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Chiricahua

Chiricahua is a band of Apache Native Americans.

Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua (Tsokanende) are related to other Apache groups: Ndendahe (Mogollon, Carrizaleño), Tchihende (Mimbreño), Sehende (Mescalero), Lipan, Salinero, Plains, and Western Apache. Chiricahua historically shared a common area, language, customs, and intertwined family relations with their fellow Apaches. At the time of European contact, they had a territory of 15 e6acre in Southwestern New Mexico and Southeastern Arizona in the United States and in Northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico.

Today Chiricahua live in Northern Mexico and in the United States where they are enrolled in three federally recognized tribes: the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, located near Apache, Oklahoma, with a small reservation outside Deming, New Mexico; the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation near Ruidoso, New Mexico; and the San Carlos Apache Tribe in southeastern Arizona.

Name
The Chiricahua Apache, also written as Chiricagui, Apaches de Chiricahui, Chiricahues, Chilicague, Chilecagez, and Chiricagua, were given that name by the Spanish. The White Mountain Coyotero Apache, including the Cibecue and Bylas groups of the Western Apache, referred to the Chiricahua by the name Ha'i’ą́há, while the San Carlos Apache called them Hák'ą́yé which means ″Eastern Sunrise″, or ″People in the East″. Sometimes they adapted this appellation and referred to themselves also as Ha’ishu Na gukande ('Sunrise People'). The Mescalero Apache called the Western Apache and Chiricahua bands to their west Shá'i'áõde ("Western Apache People", "The People of the Sunset", "The People of the West"), when referring only to Chiricahuas they used Ch'úk'ânéõde ("People of a ridge or mountainside [made of loose rocks]") or sometimes Tã'aa'ji k'ee'déõkaa'õde ("The Ones who are Covered [with breech cloths]"). Navajo refer to the Chiricahua as Chíshí ("Southern People").

The Chiricahua autonym, or name by which they refer to themselves, is simply (depending on dialect) Nde, Ne, Néndé, Héndé, Hen-de or õne ("The People, Men", "the People of"); they never called themselves ″Apaches". The Chiricahua referred to outsiders, such as Americans, Mexicans or other Indians, as Enee, ⁿdáa or Indah / N'daa. This word has two possible meanings, the first being "strange people, non-Apache people" or "enemy", but another being "eye". Sometimes it is said that all Apaches referred to the Americans and European settlers (with exception of the Mexicans) as Bi'ndah-Li'ghi' / Bi'nda-li'ghi'o'yi ("White Eyes"), but this seems a name from Mescalero and Lipan Apache bands, as the Chiricahua bands called them Daadatlijende, meaning "Blue/green eye people" or Indaaɫigáí / Indaaɫigánde meaning "White skinned or pale colored people" or literally "Strange, non-Apache people, which are white-skinned"). Łigáí means "it is white" or it can be translate as "it is pale colored". The í on the end usually translates as "the one that is", but in the context of human beings, can mean "the group who are".

Language
The Chiricahua language (n'dee biyat'i) is a Southern Athabaskan language from the Na-dene language family. It is very closely related to Mescalero, and more distantly related to Western Apache. It's considered a national language of Mexico and is regulated by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas.

Culture and organization
Several loosely affiliated bands of Apache came improperly to be usually known as the Chiricahuas. These included the Chokonen (recte: Tsokanende), the Chihenne (recte: Tchihende), the Nednai (Nednhi) and Bedonkohe (recte, both of them together: Ndendahe). Today, all are commonly referred to as Chiricahua, but they were not historically a single band nor the same Apache division, being more correctly identified, all together, as "Central Apaches".

Many other bands and groups of Apachean language-speakers ranged over eastern Arizona and the American Southwest. The bands that are grouped under the Chiricahua term today had much history together: they intermarried and lived alongside each other, and they also occasionally fought with each other. They formed short-term as well as longer alliances that have caused scholars to classify them as one people.

The Apachean groups and the Navajo peoples were part of the Athabaskan migration into the North American continent from Asia, across the Bering Strait from Siberia. As the people moved south and east into North America, groups splintered off and became differentiated by language and culture over time. Some anthropologists believe that the Lipan Apache and the Navajo were pushed south and west into what is now New Mexico and Arizona by pressure from other Great Plains Indians, such as the Comanche and Kiowa. Among the last of such splits were those that resulted in the formation of the different Apachean bands whom the later Europeans encountered: the southwestern Apache groups and the Navajo. Although both speaking forms of Southern Athabaskan, the Navajo and Apache have become culturally distinct.

The "Chihenne (Tchihende)", "Nednai/Nednhi (Ndendahe)" and "Bedonkohe" intermarried sometimes with Mescalero Bands of New Mexico and Chihuahua and formed alliances with them; therefore their Mescalero kin did know the names of Chiricahua bands and local groups: Chíhéõde ("The People of Red Ceremonial Paint", "The Red Ceremonial Paint People"), Ndé'ndaa'õde / Ndé'ndaaõde ("The Apache People (who live among) Enemies") and Bidáõ'kaõde / Bidáõ'kahéõde ("The People whom We Met", "The People whom We Came Upon"), The Mescalero use the term -õde, -éõde, -néõde, or -héõde ("the people of") instead of the Chiricahua Nde, Ne, Néndé, Héndé, Hen-de or õne ("the people of").

Dances
Chiricahuas from Mexico participate every year in the Fiesta de los Remedios in Comonfort, Guanajuato representing and performing their traditional dances and other ceremonies.

Religion
The major Chiricahuan deity is called Ussen, an all-powerful creator figure. Other figures in Chiricahuan mythology include White Painted Woman, a virgin who offered herself in sacrifice to end a drought, and her son, Child of the Waters.

Hoddentin, ceremonially prepared cattail pollen, is used in many Chiricahuan rituals. John Gregory Bourke recorded that the Chiricahua offered hoddentin to the sun, threw it after snakes, and used it in medicine dances and around dying people.

Other traditional practices include death rituals and puberty ceremonies for young women. Caves, waterways, and birthplaces hold special spiritual significance.

Great Migration
The Athabaskan ancestors of the Chiricahua people migrated south from Canada along the Rocky Mountains. Historians disagree on the exact dates of the migration, with estimates ranging from the early 1100s to about 1500. Historian Jack D. Forbes speculates that there may have been two or more mass migrations during this time period.

18th century
The Tsokanende (Chiricahua) Apache division was once led, from the beginning of the 18th century, by chiefs such as Pisago Cabezón, Relles, Posito Moraga, Yrigollen, Tapilá, Teboca, Vívora, Miguel Narbona, Esquinaline, and finally Cochise (whose name was derived from the Apache word Cheis, meaning "having the quality of oak") and, after his death, his sons Tahzay and, later, Naiche, under the guardianship of Cochise's war chief and brother-in-law Nahilzay, and the independent chiefs Chihuahua, Ulzana, Skinya and Pionsenay; Tchihende (Mimbreño) people was led, during the same period, by chiefs as Juan José Compa, Fuerte also known as Soldado Fiero, Mangas Coloradas, Cuchillo Negro, Delgadito, Ponce, Nana, Victorio, Loco, Mangus; Ndendahe (Mogollón and Carrizaleño / Janero) Apache people, in the meanwhile, was led by Mahko and, after him, Mano Mocha, Coleto Amarillo, Luis, Laceres, Felipe, Natiza, and finally Juh and Goyaałé (known to the Americans as Geronimo). After Victorio's death, Nana, Gerónimo, Mangus (youngest Mangas Coloradas' son) and youngest Cochise's son Naiche were the last leaders of the Central Apaches, and their mixed Apache group was the last to continue to resist U.S. government control of the American Southwest.

