The Apache: Fear & Hate

The sun has been very hot on my head and made me as in a fire, but now I have come into this valley and drunk of these waters and washed myself in them and they have cooled me. Now that I am cool I have come with my hands open to you to live in peace with you. I speak straight and do not wish to deceive or be deceived....

When God made the world he gave one part to the white man and another to the Apache. Why was it? Why did they come together?

Now that I am to speak, the sun, the moon, the earth, the air, the waters, the birds and beasts, even the children unborn shall rejoice at my words. The white people have looked for me long. I am here!

What do they want? They have looked me for long; why am I worth so much? If I am worth so much why not mark when I set my foot and look when I spit?

I am no longer chief of all the Apaches, I am no longer rich; I am but a poor man. The world was not always this way.

When I was young I walked all over this country, east and west, and saw no other people than the Apaches. After many summers I walked again and found another race of people had come to take it. How is it? Why is it that the Apaches wait to die-that they carry their lives on their finger nails?

The Apaches were once a great nation; they are now but few.

I have no father or mother, I am alone in the world. No one cares for Cochise; that is why I do not care to live, and wish the rocks to fall on me and cover me up.

I want to live in these mountains; I do not want to go to Tularosa. That is a long ways off. The flies on those mountains eat out the eyes of the horses. The bad spirits live there. I have drunk of these waters and they have cooled me; I do not want to leave here.

Cochise to an American general in 1871 on why he did not want to relocate to New Mexico.

Cochise, the son in law to Mangas Coloradas. The Chief of the Chokonen Chiricahua Apache. The star of the White Eyes’ nightmares. The bringer of death and destruction upon the American Southwest. Cochise will feature heavily in this episode as we follow his exploits throughout this region and era, right up until his death. But he is not the only player. General Crook, Bourke, many a bureaucrat, the Tonto Apache, the Yavapai, and the red haired kidnapped Felix, aka Mickey Free will also make lengthy and exciting appearances. Saddle up, and let’s continue to ride into this saga of the Apache in the American Southwest.

The Camp Grant Massacre, as we are about to see, will have far reaching consequences for both the White Eyes and the Apache, but there are other groups in the area as well, and they too had to eventually come to peace with the Apache. Peace… or war to the knife. Even war to the death as Victorio will later exclaim.

One of those groups was the O’odham. Some of them, the Tohono O’odham, had participated in the massacre, if you’ll remember and one of the warriors with his ironwood club was featured on the cover of the last episode. Well after the massacre, the surviving Apaches and the O’odham, aka Pima and Papagos, they all met near Camp Grant to smooth things over. This meeting occurred in May of 1872 and it saw the two groups coming together for an extended face to face meeting which was an incredibly rare circumstance that few living O’odham or Apache had ever witnessed.

At the meeting though, the translator, an O’odham man named Luis Morago, he was greeted happily by an Apache that recognized him. This Apache man had been knocked unconscious by the deadly ironwood club which belonged to Morago in a raid by the O’odham on the Apache years before. This Apache man told the translator, quote, you are the pima who killed me years ago! End quote.

Old wounds do heal after all.

Once the meeting had commenced, the O’odham made a bunch of speeches about peace and then an Apache chief, Santos, laid a rock on the ground and said essentially, our peace will last as long as this rock.

To this display though, the O’odham chief, Galerita, who participated in the massacre, he said, quote, if you Apaches will comply with your promises, I will never tread your soil again with evil intentions. If I have done so in the past, it was because I was provoked by your robbing. End quote.

Everyone, it becomes clear when learning about the Apaches, is eventually provoked into murder by Apache robbing aka violent raiding.

Galerita goes on to say, quote, we are friends. If you want to come to Tucson, do so; and you can traffic with us and visit us without fear. End quote.

By October of that year though, 1872, only five months after the parlay, the O’odham were again asking the US Army to help them in their fight against the Apache who it seems, broke promises with the O’odham as easily as they did with the Spanish, the Mexicans, and the White Eyes.

At this meeting were two men I will talk a lot about in this episode. General Crook and General Howard. They play an enormous role in the continuation of the saga of the Apache in the American Southwest. And this meeting will be mentioned again later as well.

Quick aside about the O’odham though, at this time the whites, and especially the Mormons were flooding into their lands and diverting their water which left the O’odham people with barren and parched fields of agriculture. Life became rather difficult for these harsh desert people.

On top of that, the Mormons and other Anglo settlers made deals with the O’odham who were forced to move closer to cities to survive, they made deals with the Indians in the hopes that the O’odham would be a buffer between their settlements and the increasing violence of the Apache.

But this would only lead to more violence amongst and between the O’odham themselves. Fights, shootings, and tizwin bender violence shook the O’odham lands at the same time the Apache wars were beginning in earnest to their north.

The O’odham will no longer play a prominent role in the Apache story as I will tell it, although the Army will continue to use them as auxiliaries and scouts and they will be mentioned again. Unfortunately for the O’odham though, or maybe fortunately, either way, the Army couldn’t stand the O’odham purification after death rituals and the fact that they didn’t like to shoot from a distance so they weren’t used too often. Bourke even called Pima Scouts a quote unquote great fraud.

But other American Indian groups will play a more prominent role… like the Navajo, who will also provide scouts throughout the remainder of the Apache Wars. More on them in the next episode.

After the Camp Grant Massacre, President Grant would shake things up in the West. Besides demanding a trial, which, we know how that ended, he also fired Stoneman and installed one of the most acclaimed Indian Fighters to have ever rampaged through the west. General George Crook.

By this time, Crook was already a fabled Indian fighter having been in battles against the Klamath, Paiute, Shasta, and a bunch of other Indians in the northwest. He had been, after all, the commander of the Department of the Columbia in the Pacific Northwest. He’d actually already spent 13 years fighting Indians in that region. 8 years before the civil war and 5 years after. Even he was quote tired of the Indian work, end quote. But that did not matter to Grant who had him leap frog a bunch of other more quote unquote qualified men of higher rank to be in the post. Part of this leapfrogging was on account of General Sheridan. Despite thinking it unwise to place Crook in this position at first, by the end of Crook’s career, General Sherman would even admit that Crook was the best Indian fighter in the army. Period.

Crook was an interesting man from what I can tell. He was stocky and six feet tall. He had a big mustache and enormous chops and sideburns. Like unreal. He also preferred riding a mule over a horse. He actually really loved mules. Crook also loved to hunt. That was his true passion. And even while pursuing Apache, he’d take a break and hunt turkey or deer. He rarely wore his military uniform but instead often wore civilian clothes. He rarely gave orders. He was not a boisterous man and his grey blue eyes seemed to cast a melancholy look around him.

The aforementioned Bourke was his right hand man and he really liked Crook. Bourke, according to author and historian Paul Andrew Hutton in his Apache wars, would, quote, serve Crook ably for the next fifteen years as confidant, advisor, devoted friend, and clever press agent. End quote. Bourke would call Crook sunny once you got to know him. Most everyone else thought crook was sad, secretive, and gloomy. Crook was also as strict as a Mormon. He didn’t swear, smoke, or drink alcohol, coffee, or even tea.

During the civil war he participated in both stunning wins and crushing defeats. He was even at one point captured by confederates in Maryland and held hostage in Richmond. But it seems, he was a true military genius.

Future President of the United States Rutherford B Hayes had served under Crook in the Civil War and had called him, quote, the brains of the army. End quote.

Crook also truly wanted to understand the Indian. Wether that Indian was from Washington state, California, or Arizona. He studied them and tried to understand them. Mostly so he could defeat them… He didn’t always have the highest praise of the Indians he fought against though. He once said that the Indians were quote, filthy, odoriferous, treacherous, ungrateful, pitiless, cruel, and lazy. End quote. But at the same time he also grew fond of them and at times he was sickened by the deeds the Army and the enemy forced him to carry out. But at the same time, he was a man of war and he brought it where he was ordered to. He brought it efficiently and lethaly.

Bourke said of Crook that he was quote, admitted, even by the Indians, to be more of an Indian than the Indian himself. End quote.

But at the same time, he had no qualms pursuing and punishing the Apache he was charged with taming. He did after-all call the Apache a quote, impudent lot of cut-throats. End quote.

That sentiment though, was shared with many other southwesterners at the time.

Despite being done with the Indian business, Crook accepted his new position in Arizona and simply asked his commander for, quote, a few more horses and to be left alone. End quote. He’d get the horses, but he would not in any way be left alone. As a matter of fact, the meddling from the Fedrals was about to intensify exponentially under Grant’s new peace policy.

