I've heard they are postcontact. Do Apache fiddles have any precontact string antecedents? Were they inspired by Spanish instruments? Their entire structure is so vastly different than European instruments—any ideas of when they were first created and by whom?
The basic structure is actually somewhat European; a soundbox, horsehair strings, horsehair bow, friction-peg tensioner. Certainly, you'd have to have horses, to get the horsehair, so that in itself would mean post-contact.
I don't have exhaustive experience, but all the melody instruments I have ever seen , depicted or in collections, of early Native American cultures were winds- flutes and whistles . I don't think chordophones were around.