European-Apache relations
From the beginning of European-Apache relations, there was conflict between them. The two groups contested the control of land and trade routes in Apacheria, and their cultural differences made it oftentimes difficult to negotiate treaties and policies between. Their encounters were preceded by more than 100 years of Spanish colonial and Mexican incursions and settlement on the Apache lands, which pushed Apache tribes northward and exacerbated the martial nature of their society. The United States settlers were newcomers to the competition for land and resources in the Southwest, but they inherited its complex history, and brought their own attitudes with them about American Indians and how to use the land. By the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, the US took on the responsibility to prevent and punish cross-border incursions by Apache who were raiding in Mexico.

The Apache viewed the United States colonists with ambivalence, and in some cases enlisted them as allies in the early years against the Mexicans. In 1852, the US and some of the Chiricahua signed a treaty, but it had little lasting effect. During the 1850s, American miners and settlers began moving into Chiricahua territory, beginning encroachment that had been renewed in the migration to the Southwest of the previous two decades.

This forced the Apachean people to change their lives as nomads, free on the land. The US Army defeated them and forced them into the confinement of reservation life, on lands ill-suited for subsistence farming, which the US proffered as the model of civilization. Today, the Chiricahua are preserving their culture as much as possible, while forging new relationships with the peoples around them. The Chiricahua are a living and vibrant culture, a part of the greater American whole and yet distinct based on their history and culture.

Hostilities
Although they had lived peaceably with most Americans in the New Mexico Territory up to about 1860, the Chiricahua became increasingly hostile to American encroachment in the Southwest after a number of provocations had occurred between them.

In 1835, Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps which further inflamed the situation. In 1837 Warm Springs Mimbreños' head chief and famed raider, Soldado Fiero also known as Fuerte was killed by Mexican soldiers of the garrison at Janos (only two days' travel from Santa Rita del Cobre), and his son Cuchillo Negro succeeded him as head chief and went to war against Chihuahua for revenge. In the same 1837, the American John (also known as James) Johnson invited the Coppermine Mimbreños in the Pinos Altos area to trade with his party (near the mines at Santa Rita del Cobre, New Mexico) and, when they gathered around a blanket on which pinole (a ground corn flour) had been placed for them, Johnson and his men opened fire on the Chihenne with rifles and a concealed cannon loaded with scrap iron, glass, and a length of chain. They killed about 20 Apache, including the chief Juan José Compá. Mangas Coloradas is said to have witnessed this attack, which inflamed his and other Apache warriors' desires for vengeance for many years; he led the survivors to safety and subsequently, together with Cuchillo Negro, took Mimbreño revenge. The historian Rex W. Strickland argued that the Apache had come to the meeting with their own intentions of attacking Johnson's party, but were taken by surprise. In 1839 scalp-hunter James Kirker was employed by Robert McKnight to re-open the road to Santa Rita del Cobre.

After the conclusion of the US/Mexican War (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853), Americans began to enter the territory in greater numbers. This increased the opportunities for incidents and misunderstandings. The Apaches, including Mangas Coloradas and Cuchillo Negro, were not at first hostile to the Americans, considering them enemies of their own Mexican enemies.

Cuchillo Negro, with Ponce, Delgadito, Victorio and other Mimbreño chiefs, signed a treaty at Fort Webster in April 1853, but, during the spring of 1857 the U.S. Army set out on a campaign, led by Col. Benjamin L.E. deBonneville, Col. Dixon S. Miles (3°Cavalry from Fort Thorn) and Col. William W. Loring (commanding a Mounted Rifles Regiment from Albuquerque), against Mogollon and Coyotero Apaches: Loring's Pueblo Indian scouts found and attacked an Apache rancheria in the Canyon de Los Muertos Carneros (May 25, 1857), where Cuchillo Negro and some Mimbreño Apache were resting after a raid against the Navahos. Some Apaches, including Cuchillo Negro himself, were killed.

In December 1860, after several bad incidents provoked by the miners led by James H. Tevis in the Pinos Altos area, Mangas Coloradas went to Pinos Altos, New Mexico to try to convince the miners to move away from the area he loved and to go to the Sierra Madre and seek gold there, but they tied him to a tree and whipped him badly. His Mimbreño and Ndendahe followers and related Chiricahua bands were incensed by the treatment of their respected chief. Mangas had been just as great a chief in his prime (during the 1830s and 1840s), along with Cuchillo Negro, as Cochise was then becoming.

In 1861, the US Army seized and killed some of Cochise's relatives near Apache Pass, in what became known as the Bascom Affair. Remembering how Cochise had escaped, the Chiricahua called the incident "cut the tent." In 1863, Gen. James H. Carleton set out leading a new campaign against the Mescalero Apache, and Capt. Edmund Shirland (10°California Cavalry) invited Mangas Coloradas for a "parley" but, after he entered the U.S. camp to negotiate a peace, the great Mimbreño chief was arrested and convicted in Fort McLane, where, probably on Gen. Joseph R. West's orders, Mangas Coloradas was killed by American soldiers (Jan. 18, 1863). His body was mutilated by the soldiers, and his people were enraged by his murder. The Chiricahuas began to consider the Americans as "enemies we go against them." From that time, they waged almost constant war against US settlers and the Army for the next 23 years. Cochise, his brother-in-law Nahilzay (war chief of Cochise's people), Chihuahua, Skinya, Pionsenay, Ulzana and other warring chiefs became a nightmare to settlers and military garrisons and patrols. In the meantime, the great Victorio, Delgadito (soon killed in 1864), Nana, Loco, young Mangus (last son of Mangas Coloradas) and other minor chiefs led on the warpath the Mimbreños, Chiricahuas' cousins and allies, and Juh led the Ndendahe (Nednhi and Bedonkohe together).

In 1872, General Oliver O. Howard, with the help of Thomas Jeffords, succeeded in negotiating a peace with Cochise. On December 14, 1872, President Ulysses Grant issued an Executive Order establishing the Chiricahua Reservation in the southeast Arizona Territory encompassing the Chiricahua Mountains, Mexico–United States border, and New Mexico Territory border. Jeffords and John Clum were designated as the U.S. Indian Agents for the Chiricahua Reservation residing near Apache Pass, Arizona and Fort Bowie. It remained open for about 4 years, during which the chief Cochise died (from natural causes). In 1876, about two years after Cochise's death, the US moved the Chiricahua and some other Apache bands to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, still in Arizona. This was in response to public outcry after the killings of Orizoba Spence and Nicholas Rogers at Sulpher Springs. The mountain people hated the desert environment of San Carlos, and some frequently began to leave the reservation and sometimes raided neighboring settlers.

They surrendered to General Nelson Miles in 1886. The best-known warrior leader of the "renegades", although he was not considered a 'chief', was the forceful and influential Geronimo. He and Naiche (the son of Cochise and hereditary leader after Tahzay's death) together led many of the resisters during those last few years of freedom.

They made a stronghold in the Chiricahua Mountains, part of which is now inside Chiricahua National Monument, and across the intervening Willcox Playa to the northeast, in the Dragoon Mountains (all in southeastern Arizona). In late frontier times, the Chiricahua ranged from San Carlos and the White Mountains of Arizona, to the adjacent mountains of southwestern New Mexico around what is now Silver City, and down into the mountain sanctuaries of the Sierra Madre (of northern Mexico). There they often joined with their Nednai Apache kin.

General George Crook, then General Miles' troops, aided by Apache scouts from other groups, pursued the exiles until they gave up. Mexico and the United States had negotiated an agreement allowing their troops in pursuit of the Apache to continue into each other's territories. This prevented the Chiricahua groups from using the border as an escape route, and as they could gain little time to rest and consider their next move, the fatigue, attrition and demoralization of the constant hunt led to their surrender.