When Crook arrived in Arizona one of the first things he did was move the department to Prescott and out of LA. Getting out of LA should always be the goal, really. He then met with Whitman, who was in charge of Fort Grant, if you’ll remember. Well he met with Whitman and… he wasn’t too impressed. Crook said of Whitman that he had, quote, deserted his colors and gone over to the Indian Ring bag and baggage. End quote. Crook would then have Whitman court martialed and arrested. Uncle Billy Oury and the other southern Arizona citizens certainly liked that not so ringing endorsement of the military commander they certainly felt had betrayed them. Uncle Billy was the quote unquote mastermind, along with the Eliases of the Camp Grant Massacre if you’ll recall.

Next, Crook attempted to find out from the locals what was the best way to go about conquering the Apache. So he interviewed the Arizona governor and the territorial leader said, oh the best way we know of is to hire you some Mexican guides and they’ll take you all over the country with little effort and they’ll find you some Apaches. Guides like the Mexican man I mentioned in the last episode, Merejildo Grijalva, for instance.

Well, that’s just what Crook did. He was new to the area. He was a man who listened to those who were experienced. He trusted what he was told. He also sided with Uncle Billy and the Eliases.

So, with 50 hired Mexican scouts and five companies of men, Crook scoured the thorny rocky and rugged Arizona wilderness in an attempt to find and destroy his ultimate target: Cochise.

But unfortunately after a month, there was zero success. Not a single military engagement. They only saw a few Apaches. Crook was not impressed. Back at Fort Apache, Crook fired the Mexicans and began at square one. Actually, he kept on Grijalva, who will pop in and out of the remaining saga of the Apaches. I’ll talk about him more in a little bit.

One of the reasons he fired the Mexicans though, was that he thought they were more interested in collecting scalp bounties after murdering the Apaches than subduing them properly. Crook probably was on to something, there.

Crook was actually, as I previously said, he was a military genius. After the wasted month of searching in vain, Crook realized that there were two things being used in battle by the Army that shouldn’t be. The first was the cannon. They were too unwieldy in battle in the ruggedness of Arizona. And they slowed the army down. They’d only been successful during the battle of Apache Pass and that was because the Apache weren’t used to them and the Army had been dug in. Every battle sense, had been against them by Apaches who had sprung a trap. There’d been no time to set up, aim, arm, and fire the cannons.

The second thing Crook realized that the army didn’t need was the wagon. For the same reason, too. So he decided instead that the Army will only be using mule trains from then on. Remember, he preferred riding them anyways! Bourke wrote of Crook and his mules, quote, he made the study of pack trains the great study of his life. End quote.

The man really loved mules. In California he created a way to separate the good ones from the bad. He also implemented a new policy to custom fit the cushion placed on a mule when they’re carrying heavy loads. Before that, the aparejo or cushion was standard for all mules no matter their size. But Crook realized this was killing a good amount of mules and it was better for each mule to have their own custom fitted aparejo.

So, other than the shedding of cannons and wagons and the adoption of better mules, his other innovation to fighting the Apache was… to use the Apache against one another. Of this, David Roberts writes in once they moved like the wind, quote:

The keen student of Indian ways was in no danger of assuming all Apaches were alike. More than any officer before him, Crook grasped the ancient enmities that kept one band of Apaches at odds with another, and comprehended the absence of an overarching notion of an Apache people. He convinced himself, and then the Coyoteros and White Mountain men, that they might serve as scouts for the army in hunting down "hostile" Apaches of other bands. End quote.

It was true that the Apaches would often be at odds with one another. In 1872, a group of Chihenne under a chief named Loco were living with Cochise and his Chihenne group when, most likely under the influence of tizwin, a brawl ensued which saw 2 or 3 Apache killed and many more wounded. So using the Apache against one another was entirely plausible. Not only plausible though… but the key to his future success in battle.

But… how do you think this hiring of Apaches went over with the locals of southern Arizona? The same locals who just proudly boasted about and then were acquitted of the camp grant massacre? In their hearts and in their newspapers they sided with Pershing who solidified their own thinking with the adage that the only good Indian was a dead Indian. Hiring the Apache to lead the army in pursuit of other Apache… that was treason. Akin to the Romans letting the barbarians lead their legions. After all, what if these quote unquote friendly Apache turned on us?! What if they spied on us during the entire campaign?! Snuck up on us in our sleep?

The prominent Mexican American Vecino and participant in the Camp Grant Massacre, Juan Elías said of this idea, quote, the apache scouts are, in my opinion, very unreliable and they should not be employed at all to fight their own race. End quote.

To many local residents, Crook was handing the keys of the city over to the criminals. But, as Roberts puts it, quote, The notion was fixed in Crook's head long before it became a motto of the Southwest: it takes an Apache to catch an Apache. End quote.

So, at Fort Apache, Crook gathered the Apache people who lived there together and he laid down his plan and the eventual future of the people. He said, according to Bourke, quote:

The white people were crowding in all over the Western country, and soon it would be impossible for any one to live upon game; it would be driven away or killed off. Far better for every one to make up his mind to plant and to raise horses, cows, and sheep, and make his living in that way; his animals would thrive and increase while he slept, and in less than no time the Apache would be wealthier than the Mexican. End quote.

I’ll talk more about this inevitable encroachment in a little bit, but of this speech, according to Bourke; the Apache would occasionally utter inju or good. Especially that last part about being richer than the Mexican.

Crook then went on to say how every Apache who surrendered right now would be forgiven of their past crimes and depredations and they’d be left alone and treated the same as the whites.

Interestingly, just a few years before in Oregon, when Crook was fighting the pit River Indians, he had a pretty similar interaction that ultimately led to those people’s surrender. The chief of that tribe had said he wanted some peace but Crook after at first refusing to meet with this chief, eventually changed his mind. He told the chief that he was disappointed that they wanted to surrender because, he said at that time, quote:

I was in hopes that you would continue the war, and then, though I were to kill only one of your warriors while you killed a hundred of my men, you would have to wait for those little people [pointing to the Indian children] to grow to fill the place of your braves, while I can get any number of soldiers the next day to fill the place of my hundred men. In this way it would not be very long before we would have you all killed off, and then the government would have no more trouble with you. End quote.

Obviously… at the realization of what Crook was saying, the Pit river Indians were completely disheartened and surrender was inevitable.

The Apaches, they were not the Pit River Indians and while they understood the situation… they were still the same Indians who loved freedom above all else. Preferring it even to death. But to be a scout and to grow wealthier than a Mexican, that was tempting. Some Apache signed up right there on the spot.

Again, I will talk more about this theme of the White wave in a bit.

With that stunning little victory in his grasp, Crook’s first order of business was to go after the most wild and far off Apaches that then existed. This was a group of Western Apache we haven’t talked about. They are known as the Tontos. They lived near the Mogollon Rim near cities like Payson and Strawberry, they inhabited the lush forests of the region that held mythical places like montezuma’s castle and Sedona. They also lived in the vast wilderness area that is still wild today known as agua fria national monument.

Tell the mountain lion story and the story of the ruins maybe?

These Apaches ancestors may have been the ones to burn out the Mogollon aka Jumanos of the region. So crook was after these guys for… well I’m not sure, they were the furthest and they were the quote unquote wildest. So maybe the army was just reining them in first. I didn’t read about any specific degradation but it’s probably that we’re beyond that now and the march of manifest destiny determined that all Indians must be devoid of their wild freedom and brought into civilization. Crook was starting with these Apaches after his failed attempt to catch Cochise.

With crook, were his Apache scouts. But even with them, the whole crew got lost in the dark dense forest and rocks of the Mogollon region. Much to Crook’s frustration, they moved slowly and cumbersomely through the wild unknown region. And at one point, a massive Monsoon style thunderstorm rained hell upon them. Crook even wrote that during the storm he became nervous as quote, trees were crashed to splinters not far from us. End quote.

And then, after the storm, when the sky had cleared, the soldiers and cavalrymen came upon a parklike area with pine trees, no underbrush, and beauty all around them. Crook, Bourke, and a few other officers then rode ahead to survey the beauty and to discuss how the coming Americans could best use this untouched land. And then, curiously, they heard a whizzing noise and a thump. Lo and behold, an arrow was sticking out of one of the nearby pine trees the men had just been admiring.

And then, another arrow came whizzing by Crook’s scalp. Like Trump in July of 2024, mere inches spared the new department commander from getting to the Happy Place sooner than he woulda liked. Crook, realizing the situation, immediately pulled his sidearm and shot the offender in the arm.

A quick battle ensued that saw some 15 or 20 Tontos chased towards the edge of the Mogollon Rim where the army was sure they were trapped. Except… these Apache, instead of being captured, they just leapt off the edge. When the army approached… well, I’ll David Roberts finish the story for me. Quote:

But when they approached the cliff, the soldiers saw the two Tontos running down "the merest thread of a trail outlined in the vertical face of the basalt." No one even considered pursuing them. End all quotes.

