Apache woman and her child in a traditional cradleboard, in ca 1903

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Cradleboards are used for the first few months of an infant's life, when a portable carrier for the baby is a necessity. They were used during periods when the infant's mother had to travel or otherwise be mobile for work, and needed to protect the infant. The cradleboard could be carried on the mother's back, using support from "tumplines", or "burden straps" that would wrap around her forehead, chest or shoulders; if she carried a pack as well as the cradleboard, the pack strap would go around her chest and the cradleboard strap would go around her forehead. The cradleboard can also be stood up against a large tree or rock if the infant is small, or hung from a pole, or even hung from a sturdy tree branch. They were also used when longer travel was required, as the cradleboard could be attached to a horse for transportation. The inside of the cradleboard is padded with a lining of fresh plant fibres, such as sphagnum moss, cattail down, or shredded bark from juniper or cliffrose. The lining serves as a disposable diaper, although the Navajo could clean and reuse the lining made of shredded juniper or cliffrose bark.

Some cradleboards are woven, as with the Apache. The cradleboard is dyed yellow from the root of the Yucca Cactus, a color traditional to the Apache.

Edward S. Curtis originally named this photo “Apache girl and Papoose”. Papoose (from the Algonquian papoose, meaning "child") is an American English word whose present meaning is "a Native American child" (regardless of tribe) or, even more generally, any child, usually used as a term of endearment, often in the context of the child's mother. Cradleboard could sometimes be referred to as the papoose. However, the word “papoose” is considered offensive to many Native Americans whose tribes did not use the word.

This woman and her babe belonged to one of the many Apache Native American tribes that are in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño and Janero), Salinero, Plains (Kataka or Semat or "Kiowa-Apache") and Western Apache (Aravaipa, Pinaleño, Coyotero, Tonto).

Historically, the Apache homelands have consisted of high mountains, sheltered and watered valleys, deep canyons, deserts, and the southern Great Plains, including areas in what is now Eastern Arizona, Northern Mexico (Sonora and Chihuahua) and New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern Colorado. These areas are collectively known as Apacheria.

Flowering Yucca Plant from which the Apache made the yellow dye to color their crafts.

Mother and Papoose. Ledger drawing made by Stephen Mopope (1898-1974). Stephen Mopope was part of the “Kiowa Six” – a group of six Kiowa artists from Oklahoma in the early 20th century, working in the "Kiowa style". He made this drawing in 1929.