The final 34 hold-outs, including Geronimo and Naiche, surrendered to units of General Miles' forces in September 1886. From Bowie Station, Arizona, they were entrained, along with most of the other remaining Chiricahua (as well as the Army's Apache scouts), and exiled to Fort Marion, Florida. At least two Apache warriors, Massai and Gray Lizard, escaped from their prison car and made their way back to San Carlos Arizona in a 1200 mi journey to their ancestral lands.

After a number of Chiricahua deaths at the Fort Marion prison near St. Augustine, Florida, the survivors were moved, first to Alabama, and later to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Geronimo's surrender ended the Indian Wars in the United States. However, another group of Chiricahua (also known as the Nameless Ones or Bronco Apache) were not captured by U.S. forces and refused to surrender. They escaped over the border to Mexico, and settled in the remote Sierra Madre mountains. There they built hidden camps, raided homes for cattle and other food supplies, and engaged in periodic firefights with units of the Mexican Army and police. Most were eventually captured or killed by soldiers or by private ranchers armed and deputized by the Mexican government.

Eventually, the surviving Chiricahua prisoners were moved to the Fort Sill military reservation in Oklahoma. In August 1912, by an act of the U.S. Congress, they were released from their prisoner of war status as they were thought to be no further threat. Although promised land at Fort Sill, they met resistance from local non-Apache. They were given the choice to remain at Fort Sill or to relocate to the Mescalero reservation near Ruidoso, New Mexico. Two-thirds of the group, 183 people, elected to go to New Mexico, while 78 remained in Oklahoma. Their descendants still reside in these places. At the time, they were not permitted to return to Arizona because of hostility from the long wars. in 1912 many different Apache bands returned to San Carlos Apache lands after their release from Fort Sill Apache Reservation.

Bands

In the Chiricahua culture, the "band" as a unit was much more important than the American or European concept of "tribe". The Chiricahua had no name for themselves (autonym) as a people. The name Chiricahua is most likely the Spanish rendering of the Opata word Chihuicahui or Chiguicagui ('mountain of the wild turkey') for the Chiricahua Mountains, later corrupted into Chiricahui/Chiricahua. The Chiricahua tribal territory encompassed today's SE Arizona, SW New Mexico, NE Sonora and NW Chihuahua. The Chiricahua range extended to the east as far as the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico and to the west as far as the San Pedro River Valley in Arizona, north of Magdalena just below present day Hwy I-40 corridor in New Mexico and with the town Ciudad Madera (276 km northwest of the state capital, Chihuahua, and 536 km southwest of Ciudad Juárez (formerly known as Paso del Norte) on the Mexico–United States border), as their southernmost range.

According to Morris E. Opler (1941), the Chiricahuas consisted of three bands:
 * Chíhéne or Chííhénee’ 'Red Paint People' (also known as Eastern Chiricahua, Warm Springs Apache, Gileños, Ojo Caliente Apache, Coppermine Apache, Copper Mine, Mimbreños, Mimbres, Mogollones, Tcihende),
 * Ch'úk'ánéń or Ch'uuk'anén ‘Ridge of the Mountainside People’ (also known as Central Chiricahua, Ch'ók'ánéń, Cochise Apache, Chiricahua proper, Chiricaguis, Tcokanene), or the Sunrise People;
 * Ndé'indaaí or Nédnaa'í 'Enemy People' or 'The Apache People (who live among) Enemies' known as the Southern Chiricahua, Pinery Apache, Bronco Apache, Ne'na'i), or "those ahead at the end".

Schroeder (1947) lists five bands:
 * Mogollon
 * Copper Mine
 * Mimbres
 * Warm Spring
 * Chiricahua proper

The Chiricahua-Warm Springs Fort Sill Apache tribe in Oklahoma say they have four bands in Fort Sill: (some of the Arizona Apaches did not return to San Carlos or Fort Apache, White Mountain Apache warrior Eyelash is buried in Fort Sill cememtry, Southern Tonto Apache Chief/Scout Hosay is buried in Fort Apache cememtery, Hosay has family in Fort Sill and San Carlos today) Today they use the word Chidikáágu (derived from the Spanish word Chiricahua) to refer to the Chiricahua in general, and the word Indé, to refer to the Apache in general.
 * Chíhéne (recte Tchi-he-nde, more correctly known as the Warm Springs and Coppermine Mimbreño bands, Chinde),
 * Chukunen (recte Tsoka-ne-nde, also known as the Chiricahua band, Chokonende),
 * Bidánku (recte Bedonkohe Ndendahe, also known as Bidanku, Bronco),
 * Ndéndai (recte Nednhi Ndendahe, also known as Ndénai, Nednai).