It’s a cinematic scene, really. From the arrow narrowly missing Crook and thumping in the tree to the troopers watching the Apaches zoom down the cliffside of the Mogollon Rim.

This small skirmish though, was a success in Crook’s eyes. Back at a fort near Prescott, Fort Verde, Crook began planning a for real full scale invasion of western Apacheria. The might of Crook’s hammer was about to fall on the Arizona Apache. Unless of course, the bureaucrats in DC had something to say.

Obviously, they did have something to say and their mouthpiece was a man named Vincent Colyer.

Vincent Colyer was elected to the Board of Peace Commissioners which were the bureaucrats who were to enact the peace policy’s parameters. The Board was started in Washington to protect the Indians from the quote unquote depredations of frontier justice. The kind of frontier justice that leads to the Camp Grant Massacre. So, while I despise bureaucrats, sometimes their aim or I should say their goals are righteous and worthwhile. 

The Camp Grant Massacre was a horrible event. Full stop. And that massacre obviously, infuriated these bureaucrats, as well as the northerners who just killed hundreds of thousands of their Anglo brethren over the institution of slavery. So Grant sent Vincent Colyer down to Arizona to beat the Apaches with words and promises instead of bullets and battles. Colyer, like many of these progressives was a Quaker Pacifist and he was from New York City. He was an artist and a hardcore abolitionist. So hardcore in fact, that he led an all negro regiment in the civil war that he himself had mustered or began and gathered together. I don’t know how a pacifist musters a regiment but he did.

Colyer was now going to take this same attitude and zeal to the Apache of the American Southwest that he had to the American south.  He truly believed the Apache to be innocent victims and never the perpetrators. He thought the Apache never would have attacked the Americans if the Americans had treated them better from the very beginning. And honestly, every Apache leader says the same thing. But hopefully you have listened to every previous episode before this so you understand both parties are pretty equally to blame for the inevitable violence. Although… one party’s insistence on never settling down and using the labor of others to collect their food and belongings probably plays a greater role than those who are getting robbed and killed by raids in the night. Remember the Jumanos. The Salina’s Puebloans. The Texas Plains Tribes. The Spanish. And the Mexican. Etc etc etc

So Colyer believed the hype of men like Cochise and Victorio who said God gave everything to the white man and nothing to the Indian so they had to take it themselves.

Needless to say, the men of the military in Arizona were none too fond of the Quaker bureaucrat.

Bourke called Colyer quote, that spawn of hell. End quote. Which wasn’t really how Bourke normally spoke. Of anyone!

Crook…. Also couldn’t stand the self righteous haughty man. Crook said Colyer quote, harangued the Indians on his way, making peace as he went, and the Indians just immediately behind him left a trail of blood behind them from the murdered citizens. End quote.

The always colorful Arizona miner newspaper called Colyer a quote unquote cold blooded scoundrel and that the citizens of Arizona should quote dump the old devil into the shaft of some mine, and pile rocks upon him until he is dead. End quote.

Dang… how do you really feel?

Of course, Karl Jacoby in his Shadows at Dawn attempts to paint Colyer in a much better light and he quotes various higher-ups who say he was a good Christian man, etc… I got a little tired of Jacoby’s extreme bias, to be honest. From what I can tell in reading the many reports and accounts and other books, Colyer was not a man who was beloved by his fellow Anglo nor respected in the end by the Apache. But he no doubt had good intentions. Like many a liberal progressive. Despite them being consistently wrong.

Regardless of how everyone in New Mexico, Arizona, and on the pages of history books felt of the man, he did have considerable weight behind him. The full weight of the American Government to be precise. And this American Government also gave him seventy thousand dollars. And with that power and money, in September of 1871, during his visit, he created the first Apache reservation… at Tularosa, New Mexico.

So, I believe I have previously stated that the Fort and Camp Tularosa was in the Tularosa Basin, near Alamogordo, the White sands, and the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. I believe I said that in the last episode. But I was wrong! I assumed that because they have the same name. But the Tularosa Camp that everyone wanted Cochise and Victorio to go to is NORTH of the Mogollon Mountains and straight east across the New Mexican border from Fort Apache in the White Mountains of Arizona. This Fort Tularosa is south of Quemado and Pie Town, New Mexico and I just drove right past the beautiful area in the spring of ’24. It’s a gorgeous mountains spot but it simply wouldn’t do for the Chihenne and Chokonen leaders. The water was bad, the winters sucked, and the planting season was too brief. Plus, they wanted to be near their homelands, which were the beautiful mimbres river valley of the Mogollon mountains to the south and the Dragoon Mountains to the southwest respectively.

Victorio, who I will talk about in depth in the next episode, he had repeatedly said he’d go to a reservation with his people, sure… but NOT THERE. Cochise would also say the same thing as we’ll hear soon. That did not matter to Colyer, though and this forceful decision would have pretty dire consequences.

From the Fort Tularosa, Colyer then went to Arizona and established the white mountain Apache reservation. And that reservation is still the law of the land today.

Colyer then set up five more temporary reservations over the next month of his visit. By the time he left, rather surprisingly, 4,000 Apaches would be on various reservations throughout the Southwest.

One of the last peoples he met with were the earlier mentioned Tonto Apache who Crook and Bourke had chased off the Mogollon Rim. The Tonto chief Colyer met with would end up giving an eloquent speech to the radical Quaker pacifist from New England. The Tonto chief told Colyer, quote: We are tired of living in caves and on the tops of cold mountains.

My women carry water two or three miles, from the little streams. They get water at night, because we are afraid of soldiers. Even rabbits are safer than my Tontos. We hide our children behind big rocks when we go to hunt the deer. But deer are not so many now.

You say Tontos must not steal cattle, but we must steal or starve.

White Americans have stolen our cornfields and our wheatfields.

What are we to do? End quote.

Again with the steal or starve thing… this time it’s the American’s fault, though. Not the Mexicans. Not the Spaniards before that. Not the Jumanos before that…

If I were being honest though, it is true that the Americans were moving into and filling every arable piece of land in the west. Often times they had no idea the Apache or any tribe had planted there because the Apache, especially, only stayed seasonally. So this Tonto chief, sorry I do not know his name, but he’s correct in that the Anglos were stealing all of their land or trampling their crops with the many herds of cattle that were flocking in from Texas.

Once Colyer left, Crook gave the entire Apacheria peoples until February 16th, 1872 to come in onto the reservations or be killed. As Roberts puts it, Crook planned with the Apache to, quote, hunt down and kill or capture with all the rigor at his command. End quote.

After Colyer left though… the Apaches very quickly abandoned the reservations and began again their raids and murders. Heck, a stagecoach carrying a government surveying team was hit and 7 of the 8 passengers were killed. Another notable event was the murder of a prominent east coast journalist. In the five months immediately after Colyer’s departure, 40 frontier Americans would be killed by Apache. A state of affairs the locals had predicted.

Much to Crook’s disappointment, this deadline of February was pushed back until May of that year. The Apaches simply refused to relocate to places they didn’t want to. Hard to blame em. But the federal government was not yet ready to prosecute another war against them while they were trying to push the Peace Policy.

Victorio, as the deadline approached, famously reiterated to the Army that he was not going to relocate to Camp Tularosa and that the Army can feed the government’s rations to the wolves and the bears for all he cared.

In the end, Victorio would indeed head to the reservation… however briefly.

We shall return to Crook shortly.

It certainly seems that the entire US military might at this time was focused on bringing in or destroying one Apache in particular. That particular Apache would obviously be, Cochise.

Author Edwin Sweeney, who wrote the seminole biography of Mangas Coloradas, he also wrote the incredible and detailed and thorough biography of Cochise.

Now, it would be reasonable to assume that someone doing a deep dive into the great saga of Apache history would have read Edwin Sweeney’s Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief but alas, I did not. It’s 100 dollars to begin with and I believe it is 500 pages. That, of course, does not phase me, the page number I mean, the $100 sure does phase me. But the reason I did not read the book was because I chose to focus on the much less known and much less focused on Mangas Coloradas who is inexorably tied to Cochise. But also, I did purchase and read Edwin Sweeney’s From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apaches 1874-1886, which as you can guess was also an enormous volume of writing and is a source I will quote from extensively in the coming episodes.

All of the other sources I used talked enough about Cochise and his life and whereabouts and actions that I believed I could get away with not reading Sweeney’s book over the Apache man. Although I am sure it is phenomenal, just like Sweeney’s other works.

So, Cochise… he was the boogeyman of the Southwest. He was the main character of every Anglo and Mexican Vecino’s nightmares. He haunted the army. He haunted the papers in the east. He is a giant of historical proportions. Although not a giant in real life, at least with his height.

Cochise was around my height. Below six feet but over five feet ten inches. Still taller than my brother, Sean.

