Hi
One problem with researching Apache Ancestry is that there is a miss conception about where did they really reside .The answer is every where they chose to live.They were Nomadic.They were as comfortable living in Mexico as they were New Mexico. That is why Apache women made could wives for .Miners,Trappers.And such.

As for My Grandmother At the age of 13 she became the "partner Wife" Apache way,of my Grandfather Richard Stephenson.They didn't even speak the same language.!!!!!! My Grandma could build a shelter out of anything if they were in the desert they built out of Rock.This is real history this is how my Dad lived growing up.So goes the illusion that the female children would not be traded for a pack mule"SMILE"

My Dad and a few of his brothers chose to live pretty much a Nomadic Life them selves .Where ever there was a mine so was he along with my Uncles and there Families.

There was Many Bands,Both in the western territories and Mexico.Mostly the Sonora Valle.
I have found some evidence that my Dads family was very comfortable with Mexico even when the family was located in the later years of turmoil of the civil war.

One other thing researching Apaches or Yaqui's.You cant go by Census so much because they thought nothing of changing there names .

There was a heavy influence from the Catholic church.The church would record there birth if possible.And this is something that still bothers me after researching, I still cant get used to it.But after a massacre the Church collected the names and are are pretty accurate with the dead.It Seamed Birth and Death and not what was in between was the most important.

And as for the most Repectected Researcher I can Recommend.Is a man Named Anthony Koenger a Doctorate Professor at Cal Poly University in Calif.

So I dont think that this panel doesn't want to help it is just a different area
of Native American history' Best to you and your Research.Trena