Other sources list these and additional bands (only the Chokonen and Chihuicahui local groups of the Chokonen band were considered by Chiricahua tribal members to be the real Chiricahua people):
 * Chokonen, Chukunende or Tsokanende (also known as Ch’ók’ánéń, Tsoka-ne-nde, Tcokanene, Chu-ku-nde, Chukunen, Ch’úk’ánéń, Ch’uuk’anén, Chuukonende or Ch'úk'ânéõne – ‘Ridge of the Mountainside People’, proper or Central Chiricahua)
 * Chokonen local group (lived west of Safford, Arizona, along the upper reaches of the Gila River, along the San Francisco River in the north to the Mogollon Mountains in New Mexico in the east and the San Simon Valley to the southwest, northeastern local group – headed by Chief Chihuahua (Kla-esh) and his segundo (war chief) and brother Ulzana)
 * Chihuicahui group (lived in SE Arizona in the Huachuca Mountains ("Wa-CHOO-ka" Mountains; Apache name meaning "thunder mountain") west of the San Pedro River, in the northwest along a line of today's Benson, Johnson, Willcox, and north along the San Simon River to east of SW New Mexico, controlled the southern Pinaleño, Winchester, Dos Cabezas, Chiricahua, Dragoon and Mule Mountains, also known as Huachuca Mountains Apache or by the Apache name Shaiahene ("Western People", "Sunset People"), southwestern local group – headed by Cochise (Kùù'chish) ("[oak]wood") and after him by his sons, therefore known as Chishhéõne ("The People of Wood", "The Wood People") or Cochise Apache.)
 * Cai-a-he-ne local group (′Sun Goes Down People, i.e. People of the West′, were the westernmost of all Chihuicahui, western local group)
 * Tse-ga-ta-hen-de / Tséghát'ahéõne local group (′Rock Pocket People′, 'The People beside the Rocks', 'The People on the side of the Rocks', lived in the Chiricahua Mountains)
 * Dzil-dun-as-le-n / Tsétáguãgáõne local group (′Rocks at Foot of Grass-Expanse′, 'The People of the Plains among the Rocks', 'The People of Rocky Plains', 'The People among White Rocks', lived in the Dragoon Mountains – according to Christian Naiche Jr. this was Cochise's local group.)
 * Dzilmora local group (in SW New Mexico in the Alamo Hueco, Little Hatchet and in the Big Hatchet Mountains (which were known to the Apache as Dzilmora), southeastern local group)
 * Animas local group (lived south of the Rio Gila, and west of the San Simon Valley in the Peloncillo Mountains (called by Apache Dziltilcil – "Black Mountain") along the Arizona–New Mexico border south to the Guadalupe Canyon and eastward in the Animas Valley and Animas Mountains in SW New Mexico, southern local group)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived in NE Sonora and adjacent Arizona, in Guadalupe Canyon, along the San Bernardino River, northwestern parts of the Sierra San Luis, in the Batepito Valley with the Sierra Pitaycachi, east of Fronteras, as their stronghold)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived east of Fronteras in der Sierra Pilares de Teras in Sonora)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived in the Sierra de los Ajos northeast of the Sonora River, along the Bavispe River towards Fronteras in the north)
 * Bedonkohe, Bidánku or Bidankande (Bi-dan-ku – 'In Front of the End People', Bi-da-a-naka-enda or Bedonkohe Ndendahe – 'Standing in front of the enemy', lived in West New Mexico between the San Francisco River in the West and the Gila River to the southeast, lived in the Tularosa Mountains and in their stronghold, the Mogollon Mountains, therefore often called Mogollon Apaches, were also known – together with other Apache local groups living along the Gila River and in the Gila Mountains – as Gileños / Gila Apaches, Northeastern Chiricahua – Geronimo, a prominent leader and medicine man (but not a chief) belonged to this band)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived in the Mogollon Mountains)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived also in the Mogollon Mountains)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived in the Tularosa Mountains)
 * Chihenne, Chihende or Tchihende (also known as Chi-he-nde, Tci-he-nde, Chíhéne, Chííhénee’, Chiende – 'Red Painted People', their autonym could relate to the mineral red coloration of the copper-containing tribal area, often called Copper Mine, Ojo Caliente / Warm Springs, Mimbreños / Mimbres and Gileños / Gila Apaches, improperly Eastern Chiricahua)
 * Warm Springs Apache (The vicinity of a southern New Mexico hot spring known as Ojo Caliente (Spanish for Hot Spring) was their favourite retreat and was known to the Apache as Tih-go-tel – ′four broad plains′)
 * northern Warm Springs local group (lived in the northeast of the Bedonkohe in the Datil, Magdalena and Socorro Mountains, the Plains of San Agustin, and from today's Quemado east toward the Rio Grande, northern local group – headed by Victorio)
 * southern Warm Springs local group (Warm Springs proper, settled around a warm spring known as Ojo Caliente near present-day Monticello, New Mexico along the Cañada Alamosa, between the Cuchillo Negro Creek and the Animas Creek, controlled the San Mateo as well as the Black Range (Dził Diłhił) west of the Rio Grande to the Rio Gila, used the warm springs in the vicinity of Truth or Consequences – hence called Warm Springs or Ojo Caliente Apaches, southern local group – headed by Cuchillo Negro)
 * Gileños / Gila Apache (often used as a collective name for different Apache groups living along the Gila River; sometimes for all Chiricahua local groups and sometimes for the Aravaipa / Arivaipa Apache and Pinaleño / Pinal Apache of the Western Apache)
 * Ne-be-ke-yen-de local group (′Country of People′ or ′Earth They Own It People′, presumably a mixed Chihenne-Bedonkohe local group, lived southwest of the Gila River, centered around the Santa Lucia Springs in the Little Burro and Big Burro Mountains, controlled the Pinos Altos Mountains, Pyramid Mountains and the vicinity of Santa Rita del Cobre along the Mimbres River in the east, then called Gileños / Gila Apaches, after discovering profitable copper mines at Santa Rita del Cobre they were called Copper Mine Apaches, western local group – headed by Mangas Coloradas, an Bedonkohe by birth, and later by Loco)
 * Mimbreño / Mimbres local group (lived in southeast-central New Mexico, between the Mimbres River and the Rio Grande up in the Mimbres Mountains and the Cook's Range, hence called Mimbreño / Mimbres Apaches, eastern local group; often the name Mimbreños is used to identify the whole Chihenne people, sometimes it is just thought of simply as an aggregation of some families belonging to the Chihenne people around the Mimbres Agency established by temporary Indian agent James M. Smith in 1853)
 * local group (today no longer known by name) (lived in southern New Mexico in the Pyramid Mountains and Florida Mountains (called by the Chihenne Dzilnokone – Long Hanging Mountain) moved to the Rio Grande in the east and south to the Mexican border, southern group)
 * Nednhi, Nde’ndai or Ndendahe (also known as Ndéndai, Nde-nda-i, Nédnaa’í, Ndé’indaaí, Ndé’indaande, Ndaandénde – 'Enemy People', 'People who make trouble', the Mexicans adopted it as Bronco Apaches – ′Wild, Untamed Apaches′, lived in Sierra Madre Occidental and deserts of NW Chihuahua, NO Sonora and SE Arizona, therefore often called Sierre Madre Apaches, Southern Chiricahua)
 * Nednhi / Ndendahe Apache (they were subdivided in three local groups)
 * Janeros local group (also known as real Nednhi, lived in NW Chihuahua and NE Sonora, south into the Sierra San Luis, Sierra del Tigre, Sierra de Carcay, Sierra de Boca Grande, west beyond the Aros River to Bavispe, east along the Janos River and Casas Grandes River toward the Lake Guzmán in the northern part of the Guzmán Basin, because they traded at the presidio of Janos they were called Janeros Apache, because they preferred living in the nearly inaccessible Sierra Madre Occidental, their autonym for themselves was Dzilthdaklizhénde or Dził Dklishende – ′Blue Mountain People, i.e. People of the Sierra Madre′, northern local group – headed by Juh)
 * Tu-ntsa-nde local group (′Big Water People, i.e. People along the Aros River′, their stronghold called Guaynopa was in the bend of the Papigochic River (Aros River) east of the border of Sonora in the vicinity of a mountain, which called the Apache Dzil-da-na-tal – ′Mountain Holding Head Up And Peering Out′, smallest local group)
 * Haiahende local group (′People of the Rising Sun, i.e. People of the East′, lived in the Peloncillo Mountains, Animas Mountains and Florida Mountains in SE Arizona and in New Mexico Bootheel and south into the deserts and mountains of NE of Sonora and the Mexican Plateau in NW Chihuahua, eastern local group)
 * Hakaye local group (were part of Sierra Madre Mountains of Sonora Mexico)
 * Carrizaleños local group (known by other Chiricahua as Gol-ga-he-ne – ′Open Place People′ or Gul-ga-ki – ′Prairie Dog People′, lived exclusively in Chihuahua, between the presidios of Janos in the west and Carrizal and Lake Santa Maria in the east, south toward Corralitos, Casas Grandes and Agua Nuevas 60 mi north of Chihuahua, controlled the southern part of the Guzmán Basin, and the mountains along the Casas Grandes, Santa Maria and Carmen River, likely called Tsebekinéndé – 'Stone House People' or 'Rock House People', southeastern group)
 * Pinaleños / Pinery local group (lived south of Bavispe, between the Bavispe River and Aros River in NE Sonora and NW Chihuahua, controlled the Sierra Huachinera, Sierra de los Alisos and Sierra Nacori Chico, the mountains had a large stock of Apache Pine forest – hence they were called Pinaleños / Pinery Apaches, southwestern local group).

The Chokonen, Chihenne, Nednhi, and Bedonkohe had probably up to three other groups, named respectively after their leaders or homelands. By the end of the 19th century, surviving Apache no longer identified these groups. They may have been wiped out (like the Pinaleño-Nednhi) or had joined more powerful groups. For instance, the remnant of the Carrizaleño-Nedhni camped together with their northern kin, the Janero-Nednhi.

The Carrizaleňo-Nednhi shared overlapping territory in the surroundings of Casas Grandes and Aguas Nuevas with the Tsebekinéndé, a southern Mescalero band (which was often called Aguas Nuevas by the Spanish). The Spanish referred to the Apache band by the same name of Tsebekinéndé. These two different Apache bands were often confused with each other. (Similar confusion arose over distinguishing the Janeros-Nednhi of the Chiricahua (Dzilthdaklizhéndé) and the Dzithinahndé of the Mescalero.

Notable Chiricahua Apache people
For people after the 19th century, see the pages of specific tribes: Fort Sill Apache Tribe, Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, and San Carlos Apache Tribe.