Cochise was extremely muscular with quote, every muscle being well developed and firm. End quote. He weighed 175 pounds and his chest was deep. Which makes sense as he and many other American Indians used to run like the wind up and down mountains and canyons as if they were walking on the sidewalk.

Cochise wore three large brass rings that dangled from each ear. His hair was long and black with a few silvers here and there. His face was smooth since he’d painfully pulled all the hair out with tweezers, which most all Apache did. His eyes were black. He was gentle in both speech and gesture. He, unlike other Apaches, rarely gestured in fact. He never smiled. He was noted as seeming sad. Or as Bourke described him, he had a melancholy expression.

The Apache called him Cheis which means Oak on account of the strength and quality of oak wood. Anglos, not being great with Apache words added the Co in front. Daklugie, in Eve Ball’s Indeh, said of merely viewing the man’s tepee, quote, it was as much as anyone’s life was worth to even look toward them. End quote. Daklugie was only four when he got to look upon the man but he never forgot it.

Part of his mythos though, was his propensity for violence and torture. Wether that violence was real or not… it certainly seemed real enough to the Nation and the Southwesterners at the time. That’s why everyone from Cushing to Crook was out for Cochise’s blood.

How much of the stories we hear and they, in that era heard are true though?

It is certainly true that yes, on multiple occasions Cochise hung his victims upside down and burned them alive inches over a flame… It is also true that he enjoyed the occasional naked drag of a victim behind his horse in the good ole thorny and stony Arizona desert hellscape. And yes… it is noted that he buried victims up to their necks near ant mounds so that the little critters could consume the poor soul alive by entering their propped open mouths. That’s the story anyways.

It is also true that he was indeed as the US Representative for the Arizona Territory put it, quote, undoubtedly the bravest and most skillful Apache leader that the Americans ever had to cope with. End quote.

I mean, in battle, people witnessed him slip to the side of his horse while hanging onto the horse’s mane and neck so as to use the horse as a shield against his enemy’s bullets.

But he wasn’t all fear and hate. Cochise was noted by future Chiricahua Reservation assistant to Tom Jeffords, a man named Fred Hughes, well Hughes said of Cochise, quote:

In conversation, he was very pleasant, and to his family and those immediately around him, he was more affectionate than the average white man; he showed nothing of the brutish nature generally attributed to him. It was astonishing also to see what power he had over this brutal tribe, for while they idolized and almost worshipped him, no man was ever held in greater fear, his glance being enough to squelch the most obstreperous Chiricahua in the tribe. End quote.

Obstreperous means difficult to control. So, Cochise had the power to quiet and control the most rambunctious of the Chiriahaura.

Obviously, part of Cochise’s legend gets mixed up with the stories of other Apaches and every single thing that happened in the southwest was blamed on Cochise at this time. Including Cushing’s death. Which we now know was Joh and Geronimo.

And it was true that Apaches would tie people up to Saguaros… you know, the giant spiky cactus with the cool arms that I implore everyone to go see in person. They’re amazing. I love them and it seems like each and every one of them have their own personality.

But Apache at this time would tie people up to Saguaro’s with wet strips of rawhide. It’s important to understand when I mention that the rawhide was wet… rawhide tightens when it dries. So the poor victim would be increasingly constricted against the saguaro as the sun blared down and as the hours ticked by both suffocating the victim and sticking the cactus’s spines deeper into them.

Even worse, like many southwestern people’s, when the Apache captured a victim that may or may not have killed one of their own, they often gave these captured souls… over to their women. Roberts says of this quote, Apaches often turned captives over to their women, who were reputed to be even crueler torturers than the men. One pioneer maintained that survivors of an 1880 Apache attack quote, saw squaws stick pieces of wood into [the victims'] bowels while alive, then crush their heads to a jelly with rocks. End all quotes.

I mentioned a few episodes back that vengeance was the main driver of Apache attacks and since… well, forever, the Apache had been victims of violence and death. Real or imagined. Heck, that just comes with raiding and stealing as being your main source of revenue. So that alone makes the Apache unique in the eyes of Anglo Americans and Spaniards before them. But another curious Apache quirk is their view of pain.

Here’s an extended quote from Roberts about this relationship to pain that the Apache had:

The Apache attitude toward pain was altogether different from the American's. Pain was a fact of life, and to greet it stoically and endure it silently was the mark of character. From early childhood, boys were schooled in pain. They would be taught, for instance, to place dry sage on their skins, set fire to it, and let it burn to ashes without flinching. In winter, they had to go out at dawn and roll a ball of snow with bare hands until called away from the task. In foot races, laggards were lashed by adults. End quote.

A lot of this training of pain was because the Apache lived in a painful environment. And, more importantly, they lived a painful life of raiding and warfare.

Roberts goes on about this training, quote:

Along with an incomparable training in endurance and athletic skills, this tutorship in pain turned a boy into a potential warrior. At an early age, boys were paired off for hand-to-hand fights that ended only with the drawing of blood. In teams of four, they shot stones with slingshots at each other. Later they made small bows and arrows with sharp wooden points and played at warfare. (One of Opler's informants recalled a playmate whose eye had been put out in such combat practice.)

As well as enduring pain, boys were taught to inflict it. They were given captured birds and animals to torture, and their inventiveness was rewarded. The emphasis on torture in Apache life remains shocking to modern sensibilities, despite our latter-day faith in cultural relativism. But from the Indian point of view, an ordeal by pain was part of the order of things. End all quotes.

Much like Dan Carlin said of the Japanese, the Apache were like every other Southwestern Indian, except even more so.

This was how Cochise was raised. This was Cochise’ environment. And then you add the incident of the cutting of the tent where he lost family and friends, you add the years of violence and death, the murder of his father-in-law, the many mirrored and echoed stories of his friends like Geronimo… Cochise was just like every other Apache, except even more so.

At this time of the early 1870s, Cochise favorite hideout was the southern Arizona mountain range known as the Dragoon Mountains. These mountains only reach an elevation of 7,519 feet but they are extremely remote and extremely rugged. Not to mention they are surrounded by a hot, harsh, and dry desert landscape. But up on them peaks… they’re one of those sky islands I love so much. They had plenty of greenery, trees, nuts, berries, game… there were also plenty of canyons, crevices, spires, cliffs, caves, boulders, and hiding places. Doug Hocking, in his Tom Jeffords, Friend of Cochise book, he described the possible camp in the Dragoon Mountains that Cochise may have had this time. The camp was called China Camp or China Meadow and he writes, quote:

High up on the side of the Dragoon Mountains, behind the Shepherd formation, two stony pillars guard the entrance to a spring-fed meadow of thirty or forty acres. From between the pillars all of the San Pedro Valley from San Jose Peak in Sonora to beyond Tres Alamos in the north is visible.

Half a mile to the east, the Sulphur Springs Valley is visible from the crest of the mountains. Cochise would have had perfect intelligence for everything happening in both valleys and thus control of southeast Arizona. End quote.

The Dragoon Mountains were the quintessential Mountain Fortress I described the Apache as having in the very first episode in this series. The Dragoon Mountains also have the added benefit of being on the border of not only New Mexico but near Old Mexico as well. And not too far from west Texas to boot! It was the perfect spot for Cochise to hide out in and live as he thought every Apache should: Freely.

But things were happening inside of Cochise that would ultimately seal his fate… things no one back then could stop. Or even detect. Cochise wasn’t long for this world and soon he would go the way of all the earth. But before that would happen, he was going to try to do what was best for his people. And that would lead to quite a bit more violence.

In 1869, so backing up a little, Cochise let an American military officer meet with him at the base of his Dragoon Mountains, not far from the famous Tombstone, Arizona. During that talk Cochise was recorded as saying, quote, I lost nearly one hundred of my people in the last year, principally from sickness. The Americans killed a good many. I have not one hundred Indians now. Ten years ago I had 1000. The Americans are everywhere, and we must live in bad places to shun them. End quote.

That’s a pretty staggering admission. From 1,000 to 100… this campaign of running from the Americans was clearly unsustainable. It wasn’t just the bullets of the Americans that killed them, but also the constant running which lead to malnourishment cause they couldn’t plant what few crops they attempted to cultivate. This running and malnourishment lead to diseases and deaths that had nothing to do with lead and copper. It’s a sad state of affairs…

During this meeting Cochise admitted to being wounded by the Americans not once, but twice. Once he had been shot in the neck… the neck! The next time he had been shot in the leg. He said about that wound, quote, I had a bad leg for some time afterward. End quote.

Cochise couldn’t keep this up forever. He was nearly 60 by then after all.

In 1870 Cochise met again with the Americans. He was truly by this time tired of the constant fighting. He and his people had been doing nothing but killing and raiding since the cutting of the tent. Killing and raiding and being killed.

