, the Tonto Apache hunted (antelope, deer, birds, bush rats, etc.)

When stocks were running low and the stored food supplies were depleted, it was common that a respected woman (so-called 'woman chief' or elder) brought public attention to the plight.

The Western Apache raided over an area from the Colorado River in western Arizona, to the Zuni (Nashtizhé – 'black-dyed eyebrows') and Hopi (Tseka kiné ` – 'people who dwell in stone houses') in the north, to the later Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango in the far south.

They forced the residents to travel by foot in winter 180 miles (290 km) to the San Carlos Reservation.

These two reservations were combined in 1937, and the people formed the federally recognized Camp Verde Yavapai-Apache Nation.

Their reservation has many significant historic sites which have been preserved, including the Montezuma Castle National Monument.

[13] The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation is located within Maricopa County, Arizona, approximately 20 miles from Phoenix.

[14] By 1910, the Office of Indian Affairs was trying to relocate its residents to open up the area for development and enable other interests to use its water rights.

The Guwevka'ba:ya or Southeastern Yavapai on Fort McDowell Reservation call themselves Aba:ja (″The People").

After 20 years of exile, some Tonto Apache gradually returned to Payson only to find white settlers had taken much of their land.

[citation needed] The majority of the Tonto Apache, however, had decided to return together with their Yavapai allies and relatives to the Camp Verde Reservation to form the Yavapai-Apache Nation of today.

The Tonto Apache were divided into the following bands: Northern Tonto (inhabited the upper reaches of the Verde River and ranged north toward the San Francisco Mountains north of Flagstaff, because they shared hunting and gathering grounds with Wi:pukba/Wipukepaya bands of the Yavapai they formed bilingual mixed-tribal Northern Tonto Apache-Wi:pukba/Wipukepaya bands with common headmen, both the band/local group or its headman usually had two names, one was Apache (Southern Athabascan) the other Yavapai (Upland Yuman).)