 * Geronimo (1829–1909), warrior, medicine man of the Bedonkohe Ndendahe band
 * Mildred Cleghorn (Fort Sill Apache Tribe), served as first tribal chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, elected in 1976
 * Chato, also Bidayajislnl or Pedes-klinje (1854–1934), warrior, scout
 * Chihuahua, also Chewawa, Kla-esh, Tłá’í’ez (ca. 1825–1901)
 * Cochise, chief of the Chihuicahui local group of the Tsokanende people
 * Baishan, Cuchillo Negro, (ca. 1796–1857) war chief of the southern Warm Springs local group of the Tchihende people and principal chief of them after his own father's (Fuerte / Soldado Fiero) death
 * Dahteste (Tahdeste), woman warrior and Lozen's companion; sister of Ilth-goz-ay, the wife of Chihuahua,
 * Delgadito, (ca. 1810–1864), principal chief of the Copper Mine local group of the Tchihende people
 * Gouyen, (ca. 1857–1903), woman from the Warm Springs group of Tchihende people
 * Juh, (ca. 1825–1883), medicine man and chief of the Janero local group of Nednhi band
 * Lozen, "Dextrous Horse Thief" (ca. 1840–1890), woman warrior and prophet of the Tchihende people
 * Mangas Coloradas, (ca. 1793–1863) war chief of the Copper Mines local group of the Tchihende people and principal chief after Juan José Compà's death
 * Massai, also Mah–sii (ca. 1847–1906/1911), warrior of the Mimbres Tchihende band
 * Naiche (ca. 1857–1919), second son of Cochise, was the final hereditary chief of the Chihuicahui local group of the Tsokanende people
 * Nana, (ca. 1805/1810?–1896), war chief of the Warm Springs Tchihende people
 * Tahzay (ca. 1843–1876), son of Cochise and his successor as chief of the Chihuicahui local group of Tsokanende people
 * Tso-ay, also Panayotishn, Pe-nel-tishn, "Peaches," Scout for General Crook
 * Ulzana (ca. 1821–1909), war chief Chihuahua of the Chokonen local group of Tsokanende people
 * Victorio, also Bidu-ya, Beduiat (He who checks his horse) (ca. 1825–1880), chief of the Warm Springs Tchihende (Mimbreño) people

Cited works

 * Debo, Angie. (1976) Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1828-8.
 * Roberts, David. (1993) Once They Moved Like the Wind, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-702211
 * Thrapp, Dan L. (1988) The Conquest of Apacheria, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1286-7

title: Chiricahua


text:
John Abbott (disambiguation)

John Abbott (1821–1893) was Prime Minister of Canada, 1891–1892.

John Abbott or Abbot may also refer to:

People

 * John Abbot (poet) (1587/8–c. 1650), English Roman Catholic cleric and poet
 * John Abbot (entomologist) (1751–1840/1), American entomologist and ornithologist
 * John Abbott (Newfoundland politician) (1874–1947), Newfoundland politician
 * John Abbott (actor) (1905–1996), stage name of John Kefford, British character actor
 * John Abbott, a pen-name of author Evan Hunter (1926–2005)
 * John Abbott (1937–2011), art dealer of Abbott and Holder
 * John Abbott (rugby league) (born 1953), Australian rugby league footballer
 * John Abbott (St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador politician), Newfoundland and Labrador provincial politician
 * John Farr Abbott (1756–1794), British barrister
 * John White Abbott (1763–1851), English painter and surgeon
 * John Lovejoy Abbot (1783–1814), American cleric and librarian
 * John Stevens Cabot Abbott (1805–1877), American author
 * John T. Abbott (1850–1914), United States Ambassador to Colombia, 1889–1893
 * John Beach Abbott (1854–1935), judge and politician in New York
 * John Thomas Abbott (1872–1949), English socialist activist

Other

 * John Abbott (The Young and the Restless), a character on the soap opera The Young and the Restless

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: John Abbott (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Limpopo

Name change
On 2 Feburary 2002 the Northern Province requested that its name be changed to Limpopo and only on 11 June 2003 did the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology accept the names Limpopo and Polokwane.--Jcw69 09:12, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Origin of the name
Does anyone know where the name Limpopo comes from? What does it mean? Joziboy 25 March 2006, 16:23 (UTC)

Fruit material
I've removed the section discussing Limpopo's fruit which was recently added. I was a little unsure whether this represented simple vandalism, perhaps someone with more expertise on Limpopo could make a decision about whether it requires a separate section to discuss its fruit growing. - Politepunk 14:44, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation
Limpopo can also refer to (at least) Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, Limpopo National Park and Limpopo River, but also Limpopo cricket team and maybe other things. I suppose there may be a need to add a disambiguation page at this point. I can try to do this soon, but if any of you is used to that kind of addition, please do. Cheers! Balt79 (talk) 10:07, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Dr. Mohamed's comment on this article
Dr. Mohamed has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:

"The article is very good"

We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

Dr. Mohamed has published scholarly research which seems to be relevant to this Wikipedia article:

 * Reference : Mohamed, Issam A.W., 2011. "Surveying HIV/AIDS Incidence in Sudan," MPRA Paper 31781, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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External links modified
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Measurable function

In mathematics, and in particular measure theory, a measurable function is a function between the underlying sets of two measurable spaces that preserves the structure of the spaces: the preimage of any measurable set is measurable. This is in direct analogy to the definition that a continuous function between topological spaces preserves the topological structure: the preimage of any open set is open. In real analysis, measurable functions are used in the definition of the Lebesgue integral. In probability theory, a measurable function on a probability space is known as a random variable.

Formal definition
Let $$(X,\Sigma)$$ and $$(Y,\Tau)$$ be measurable spaces, meaning that $$X$$ and $$Y$$ are sets equipped with respective $\sigma$-algebras $$\Sigma$$ and $$\Tau.$$ A function $$f:X\to Y$$ is said to be measurable if for every $$E\in \Tau$$ the pre-image of $$E$$ under $$f$$ is in $$\Sigma$$; that is, for all $$E \in \Tau $$ $$f^{-1}(E) := \{ x\in X \mid f(x) \in E \} \in \Sigma.$$

That is, $$\sigma (f)\subseteq\Sigma,$$ where $$\sigma (f)$$ is the σ-algebra generated by f. If $$f:X\to Y$$ is a measurable function, one writes $$f \colon (X, \Sigma) \rightarrow (Y, \Tau).$$ to emphasize the dependency on the $$\sigma$$-algebras $$\Sigma$$ and $$\Tau.$$

Term usage variations
The choice of $$\sigma$$-algebras in the definition above is sometimes implicit and left up to the context. For example, for $$\R,$$ $$\Complex,$$ or other topological spaces, the Borel algebra (generated by all the open sets) is a common choice. Some authors define measurable functions as exclusively real-valued ones with respect to the Borel algebra.

If the values of the function lie in an infinite-dimensional vector space, other non-equivalent definitions of measurability, such as weak measurability and Bochner measurability, exist.

Notable classes of measurable functions

 * Random variables are by definition measurable functions defined on probability spaces.
 * If $$(X, \Sigma)$$ and $$(Y, T)$$ are Borel spaces, a measurable function $$f:(X, \Sigma) \to (Y, T)$$ is also called a Borel function. Continuous functions are Borel functions but not all Borel functions are continuous. However, a measurable function is nearly a continuous function; see Luzin's theorem.  If a Borel function happens to be a section of a map $$Y\xrightarrow{~\pi~}X,$$ it is called a Borel section.
 * A Lebesgue measurable function is a measurable function $$f : (\R, \mathcal{L}) \to (\Complex, \mathcal{B}_\Complex),$$ where $$\mathcal{L}$$ is the $$\sigma$$-algebra of Lebesgue measurable sets, and $$\mathcal{B}_\Complex$$ is the Borel algebra on the complex numbers $$\Complex.$$ Lebesgue measurable functions are of interest in mathematical analysis because they can be integrated. In the case $$f : X \to \R,$$ $$f$$ is Lebesgue measurable if and only if $$\{f > \alpha\} = \{ x\in X : f(x) > \alpha\}$$ is measurable for all $$\alpha\in\R.$$ This is also equivalent to any of $$\{f \geq \alpha\},\{f<\alpha\},\{f\le\alpha\}$$ being measurable for all $$\alpha,$$ or the preimage of any open set being measurable. Continuous functions, monotone functions, step functions, semicontinuous functions, Riemann-integrable functions, and functions of bounded variation are all Lebesgue measurable. A function $$f:X\to\Complex$$ is measurable if and only if the real and imaginary parts are measurable.