This meeting in 1870 was actually a massive event that saw some 790 Apaches meet with the civilian special agent William Arny who had been appointed by President Grant to begin to carry out his Peace Policy in Arizona.

Cochise and 96 of his Chiricahua Chokonen Apaches came as well as Victorio, the chief of the Chihenne. During this meeting, Cochise met face to face with Arny but was disappointed he wasn’t meeting face to face with Grant. He said something to the effect of real men meet face to face… they don't send a piece of paper to be read from.

Grant wasn’t coming though, and so Cochise and the rest of the Apache would have to sit with this bureaucrat who was reading from Grant who was calling himself the great father and all that. Grant was saying he wanted the Apache to be on a reservation… to which Cochise said, quote, the Apaches want to run around like a coyote, they don’t want to be put in a corral. End quote.

Arny responded with, quote, the great father didn’t want to put them in a corral, he wants them to eat and dress like a white man, have plenty of everything and be contented. End quote. But as we know from the last episode, the Apache don’t want any of that. They want little and what they need, they steal from the Mexicans and others anyways. Sorry, I still can’t get over that.

This meeting would end with Cochise refusing to settle in that Tularose Basin Reservation that he felt they’d be trapped in. Instead, Cochise returned to either his Dragoon Mountains or the Sierra Madres of Mexico where he would escalate his reign of terror on the American Southwest. This reign of terror would see Cushing react punitively before he was killed by Joh and Geronimo like I talked about last time. And for almost a hundred years, that death was indeed blamed on Cochise. But it was NOT Cochise who killed Cushing. But it’s easy to see why the world that it had been… as you’ll hear about later.

In 1871 Cochise would have another meeting with the Americans where he came armed and with many of his warriors and it was a meeting in which he refused to dismount. He wasn’t allowing another cutting of the tent where he’d lose family and friends. By now, his hatred and distrust of the White Eyes was all encompassing.

By the early 1870s Cochise always travelled with armed bodyguards. He also apparently refused to enter into any building or tent and instead met on the open ground. Oftentimes he wouldn’t even dismount in case he needed a quick getaway. On the rare occasion that he and his people camped near a reservation or a fort, it was always around 15 miles away from the fort. Although he would allow his people to get some rations from the Government. But, he himself absolutely always refused to eat any rations that the Americans gave him because he was afraid, probably rightfully so, that they were poisoned. I mean, that’s what the Mexicans were famous for doing.

At this meeting in 1871 though, Cochise gave the incredibly eloquent speech I opened the episode with where he yet again refused to settle down at the Tularosa Reservation.

After the meeting… Cochise would renew his reign of terror… as usual.

One of these raids that Cochise managed to pull off was in broad daylight on a military outpost known as Camp Crittenden in southern Arizona. Cochise and his band of Chokonen took off with the entire horse herd of 54 horses and seven mules. Crook, in response called Cochise and his Chokonen Apache quote, the worst of all the Apaches, end quote and that Cochise was, quote, an uncompromising enemy to all mankind. End quote. Crook, like Cushing before him, wanted Cochise’s head. It was getting personal.

There was one White Eyes that Cochise did trust though, and that was a man named Tom Jeffords. Jeffords had an incredible life that had moments of it which mirrored Cass Hite’s and like Cass Hite, I cover Tom Jeffords extraordinary life for subscribers in a Roadrunner exclusive episode.

As the deadline mentioned earlier approached, the deadline that attempted to force all Apache onto reservations, Cochise met with a New Mexican military official named Colonel Gordon Granger. Crook was in Arizona and Granger was in New Mexico. Crook was ordered to round up all the Apache in that territory and then he’d move them into New Mexico with Granger’s help and then Granger would escort them to the Tularosa Reservation. But Granger could sense trouble so… he called a meeting with Cochise at the ill-fated Canada Alamosa Reservation which was about to move to Tularosa. So Granger called a meeting with Cochise and Cochise actually showed up. But the meeting… it didn’t get off to a good start.

Granger, like all Americans, was pretty ignorant of the Apache ways so when he handed over a rolled up personal letter from General Grant to Cochise that was tied together with red string, he had no idea of the bad omen he was presenting.

To the Apache, the color red could attract lightning, and lightning was one of the most powerful natural occurrences in the Apache’s worldview. It was the visible manifestation of their supernatural beings’ power. These being were known as the Thunder People. Lightning was the Thunder People’s arrows, like Zeus, in a way. These thunder beings, in previous epochs, they did the hunting for the Apache but the Apache took that goodwill by the supernaturals for granted and eventually, the Thunder People withdrew their help, leaving the Apache to hunt for themselves. Hunt… and in turn, raid.

Roberts talks more about the power of lightning when he wrote, quote:

Lightning was thus a profoundly ambiguous phenomenon. To fend off the danger of being struck by it, Apaches used charms: when lightning split the sky, they wore sage in their hair, made sure nothing red was near their persons, refused to eat, and uttered a spitting noise to show respect. When lightning struck nearby, it left a pungent powder in the air (perhaps the ozone an electric discharge releases); if a person inhaled the powder, he could fall ill from lightning sickness. Yet lightning could be a force for good, and Apaches prayed directly to it. End quote.

So President Grant’s personal note wrapped in red string was like sending a lightning bolt across the nation and directly into the hands of Cochise.

Upon seeing the red string The Apache warrior leader exclaimed, the red is not good!

Granger was taken aback but he tried to patch up the meeting as he implored Cochise to please settle down in the Tularosa Reservation that we’ve established for you. That’s… all we ask of you. And have been asking for years.

But Cochise could not be shaken. Years later, a witness to this event would attempt to recall what Cochise said and these are the words, wether they’re spot on or not, but this is eloquent the message that Cochise essentially gave to Granger, quote:

I have fought long and as best I could against you. I have destroyed many of your people, but where I have destroyed one white man many have come in his place; but where an Indian has been killed, there has been none to come in his place, so that the great people that welcomed you with acts of kindness to this land are now but a feeble band that fly before your soldiers as the deer before the hunter… I am the last of my family, a family that for very many years have been the leaders of this people, and on me depends their future, whether they shall utterly vanish from the land or that a small remain for a few years to see the sun rise over these mountains, their home. End quote.

It’s a sad speech but one that was repeated all throughout the land that would become the United States as manifest destiny ebbed westward. Much like the Pit River Indians had realized with Crook, Cochise was realizing the same unchangeable future: The White Eyes would never cease their march westward. Again… more on this theme in a moment.

Cochise would never go east though, which is why Grant wrote him a personal letter… but Cochise still understood that time… was not on the Red Man’s side.

Which is why in this meeting before the deadline, Cochise told Granger that he would indeed move his people onto a reservation… as long as it was near their sacred hot spring known as Ojo Caliente and NOT the Tularosa reservation. He would also NOT visit Washington DC which Granger continued to implore him to do. Cochise hated the white man’s ways. He told Granger he wasn’t going east and he wasn’t going to quote, eat little fishes out of tin boxes. End quote.

Fish were too close to snakes and the Apache steered clear of eating either. And Cochise thought that the American’s habit of eating tinned fish was despicable. Unmanly. Unhinged.

But Granger was persistent and he told Cochise, quote, The great father in Washington wants you and Loco and Victorio to go to Washington. End quote.

Cochise replied, quote, I am not a child, and would rather talk to you in this country… he goes on to say rather eloquently, as he often did, quote, I would much rather live here in the mountains where the grass dies, for when I lie down, if it gets in my hair and I can get it out, I know that all things are right here. End quote.

Granger, in one last attempt told Cochise, okay fine, why don’t you come to Cañada Alamosa where we have a fort and we’ll shower you with gifts.

Angrily, Cochise turned to his white friend I cover in the Roadrunner episode, Tom Jeffords and he says, quote, you believe these white men. I trusted them once, I went to their camp, my brother and two nephews were hung, no, I will not go. End quote. 

After the meeting, Cochise and his Chokonen Apache band left New Mexico for that ancient Presidio of Janos in Old Mexico.

This reservation at Fort Tularosa which Cochise refused to live at, it would ultimately only see 350 Apaches settle down and not even for very long.

During this time when Crook was waiting for the end of the deadline so he could enact war against the Apaches and finally put them onto reservations, during this time Grant and Sherman decided to give peace one more chance. That chance came in the form of Brigadier General Oliver Otis Howard.

Although he was two years younger than Crook, he did in fact outrank the man. Howard was… quite bearded and he lacked his right arm, as he had lost it early in the Civil War. He had a few military setbacks against the Rebs once he returned to combat and although his performance at Gettysburg was questionable… he still overcame those setbacks to rise in the ranks.

He was also a staunch liberal Republican abolitionist and before being sent to Arizona in 1872, he was head of the Freedman’s Bureau. That is the government commission to help the assimilation of the freed slaves back into southern life. Also, the Black college known as Howard University is named after him. Despite his progressive demeanor and being from the northeast, Howard wasn’t a Quaker, instead, he was a fundamentalist Christian. I couldn’t track down what that meant though or what denomination that is except for the phrase New Light Christian.

