The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas and are federally recognized as the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. Name The Plains Apache are also known as the Kiowa Apache, Naʼisha, or Na i sha Tindé, meaning "thieves" as the old meaning. However, in more recent times the negative meaning (thief) is beginning to be replaced by just Na i sha. They also used the term Kalth Tindé or γát dìndé meaning "cedar people" or Bá-ca-yé meaning "whetstone people". To their close allies, the much larger Kiowa tribe, who speak a completely unrelated language, they were known as Semat meaning "stealers." At major tribal events, the Kiowa Apache formed part of the Kiowa tribal "hoop" (ring of tipis). This may explain why the Kiowa named the Kiowa Apache Taugui meaning "sitting outside." Government Today the tribe is headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area covers parts of Caddo, Comanche, Cotton, Greer, Jackson, Kiowa, Tillman and Harmon Counties in Oklahoma. Their current Tribal Chairman is Durell Cooper III. Tribal members must have a minimum blood quantum of 1/8 Plains Apache descent and at least 1/8 total Indian blood to enroll in the tribe. Economic development The Apache Tribe has previously owned and operated casinos. The Apache, "Golden Eagle Casino" and "Silver Buffalo Casino" were closed in July 2013. They also issue their own tribal license plates. History In the early 18th century, the Plains Apache lived around the upper Missouri River and were closely connected to the Kiowa people. They were ethnically different and spoke a different language. Plains Apache entered this alliance with the Kiowa for mutual protection against hostile tribes. It is recorded that many Kiowa Apache did not learn the Kiowa language, preferring to communicate with their allies using the sophisticated Plains Indian Sign Language, at which the Kiowa were past masters (having probably devised much of the system). Even before contact with Europeans, their numbers were never large, and in 1780 their population was estimated at 400. The Kiowa Apache and Kiowa had migrated into the Southern Plains sometime around 1800. By the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867 the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache settled in Western Oklahoma and Kansas. They were forced to move south of the