Properties of measurable functions

 * The sum and product of two complex-valued measurable functions are measurable. So is the quotient, so long as there is no division by zero.
 * If $$f : (X,\Sigma_1) \to (Y,\Sigma_2)$$ and $$g:(Y,\Sigma_2) \to (Z,\Sigma_3)$$ are measurable functions, then so is their composition $$g\circ f:(X,\Sigma_1) \to (Z,\Sigma_3).$$
 * If $$f : (X,\Sigma_1) \to (Y,\Sigma_2)$$ and $$g:(Y,\Sigma_3) \to (Z,\Sigma_4)$$ are measurable functions, their composition $$g\circ f: X\to Z$$ need not be $$(\Sigma_1,\Sigma_4)$$-measurable unless $$\Sigma_3 \subseteq \Sigma_2.$$ Indeed, two Lebesgue-measurable functions may be constructed in such a way as to make their composition non-Lebesgue-measurable.
 * The (pointwise) supremum, infimum, limit superior, and limit inferior of a sequence (viz., countably many) of real-valued measurable functions are all measurable as well.
 * The pointwise limit of a sequence of measurable functions $$f_n: X \to Y$$ is measurable, where $$Y$$ is a metric space (endowed with the Borel algebra). This is not true in general if $$Y$$ is non-metrizable. The corresponding statement for continuous functions requires stronger conditions than pointwise convergence, such as uniform convergence.

Non-measurable functions
Real-valued functions encountered in applications tend to be measurable; however, it is not difficult to prove the existence of non-measurable functions. Such proofs rely on the axiom of choice in an essential way, in the sense that Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory without the axiom of choice does not prove the existence of such functions.

In any measure space $$(X, \Sigma)$$ with a non-measurable set $$A \subset X,$$ $$A \notin \Sigma,$$ one can construct a non-measurable indicator function: $$\mathbf{1}_A:(X,\Sigma) \to \R, \quad \mathbf{1}_A(x) = \begin{cases} 1 & \text{ if } x \in A \\ 0 & \text{ otherwise}, \end{cases}$$ where $$\R$$ is equipped with the usual Borel algebra. This is a non-measurable function since the preimage of the measurable set $$\{1\}$$ is the non-measurable $$A.$$

As another example, any non-constant function $$f : X \to \R$$ is non-measurable with respect to the trivial $$\sigma$$-algebra $$\Sigma = \{\varnothing, X\},$$ since the preimage of any point in the range is some proper, nonempty subset of $$X,$$ which is not an element of the trivial $$\Sigma.$$

title: Measurable function


text:
MD Data

MD Data is a magneto-optical medium succeeding MiniDisc. Sony wanted it to replace floppy disks, but instead came the Zip drive, CD writers, and memory sticks and cards.

Overview
The technology has 140 MB of data storage, but it is slow and expensive. It is in products such as a still camera, a document scanner, and in late 1990s 4- and 8-track multitrack recording decks. Meant as a step up from the popular 4-track cassette-based studios, these recorders enjoyed a brief prominence before they were replaced by relatively affordable and far more flexible direct-to-hard drive recording on Windows and Macintosh based computers. The format lacks an affordable computer drive. Some examples of products that used the format are a few multitrack "portastudio"-style audio recorders such as Sony's MDM-X4 and Tascam's 564.

MD Data2
In 1997, Sony introduced the MD Data2 format at 650 MB. The only product that used the format was Sony's DCM-M1 camcorder (capable of still images and MPEG-2 video).

Hi-MD
Since 2004, Hi-MD allows 340MB or 1GB of any type of data to be stored on a Hi-MD formatted MiniDisc, succeeding MD Data and MD Data2.

title: MD Data


text:
Galactic astronomy

Galactic astronomy is the study of the Milky Way galaxy and all its contents. This is in contrast to extragalactic astronomy, which is the study of everything outside our galaxy, including all other galaxies.

Galactic astronomy should not be confused with galaxy formation and evolution, which is the general study of galaxies, their formation, structure, components, dynamics, interactions, and the range of forms they take.

The Milky Way galaxy, where the Solar System is located, is in many ways the best-studied galaxy, although important parts of it are obscured from view in visible wavelengths by regions of cosmic dust. The development of radio astronomy, infrared astronomy and submillimetre astronomy in the 20th century allowed the gas and dust of the Milky Way to be mapped for the first time.

Subcategories
A standard set of subcategories is used by astronomical journals to split up the subject of Galactic Astronomy:
 * 1) abundances – the study of the location of elements heavier than helium
 * 2) bulge – the study of the bulge around the center of the Milky Way
 * 3) center – the study of the central region of the Milky Way
 * 4) disk – the study of the Milky Way disk (the plane upon which most galactic objects are aligned)
 * 5) evolution – the evolution of the Milky Way
 * 6) formation – the formation of the Milky Way
 * 7) fundamental parameters – the fundamental parameters of the Milky Way (mass, size etc.)
 * 8) globular cluster – globular clusters within the Milky Way
 * 9) halo – the large halo around the Milky Way
 * 10) kinematics, and dynamics – the motions of stars and clusters
 * 11) nucleus – the region around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A*)
 * 12) open clusters and associations – open clusters and associations of stars
 * 13) Solar neighborhood – nearby stars
 * 14) stellar content – numbers and types of stars in the Milky Way
 * 15) structure – the structure (spiral arms etc.)

Stellar populations

 * Star clusters
 * Globular clusters
 * Open clusters

Interstellar medium

 * Interplanetary space - Interplanetary medium - interplanetary dust
 * Interstellar space - Interstellar medium - interstellar dust
 * Intergalactic space - Intergalactic medium - Intergalactic dust

title: Galactic astronomy


text:
Big Bang nucleosynthesis

In physical cosmology, Big Bang nucleosynthesis (also known as primordial nucleosynthesis, and abbreviated as BBN) is the production of nuclei other than those of the lightest isotope of hydrogen (hydrogen-1, 1H, having a single proton as a nucleus) during the early phases of the universe. This type of nucleosynthesis is thought by most cosmologists to have occurred from 10 seconds to 20 minutes after the Big Bang. It is thought to be responsible for the formation of most of the universe's helium (as isotope helium-4 (4He)), along with small fractions of the hydrogen isotope deuterium (2H or D), the helium isotope helium-3 (3He), and a very small fraction of the lithium isotope lithium-7 (7Li). In addition to these stable nuclei, two unstable or radioactive isotopes were produced: the heavy hydrogen isotope tritium (3H or T) and the beryllium isotope beryllium-7 (7Be). These unstable isotopes later decayed into 3He and 7Li, respectively, as above.

Elements heavier than lithium are thought to have been created later in the life of the Universe by stellar nucleosynthesis, through the formation, evolution and death of stars.

Characteristics
There are several important characteristics of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN):
 * The initial conditions (neutron–proton ratio) were set in the first second after the Big Bang.
 * The universe was very close to homogeneous at this time, and strongly radiation-dominated.
 * The fusion of nuclei occurred between roughly 10 seconds to 20 minutes after the Big Bang; this corresponds to the temperature range when the universe was cool enough for deuterium to survive, but hot and dense enough for fusion reactions to occur at a significant rate.
 * It was widespread, encompassing the entire observable universe.