Surprisingly, The Arizonans were much kinder to Howard than they were to Colyer. Probably on account of the war wounds but they still didn’t like the Peace Policy and the money laundering scheme known as the Indian Ring, which they wrongfully suspected Howard of being a part of.

Crook… he wasn’t too thrilled with Howard. He was more thrilled than he had been with Colyer but he still felt his mission was to be accomplished with gun powder and swords, not prayers and promises. Crook said of Howard, quote, I was very much amused at the general’s opinion of himself. He told me that he thought the Creator had placed him on earth to be the Moses to the Negro. Having accomplished that mission, he felt satisfied his next mission was with the Indian. End quote.

Howard, for his part, thought Crook was quote unquote peculiar, but then again, who didn’t? He also said Crook was such a good listener and spoke so little that he made the speaker talk even more! Well, Howard, that could also be that you like to talk… I would know. I too am unconsciously drawn out in discourse during many conversations. As he put it.

Later the two would be friends who would both go on to fight for Indian rights. But that is much later.

For now, things between the two would be… tense.

One of Howard’s first meetings with the Indians was the meeting I spoke about in the beginning of the episode with the O’odham. Well, also in attendance was Eskiminzin. Eskiminzin was the chief survivor of the Camp Grant Massacre and father-in-law to the Apache Kid. And about Eskiminzin’s slaughter of his friend by shooting him in the face which I ended the last episode with… he was never arrested or tried for that cold blooded murder.

Besides Eskiminzin there was the Apache leader Santos, Uncle Billy Oury, the Elias brothers, Whitman, and Crook. As well as a whole bunch of other people. It was an enormous and significant meeting.

Whitman, by the way, had ran Fort Grant and had allowed the Apache to live there without authority and then had allowed the Massacre. Because of this, he had been arrested by Crook! But Howard had released him, which undermined Crook’s authority and Crook was none too pleased about this. But again, Howard outranked Crook.

Well, at this meeting, Howard, whom the Apache would come to call Nantan Biganigode, or His arm is shortened, Howard, bearded, missing an arm, he strolled into the amassed congregation of Arizonans and Apaches and immediately got on his knees and began to pray loudly.

At this, the Apache, quote, scattered like partridges when they see a hawk, end quote. They thought this strange new man was performing some kind of black magic medicine on them. Story has it, in less than two minutes the entire congregation of Apaches had fled.

Eskiminzin is quoted as saying to Whitman, quote, What do you mean bringing that man here to make bad medicine against us?! End quote.

Eventually, the Apaches were slowly coaxed back into the meeting but they remained leery.

The goal of this meeting was to smooth things over between all of the parties involved in the Camp Grant Massacre. That… and to remove Eskiminzin’s band of Apache as well as amass other Chiricahua and Western Apache onto a reservation that would be known as the San Carlos Reservation. A place subscribers know well on account of the Apache Kid series. This place was known as Hell’s Forty Acres and it was described by Lt. Britton Davis, the Indian Agent assigned there as a place where quote, almost continuously dry, hot, dusty and gravel-laden winds swept the plain, denuding it of every vestige of vegetation. In summer a temperature of 110 degrees in the shade was cool weather. At all other times of the year flies, gnats, unnameable bugs and beasts of the air swarmed in millions. End quote.

Sounds… lovely. But truthfully, malaria and other diseases had constantly broken out at Camp Grant, not to mention there just wasn’t enough of that all important bringer of life, water, at their spot in Aravaipa Canyon near Fort Grant that they loved so much. So this new reservation named San Carlos was to be there home. And it is still today, a Federally recognized Apache Reservation. I talk a lot more about San Carlos in the next episode.

As mentioned earlier, Crook, was still agitated that Whitman had been released which undermined Crook’s authority. Eskminzin and the Apache were still outraged that the Vecinos in town had their orphaned children. Howard was distraught that Uncle Billy Oury and the Elias had been acquitted… no one was too thrilled to be there.

Then Santos did the rock trick saying we will be peaceful as long as this rock exists but… Crook saw through that and he had actually seen Santos do the same trick before. And then he had broken that promise. Whitman, still on the Apache’s side had also seen this speech yet he still believed Santos and the Apache.

Then the Vecinos actually brought the kidnapped children to the meeting and Eskiminzin, stuttering the whole time and absolutely disgusted that their Apache children were being flaunted and used as pawns, he and the women of the White Mountain Apache attempted to physically grab and take the children but the children were screaming and clinging to their adopted parents and the Mexican American Vecinos were clinging to the children and chaos erupted and Crook, he just angrily stormed out. Howard… was embarrassed.

After the meeting Crook would meet with Howard and he would give him a stern talking to that would shake Howard for the rest of the day and well into the evening. Crook reiterated that his ultimate mission is to PROTECT the Americans and residents of Arizona FROM the Indians, not to show unbridled favoritism to the Apache who terrorize these Americans. Crook then said, quote:

General Howard, many of these people have lost their friends, relatives, and property by these Indians, They carry their lives constantly in their hands, not knowing what moment is to be their last. Now, if, instead of affording relief, you not only fail to give it to them but outrage their feelings besides, you must not expect your position to shield you from hearing plain words. These people have suffered too much to have any false ideas of sentiment. End quote.

Hutton wrote about the aftermath of this meeting well, quote:

Crook took considerable satisfaction upon learning that his remarks had so disturbed Howard that he could not sleep until he found relief in prayer at three o'clock in the morning. Howard was a good man, doing the best he knew how to do, in an exceedingly difficult situation. The general had gone away from camp to sit alone and pray beneath the spectacular canopy of stars offered by the Arizona night sky. He found his answer. End quote.

Howard’s answer to this problem with the kidnapped children who had been taken by the participants in the massacre? At least the children who were not with the O’odham in Mexico. Howard’s answer, which he said he received from the Lord, was that these children would all be turned over to the Catholic wife of a sergeant at Camp Grant until President Grant himself would decide what to do.

Also with regards to Whitman, he would be forced to resign from his post by Howard, Crook would court martial him a third time, and he would be removed from Arizona.

So Howard would shortly after the meeting, leave Arizona and with him, he took quite a few Indian chiefs from various bands and even other tribes with him back east to DC. Some of the people that accompanied him were leaders from the Pimas, the Papagos, aka the O’odham, the Yavapais, two Aravaipa Apaches, and two White Mountain Apaches. Both of those bands are western Apache. The names of the Apache were the aforementioned Santos, Old Pedro, Eskeltesela, and Miguel. Eskiminzin had been invited but he had refused to go. They all loaded up wagons and horses and rode to Santa Fe, before pushing further north towards Pueblo, Colorado where they boarded a train to the east. Towards the capitol of the White Eyes empire.

How did the train ride go for the Apaches? I’m glad you asked. Roberts gives this somewhat humorous anecdote from the trip. He wrote, quote:

When Howard bade them climb aboard a passenger car, their fear intensified. As the train began to move, the Indians hid on the floor and covered their faces with their hands.

Howard tried to reassure them, and soon they were sitting up right and staring out the window. End quote.

I imagine riding a train for the first time, probably after seeing one for the first time was a pretty jarring experience.

During the train ride, Howard noticed curiously that the Apaches were counting the mountains as they passed by them. This was something they had probably been doing for centuries throughout the region as they navigated the landscape with precision accuracy… I assume.

But eventually, one of the White Mountain Apaches, a man with one eye on account of losing the other during combat, well this one-eyed Apache man named Miguel, told Howard in a resigned voice that he could no longer count the mountains, for they were too many. Therefore, he was going to have to rely solely on the White Eyes General to lead him back to his home.

It sounds trivial, but for such an independent people, it must have been a kind of defeat in its own way.

But that was the point of the whole trip. For years, and not just with the Apache and the other southwestern tribes, but for years, the Federal government before and after the Civil War, they had been regularly and with increasing frequency been taking chiefs and warriors to the east. They had been taking them back east to demoralize them. To show, hey… look how many of us there are. Look at our cargo. Look at our strength. We will never stop coming. Resistance is futile.

On this trip though, Howard took the Apache and other various tribes to Philadelphia, Washington DC, and to New York City, among other locales that would show off the bustling and growing American Empire.

These western Indians would see the buildings, the parks, the people, the shipyards… the shipyards that had countless people unloading from the vessels which stretched in a line far out to sea. They were given food and things and, well, the best word I can use to describe the bribes is cargo. And cargo is what the Apache had been stealing and raiding for for centuries now.

But… in New York City, the coup de grace came when that one-eyed Apache, Miguel, came back to the group with… two… eyes. He had been fitted and given a glass eye. The group of western Indians were amazed.