The key parameter which allows one to calculate the effects of Big Bang nucleosynthesis is the baryon/photon number ratio, which is a small number of order 6 × 10−10. This parameter corresponds to the baryon density and controls the rate at which nucleons collide and react; from this it is possible to calculate element abundances after nucleosynthesis ends. Although the baryon per photon ratio is important in determining element abundances, the precise value makes little difference to the overall picture. Without major changes to the Big Bang theory itself, BBN will result in mass abundances of about 75% of hydrogen-1, about 25% helium-4, about 0.01% of deuterium and helium-3, trace amounts (on the order of 10−10) of lithium, and negligible heavier elements. That the observed abundances in the universe are generally consistent with these abundance numbers is considered strong evidence for the Big Bang theory.

In this field, for historical reasons it is customary to quote the helium-4 fraction by mass, symbol Y, so that 25% helium-4 means that helium-4 atoms account for 25% of the mass, but less than 8% of the nuclei would be helium-4 nuclei. Other (trace) nuclei are usually expressed as number ratios to hydrogen. The first detailed calculations of the primordial isotopic abundances came in 1966  and have been refined over the years using updated estimates of the input nuclear reaction rates. The first systematic Monte Carlo study of how nuclear reaction rate uncertainties impact isotope predictions, over the relevant temperature range, was carried out in 1993.

Important parameters
The creation of light elements during BBN was dependent on a number of parameters; among those was the neutron–proton ratio (calculable from Standard Model physics) and the baryon-photon ratio.

Neutron–proton ratio
The neutron–proton ratio was set by Standard Model physics before the nucleosynthesis era, essentially within the first 1-second after the Big Bang. Neutrons can react with positrons or electron neutrinos to create protons and other products in one of the following reactions:

At times much earlier than 1 sec, these reactions were fast and maintained the n/p ratio close to 1:1. As the temperature dropped, the equilibrium shifted in favour of protons due to their slightly lower mass, and the n/p ratio smoothly decreased. These reactions continued until the decreasing temperature and density caused the reactions to become too slow, which occurred at about T = 0.7 MeV (time around 1 second) and is called the freeze out temperature. At freeze out, the neutron–proton ratio was about 1/6. However, free neutrons are unstable with a mean life of 880 sec; some neutrons decayed in the next few minutes before fusing into any nucleus, so the ratio of total neutrons to protons after nucleosynthesis ends is about 1/7. Almost all neutrons that fused instead of decaying ended up combined into helium-4, due to the fact that helium-4 has the highest binding energy per nucleon among light elements. This predicts that about 8% of all atoms should be helium-4, leading to a mass fraction of helium-4 of about 25%, which is in line with observations. Small traces of deuterium and helium-3 remained as there was insufficient time and density for them to react and form helium-4.

Baryon–photon ratio
The baryon–photon ratio, η, is the key parameter determining the abundances of light elements after nucleosynthesis ends. Baryons and light elements can fuse in the following main reactions: along with some other low-probability reactions leading to 7Li or 7Be. (An important feature is that there are no stable nuclei with mass 5 or 8, which implies that reactions adding one baryon to 4He, or fusing two 4He, do not occur). Most fusion chains during BBN ultimately terminate in 4He (helium-4), while "incomplete" reaction chains lead to small amounts of left-over 2H or 3He; the amount of these decreases with increasing baryon-photon ratio. That is, the larger the baryon-photon ratio the more reactions there will be and the more efficiently deuterium will be eventually transformed into helium-4. This result makes deuterium a very useful tool in measuring the baryon-to-photon ratio.

Sequence
Big Bang nucleosynthesis began roughly about 20 seconds after the big bang, when the universe had cooled sufficiently to allow deuterium nuclei to survive disruption by high-energy photons. (Note that the neutron–proton freeze-out time was earlier). This time is essentially independent of dark matter content, since the universe was highly radiation dominated until much later, and this dominant component controls the temperature/time relation. At this time there were about six protons for every neutron, but a small fraction of the neutrons decay before fusing in the next few hundred seconds, so at the end of nucleosynthesis there are about seven protons to every neutron, and almost all the neutrons are in Helium-4 nuclei.

One feature of BBN is that the physical laws and constants that govern the behavior of matter at these energies are very well understood, and hence BBN lacks some of the speculative uncertainties that characterize earlier periods in the life of the universe. Another feature is that the process of nucleosynthesis is determined by conditions at the start of this phase of the life of the universe, and proceeds independently of what happened before.

As the universe expands, it cools. Free neutrons are less stable than helium nuclei, and the protons and neutrons have a strong tendency to form helium-4. However, forming helium-4 requires the intermediate step of forming deuterium. Before nucleosynthesis began, the temperature was high enough for many photons to have energy greater than the binding energy of deuterium; therefore any deuterium that was formed was immediately destroyed (a situation known as the "deuterium bottleneck"). Hence, the formation of helium-4 was delayed until the universe became cool enough for deuterium to survive (at about T = 0.1 MeV); after which there was a sudden burst of element formation. However, very shortly thereafter, around twenty minutes after the Big Bang, the temperature and density became too low for any significant fusion to occur. At this point, the elemental abundances were nearly fixed, and the only changes were the result of the radioactive decay of the two major unstable products of BBN, tritium and beryllium-7.

History of theory
The history of Big Bang nucleosynthesis began with the calculations of Ralph Alpher in the 1940s. Alpher published the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper that outlined the theory of light-element production in the early universe.

Heavy elements
Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced very few nuclei of elements heavier than lithium due to a bottleneck: the absence of a stable nucleus with 8 or 5 nucleons. This deficit of larger atoms also limited the amounts of lithium-7 produced during BBN. In stars, the bottleneck is passed by triple collisions of helium-4 nuclei, producing carbon (the triple-alpha process). However, this process is very slow and requires much higher densities, taking tens of thousands of years to convert a significant amount of helium to carbon in stars, and therefore it made a negligible contribution in the minutes following the Big Bang.

The predicted abundance of CNO isotopes produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis is expected to be on the order of 10−15 that of H, making them essentially undetectable and negligible. Indeed, none of these primordial isotopes of the elements from beryllium to oxygen have yet been detected, although those of beryllium and boron may be able to be detected in the future. So far, the only stable nuclides known experimentally to have been made during Big Bang nucleosynthesis are protium, deuterium, helium-3, helium-4, and lithium-7.

Helium-4
Big Bang nucleosynthesis predicts a primordial abundance of about 25% helium-4 by mass, irrespective of the initial conditions of the universe. As long as the universe was hot enough for protons and neutrons to transform into each other easily, their ratio, determined solely by their relative masses, was about 1 neutron to 7 protons (allowing for some decay of neutrons into protons). Once it was cool enough, the neutrons quickly bound with an equal number of protons to form first deuterium, then helium-4. Helium-4 is very stable and is nearly the end of this chain if it runs for only a short time, since helium neither decays nor combines easily to form heavier nuclei (since there are no stable nuclei with mass numbers of 5 or 8, helium does not combine easily with either protons, or with itself). Once temperatures are lowered, out of every 16 nucleons (2 neutrons and 14 protons), 4 of these (25% of the total particles and total mass) combine quickly into one helium-4 nucleus. This produces one helium for every 12 hydrogens, resulting in a universe that is a little over 8% helium by number of atoms, and 25% helium by mass.

One analogy is to think of helium-4 as ash, and the amount of ash that one forms when one completely burns a piece of wood is insensitive to how one burns it. The resort to the BBN theory of the helium-4 abundance is necessary as there is far more helium-4 in the universe than can be explained by stellar nucleosynthesis. In addition, it provides an important test for the Big Bang theory. If the observed helium abundance is significantly different from 25%, then this would pose a serious challenge to the theory. This would particularly be the case if the early helium-4 abundance was much smaller than 25% because it is hard to destroy helium-4. For a few years during the mid-1990s, observations suggested that this might be the case, causing astrophysicists to talk about a Big Bang nucleosynthetic crisis, but further observations were consistent with the Big Bang theory.

Deuterium
Deuterium is in some ways the opposite of helium-4, in that while helium-4 is very stable and difficult to destroy, deuterium is only marginally stable and easy to destroy. The temperatures, time, and densities were sufficient to combine a substantial fraction of the deuterium nuclei to form helium-4 but insufficient to carry the process further using helium-4 in the next fusion step. BBN did not convert all of the deuterium in the universe to helium-4 due to the expansion that cooled the universe and reduced the density, and so cut that conversion short before it could proceed any further. One consequence of this is that, unlike helium-4, the amount of deuterium is very sensitive to initial conditions. The denser the initial universe was, the more deuterium would be converted to helium-4 before time ran out, and the less deuterium would remain.

There are no known post-Big Bang processes which can produce significant amounts of deuterium. Hence observations about deuterium abundance suggest that the universe is not infinitely old, which is in accordance with the Big Bang theory.

During the 1970s, there were major efforts to find processes that could produce deuterium, but those revealed ways of producing isotopes other than deuterium. The problem was that while the concentration of deuterium in the universe is consistent with the Big Bang model as a whole, it is too high to be consistent with a model that presumes that most of the universe is composed of protons and neutrons. If one assumes that all of the universe consists of protons and neutrons, the density of the universe is such that much of the currently observed deuterium would have been burned into helium-4. The standard explanation now used for the abundance of deuterium is that the universe does not consist mostly of baryons, but that non-baryonic matter (also known as dark matter) makes up most of the mass of the universe. This explanation is also consistent with calculations that show that a universe made mostly of protons and neutrons would be far more clumpy than is observed.

It is very hard to come up with another process that would produce deuterium other than by nuclear fusion. Such a process would require that the temperature be hot enough to produce deuterium, but not hot enough to produce helium-4, and that this process should immediately cool to non-nuclear temperatures after no more than a few minutes. It would also be necessary for the deuterium to be swept away before it reoccurs.

Producing deuterium by fission is also difficult. The problem here again is that deuterium is very unlikely due to nuclear processes, and that collisions between atomic nuclei are likely to result either in the fusion of the nuclei, or in the release of free neutrons or alpha particles. During the 1970s, cosmic ray spallation was proposed as a source of deuterium. That theory failed to account for the abundance of deuterium, but led to explanations of the source of other light elements.

Lithium
Lithium-7 and lithium-6 produced in the Big Bang are on the order of: lithium-7 to be 10−9 of all primordial nuclides; and lithium-6 around 10−13.

Measurements and status of theory
The theory of BBN gives a detailed mathematical description of the production of the light "elements" deuterium, helium-3, helium-4, and lithium-7. Specifically, the theory yields precise quantitative predictions for the mixture of these elements, that is, the primordial abundances at the end of the big-bang.

In order to test these predictions, it is necessary to reconstruct the primordial abundances as faithfully as possible, for instance by observing astronomical objects in which very little stellar nucleosynthesis has taken place (such as certain dwarf galaxies) or by observing objects that are very far away, and thus can be seen in a very early stage of their evolution (such as distant quasars).

As noted above, in the standard picture of BBN, all of the light element abundances depend on the amount of ordinary matter (baryons) relative to radiation (photons). Since the universe is presumed to be homogeneous, it has one unique value of the baryon-to-photon ratio. For a long time, this meant that to test BBN theory against observations one had to ask: can all of the light element observations be explained with a single value of the baryon-to-photon ratio? Or more precisely, allowing for the finite precision of both the predictions and the observations, one asks: is there some range of baryon-to-photon values which can account for all of the observations?

More recently, the question has changed: Precision observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and Planck give an independent value for the baryon-to-photon ratio. Using this value, are the BBN predictions for the abundances of light elements in agreement with the observations?

The present measurement of helium-4 indicates good agreement, and yet better agreement for helium-3. But for lithium-7, there is a significant discrepancy between BBN and WMAP/Planck, and the abundance derived from Population II stars. The discrepancy is a factor of 2.4―4.3 below the theoretically predicted value. This discrepancy, called the "cosmological lithium problem", is considered a problem for the original models, that have resulted in revised calculations of the standard BBN based on new nuclear data, and to various reevaluation proposals for primordial proton–proton nuclear reactions, especially the abundances of, versus. For a recent calculation of BBN predictions, see For the observational values, see the following articles:
 * Helium-4:
 * Helium-3:
 * Deuterium:
 * Lithium-7:

Non-standard scenarios
In addition to the standard BBN scenario there are numerous non-standard BBN scenarios. These should not be confused with non-standard cosmology: a non-standard BBN scenario assumes that the Big Bang occurred, but inserts additional physics in order to see how this affects elemental abundances. These pieces of additional physics include relaxing or removing the assumption of homogeneity, or inserting new particles such as massive neutrinos.

There have been, and continue to be, various reasons for researching non-standard BBN. The first, which is largely of historical interest, is to resolve inconsistencies between BBN predictions and observations. This has proved to be of limited usefulness in that the inconsistencies were resolved by better observations, and in most cases trying to change BBN resulted in abundances that were more inconsistent with observations rather than less. The second reason for researching non-standard BBN, and largely the focus of non-standard BBN in the early 21st century, is to use BBN to place limits on unknown or speculative physics. For example, standard BBN assumes that no exotic hypothetical particles were involved in BBN. One can insert a hypothetical particle (such as a massive neutrino) and see what has to happen before BBN predicts abundances that are very different from observations. This has been done to put limits on the mass of a stable tau neutrino.

For a general audience

 * White, Martin: Overview of BBN
 * Wright, Ned: BBN (cosmology tutorial)
 * Big Bang nucleosynthesis on arxiv.org
 * Big Bang nucleosynthesis on arxiv.org

Academic articles

 * Report-no: FERMILAB-Pub-00-239-A
 * Jedamzik, Karsten, "Non-Standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Scenarios". Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching.
 * Steigman, Gary, Primordial Nucleosynthesis: Successes And Challenges ; Forensic Cosmology: Probing Baryons and Neutrinos With BBN and the CBR ; and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: Probing the First 20 Minutes
 * R. A. Alpher, H. A. Bethe, G. Gamow, The Origin of Chemical Elements , Physical Review 73 (1948), 803. The so-called αβγ paper, in which Alpher and Gamow suggested that the light elements were created by hydrogen ions capturing neutrons in the hot, dense early universe. Bethe's name was added for symmetry
 * These two 1948 papers of Gamow laid the foundation for our present understanding of big-bang nucleosynthesis
 * R. A. Alpher and R. Herman, "On the Relative Abundance of the Elements," Physical Review 74 (1948), 1577. This paper contains the first estimate of the present temperature of the universe
 * Java Big Bang element abundance calculator
 * C. Pitrou, A. Coc, J.-P. Uzan, E. Vangioni, Precision big bang nucleosynthesis with improved Helium-4 predictions ;
 * R. A. Alpher and R. Herman, "On the Relative Abundance of the Elements," Physical Review 74 (1948), 1577. This paper contains the first estimate of the present temperature of the universe
 * Java Big Bang element abundance calculator
 * C. Pitrou, A. Coc, J.-P. Uzan, E. Vangioni, Precision big bang nucleosynthesis with improved Helium-4 predictions ;
 * C. Pitrou, A. Coc, J.-P. Uzan, E. Vangioni, Precision big bang nucleosynthesis with improved Helium-4 predictions ;

title: Big Bang nucleosynthesis