The Apache also met Grant who gave them a medal and fifty dollars each. They were also escorted to a school for the deaf and the mute in DC after speaking with Grant. That school is now known as Gallaudet College. At first I wasn’t sure why on earth Howard would take these Apache and other Indians to a school for disabled people but then I realized, duh… it was to show these Apache, who also cared for their disabled, that the White Eyes, they had compassion and love for all mankind. Whether it be the impaired or… the Indian.

At this school though, the Apaches, who were closer to their ancestors ways then say the O’odham who had long ago Christianized and agriculturalized, the Apache, while at this school almost immediately created a sign language which these deaf students could understand. It just goes to show how ubiquitous universal Indian sign language was. Even White Eyes could understand it. Miguel especially loved the experience and talked to the students about the land and the animals and the plants way out west. The students were fascinated.

Also during the trip though, the Indian men from the west were shown the darker side of White civilization. The side these Apache just may end up on if they continued the fight. Howard, rather geniusly showed the Indians a prison in Pennsylvania. But I’ll let Roberts share that story for y’all:

Perhaps the most frightening episode on the eastern tour was a visit to a Pennsylvania penitentiary. Howard observed the Indians' deep dismay and compassion for the inmates, without recognizing its source. For an Apache, to be locked in a cage was the most hideous of punishments, worse than the cruelest torture. Miguel knew: he had spent a year in a Santa Fe prison for a crime he said he had not committed. End quote.

For Roadrunners, this does not come as a surprise. It’s why the Apaches with the Apache Kid resisted when they were arrested. Prison was worse than death. The Apache Kid and his cohorts were absolutely not going to Florida or worse, Alcatraz. Being confined to a reservation, by the way, was seen by the Apache as a form of prison.

But the message that was pounded upon these Apache, that message being assimilate or be destroyed, it did indeed lead to some lasting conversions. In New York State, at a Presbyterian church, the other White Mountain Apache, not Miguel, but an Apache named Old Pedro he stood up in front of the church and he declared his ever lasting conversion. He became a saved Indian. He would say to the congregation, which was interpreted to them, that, quote:

You have schools, churches, places where clothes are made, houses filled with wealth; you have wagons, horses, [railroad] cars, and more than I can speak of. We have nothing. We are very poor. I have been thinking hard. We had long ago all the land; the Indians were once as one man. Now they are divided and the white men have all the land and all things. Now I am going to be a white man. I shall wear the white man's clothes. I shall cook and eat the white man's food, and I want my children to go to school and learn to be white men. End quote.

As I mentioned earlier, this was the intended outcome of the entire endeavor in bringing these Indians to the east. Force them to understand that resistance was worthless. Roberts writes of this tactic, quote,:

The theory behind the practice of taking prominent Indians back east, which had begun long before Howard's 1872 jaunt, was that these ambassadors would be overwhelmed by the sheer size and might of the United States and dazzled by its technological accomplishments.

The Indians would thus lose the heart to fight on against impossible odds, and would also come to envy and then to emulate white ways.

Once back home, their testimony to what they had seen would ripple through their people, multiplying the impact of the visit a hundred-fold. End quote.

Crook himself had used this tactic in his speech against the Pit River Indians earlier. Howard was using it now. But other Americans used a similar method on other Indians using the newest technology instead of transportation… that technology being photography.

In a 2002 book called Scalp Dance, Indian Warfare on the High Plains, author and historian Thomas Goodrich talks about a meeting between a Kiowa Indian named Bearstooth and the whites. It’s a devastating anecdote that highlights the despair that many Indians felt when they were confronted with the fact that the wave of whites coming across the continent and into their lands was not a rogue wave but merely the first wave in a never ending series of them that would flood the land slowly like a rising tide. No matter how many waves you beat back, the next one was still coming. And they were never ceasing.

A man named Thomas Battey showed pictures of the east; cities, roads, buildings, massive amounts of people, soldiers… the same thing Howard showed these western Indians in person. But Thomas Battey showed these Plains Indians pictures of the thriving and growing life back east. And these pictures… completely demoralized the Indian leaders who viewed the photographs.

As I mentioned earlier, various American Indians had been escorted east regularly for years and upon their return to the west and its wilderness, they were always demoralized and distraught at the sheer numbers of white people. But the other Indians who hadn’t seen the spectacle themselves simply refused to believe it. Or they assumed that their Indian brethren had been cursed or some witch had gotten ahold of them. Then the camera came along.

Thomas Battey, quoted in this book Scalp Dance, he writes of the scene he witnessed after he presented the Indians with these pictures, quote: 

One middle-aged man, who has always treated these reports with the utmost skepticism, was particularly struck with them. He could not sufficiently express his surprise, but beat upon his mouth in utter astonishment. Sun Boy, who had often told him what he saw in the east, would say to him in Kiowa, "What you think now? You think all lie now? You think all chiefs who have been to Washington fools now?" Again and again would he look them over, with his hand upon his mouth, dumb with amazement. After he had looked them over several times, being a war-chief, he called in his warriors, and exhibited the pictures to them, talking to them all the time. I could understand but a part, yet would gather such expressions as these: "Look! see what a mighty powerful people they are!... We are fools! We don’t know anything! We just like wolves running wild on the plains. End all quotes.

It’s a heart breaking statement that this Kiowa war chief exclaims… we are like wolves, running wild on the plains… little did these Kiowa know, the wolves would soon be extinct from the great plains.

After the trip, the one-eyed, glass-eyed Miguel, sadly after this eastward odyssey, he would be killed during a quote, unquote petty Indian outbreak.

Howard, despite his successful jaunt east with the other Apache and southwestern Indians, he was not at all finished with his work. There was one Apache he had not been able to meet that he desperately felt he needed to. There was one Apache who had refused to meet with him, refused to go East, refused to settle down at Tularosa. There was one Apache who refused to allow he and his people to be subjugated: Cochise.

Cochise though, had not been seen by Americans in five months. At least not by any living Americans. Raids still occurred in southern Arizona through the remainder of 1872 and it’s possible that some of them were carried out by the old warrior but certainly not all of them.

Crook waited and fumed in Arizona the entire time Howard was gone. It was humiliating being told to sit on your hands while your superior literally paraded your enemy through the capitol. But Crook had his orders and he had to wait for Howard to return before he could mount his grand offensive.

But in the meantime, he did ramp up his recruitment of Apache scouts. By December 2nd, 1872, Crook and Bourke, who had tasked with the job of recruiting, they had 47 mostly White Mountain Apache scouts enlisted. Including one very peculiar one-eyed, red haired, copper colored half Apache Bourke would call Mickey Free.

The kidnapped boy Felix, aka Mickey Free would by 1872 be a scout in the US Army and he’d be described in 1880 as a mean SOB and a quote, indolent creature. A more repulsive object could not be imagined. End quote. Indolent’s another word for lazy. That’s not necessarily high praise of the man…

Mickey Free let his red hair grow long and cover up his missing eye while the other eye viewed everything with distrust and disgust. Roberts in Once they Moved Like The Wind describes him eloquently when he wrote quote:

Perhaps, like Shakespeare's lago, he nursed a secret wound, a hatred of the world instilled by the wrongs done him in his youth, which drove him to return the harm, just for the pleasure of watching things fall apart around him. End quote.

Iago is the main antagonist in Shakespeare’s Othello who sets the play in motion by harboring a hatred of the main character. He’s been described as Shakespeare’s most sinister villain on account of his closeness to the protagonist Othello. English literary scholar and Shakespeare specialist A. C. Bradley said that quote, evil has nowhere else been portrayed with such mastery as in the evil character of Iago. End quote.

Like that character, Mickey Free would betray seemingly everyone from the Apache to the Americans in big and small ways. And he’d seemingly enjoy every second of it. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Roberts suggests that Jimmy Ward, Mickey Free’s step father, who was a drunk and a not so beloved man by the community, Roberts suggests Ward beat the poor kid which is why he possibly went willingly with the one-eyed Mexican Apache Beto who kidnapped him all those years ago. In reality… he may even be half Mexican half Apache himself since his mother may have been raped by an Apache man which resulted in himself. Although, no one knows how he acquired the red hair.

Mickey Free, obviously wasn’t Felix’ Christian name or Apache name but seeing as how the American officers couldn’t pronounce most of the Apache names, they would appoint the men a new name when they signed up to become scouts. Most of this naming was done by Bourke, who again, was in charge of their recruitment, but Bourke said of these names, quote, they struck everybody as being full of significance and perfectly appropriate at the time they were bestowed. End quote.

Some of the names of scouts included Dandy Jim, Dutchy, Peaches, Buckshot, The Apache Kid, and Mickey Free. The Apaches couldn’t pronounce Anglo names either and they named Bourke Nantan Host Dijoole. Or, Captain Cactus. Which… I love.

So why Mickey Free? Well, Captain Cactus thought that the strange and angry red haired man looked somewhat Irish and Mickey Free was a colorful character in a popular 1840 Irish novel by Charles Lever called Charles O’Malley, the Irish Dragon. Apparently, Mickey Free was a main character in that very popular military romance novel. Except, that character was dashing and handsome and Felix the kidnapped boy was… I’ll have a picture of him on the site, he is indeed somewhat scary looking. So all the military men and officers that were literate knew of the character and would laugh at the inside joke which Mickey Free could not understand and probably would never. So his name and his appearance made him extremely popular among the Anglos. Meanwhile, if you’ll remember, he remained quite unpopular with the Chiricahua Apache who called him the quote, coyote whose kidnapping had brought war to the Chiricahua. End quote.

Before he signed up he was indeed a coyote. He was an Apache. He participated in raids. He later claimed and even bragged about killing women and children. He believed he was Apache. I talked about in the last episode how he trained to become a warrior with his adopted Apache brethren. He lived and hunted and raided and fought like an Apache. 

But now, he was training to fight like a White Eyes. But as Hutton puts it, quote, Mickey Free would find the transformation back into the white world to be far more difficult than his transformation into an Apache. End quote.

The fight he and others were training for under Crook, it was about to commence.

Mickey Free wasn’t the only scout under Crook that was about to go to war. Two other names I’ve mentioned a good bit about before, Grijalva and Al Sieber were also trusted scouts in Arizona.

Al Sieber featured heavily in my Apache Kid series for Roadrunners that everyone should sign up for and listen to. He would eventually become head of the Apache scouts in Arizona at San Carlos. But for this offensive, he would be in charge of the Hualapais Indians.

Al Sieber was born in the 1840s in Germany but after the failed 1848 commie revolution throughout Europe that his brother had fought in, the family fled to the United States.. like so many other failed commies and reds of that decade. And yes, they would move to the east coast from Italy, France, and Germany and they would indeed influence policy and politics in this country in the wrong direction… but that’s not my wheel house.

After Sieber’s family fled Germany, they arrived to the United States but by the 1850s Al Sieber himself, was in Minneapolis. At least until the Civil War started. He would fight for the north. And he really would fight. He’d be in quite a few major battles before falling at Gettysburg when a shell exploded near his head and a bullet tore through his right leg. That put him out of action but he stayed in the military until the war ended. He then headed back to Minneapolis but before long, he was heading out west. First to California. And then to Prescott where he not only became a foreman on a ranch but he also met an old school scout veteran by the name of Dan O’Leary who would teach Al everything he’d later be famous for.

This ranch he worked at was northwest of Prescott some 20 miles and the road between the town and the ranch was an extremely dangerous one. It was frequently the target of both Yavapais and Tonto Apache raids. In 1868 alone 18 men were killed on that stretch of road!

And interesting fact, for a while there, the Army thought the Yavapai were Apache. They even called them Yavapai Apache but they are in fact not the same people. Even though there is still today at Verde Valley a Yavapai Apache Reservation. A reservation which founding, we’re about to hear about.

Sieber was described as a hard drinking, fast tempered, and highly able bodied Indian fighter. At some point, he would end up living with the Apache and while doing so, he’d come to respect them and their warfare. But he’d also come to think like them as well. He apparently had no qualms killing Apache… and the Apache understood this.

Sieber’s biographer would later claim that he would see action quote, in more Indian fights than Daniel Boone, Jim bridges, and kit Carson together. End quote. Sieber would possibly kill more than one hundred hostile Indians throughout his long career and he would be wounded a staggering twenty…nine… times.

Eventually he would sign on at Camp Verde in Arizona where before long, he’d become the chief of scouts. A Lieutenant Britton Davis would say of Al Sieber, quote, If there ever was a man who actually did not know physical fear, that man was Al Sieber. End quote.

The other Chief of Scouts I just mentioned was Gijalva and his name has come up occasionally in the past two episodes.

The man was a Norteño, a Mexican from Sonora. But at 10, he had been captured by the Chiricahua Apaches who raised him in their ways, much like they did with Mickey Free. They looked after him for 8 years during which time Grijalva had gone on raids against Anglos and Mexicans. He had become an Apache warrior. But at 18 he escaped to an American Fort in Arizona. By 1866, he was a guide and interpreter for the Army. He was now hunting his once adopted Apache family.

Incredibly, Grijalva’s Chiricahua kidnappers were closely allied to Cochise’s band and he had one time seen the warrior chief drive his lance through an Apache’s heart when the Apache warrior had brought Cochise horses branded with US Army on them. Cochise didn’t want the heat that brought so he just killed this Apache warrior right there on the spot.

Obviously, this kind of intimate knowledge made Grijalva invaluable. He had the best knowledge of the Apache and he could track them as well as the Apache tracked them! Roberts writes of him, quote, he knew Cochise’s people so well that he once identified them from moccasins and beadwork that had been seized from a deserted camp. End quote. 

This made the man especially hated by the Chiricahua Apache who thought of him as the ultimate traitor. There is no doubt, he always kept an extra bullet for himself if he were ever about to be captured.

The man was indispensable.

Crook really liked his heads of scouts. He couldn’t very well use educated Anglo army officers in the role as head of Indian scouts. He had to use frontier men. He had to use men who better understood the skills needed in the wilderness and who had the ability to communicate with the Indians. In an earlier era as Roberts suggested, these men would have been mountain men and fur trappers and indeed, many of them started out as fur trappers but had to move on when the beaver were all trapped out or warfare overtook em. Many times these men were half breeds themselves and most of them would have at some point an Indian squaw wife. Or two. Or three. These men lived in two worlds and worked well in both of them. And they had no qualms with killing.

Another future Chief of Apache Scouts is a man named Tom Horn who I mentioned in my Apache Kid series and the Pleasant Valley War episode. He is soon getting his own Roadrunner series for subscribers.

Crook’s deadline for this offensive which everyone was gearing up for, was November 15th, 1872. Any and all Apache found outside of the established reservations as Crook himself put it, were to be relentlessly pursued and destroyed quote, in one good dose instead of in a number of petty engagements, but in either case were to be hunted down until the last one in hostility had been killed or captured. End quote. Of course, women and children were to be taken prisoner, not killed. And all prisoners were to be treated well.

Crook then further gave the order that any of these imprisoned Apaches who wanted to enlist to be a scout, should be allowed to do so because as he put it quote, the wilder the apache was, the more he was likely to know of the wiles and stratagems of those still out in the mountains, end quote. He demanded this operation be quote, short, sharp, and decisive. End quote. Crook meant business. And his business would include nine columns in the field. All nine of them would be hunting Apaches in every quote unquote nook and corner of Arizona Apacheria.

During the marches through the wilderness, the men were given strict orders that no one was to sing, whistle, shout, or strike a match. On rocky grounds they switched out their boots for moccasins. They could only have fires if they were small and the officers and scouts gave the OK. This was going to be hard, cold, rotten, devilish, and dangerous work. It was exactly what soldiers signed up to do.

Finally, the deadline arrived. November 15th turned into the 16th and that very morning saw three cavalry columns depart from Camp Hualapai. The offensive had begun. Each column had a number of cavalry troopers and thirty scouts. These scouts from Camp Hualapaio were either Hualapai or Mojave. Al Sieber himself led thirty Hualapais and they were to search every canyon and peak from Prescott to Flagstaff with the Chino Valley and the headwaters of the Verde River included in there.

Two other columns left a place known as Camp Date Creek and the camp would immediately and forever close behind the columns.

Crook headed to Camp Apache to recruit more scouts and to put yet another column in the field.

Once he’d arrived on November 29th, he met with the camp’s commander, a man named Captain George Jake Randall and the two began to plan their column’s offensive maneuvers.

The plan they come up with was that Captain Randall was to head west along the Salt River towards Fort McDowell. Which is not too far Northwest of Phoenix. With Randall would be a detachment of Apache scouts led by a Corydon Cooley. Each unit would be given a pack train of mules, of course. Crook said of this arrangement, quote, while they were sufficiently large to prevent disaster, they were small enough to slip around out of sight of the hostiles. End quote.

Randall was actually quite liked by the White Mountain Apache who called him Nantan Jake or Nantan Black Mustache. As for Corydon Cooley, He’d been born in Virginia in 1836 but he made it out to New Mexico by 1856 and then when the war started, he fought with Kit Carson and the Union. He had been at Fort McLane when Mangas Coloradas was murdered, actually. He then headed over to Arizona when a boom happened and there he married two Apache women. One named Cora and one named Molly. They were both daughter’s of a chief named Pedro. Kinda weird. But it made him pretty tight with the White Mountain Apaches. The same White Mountain Apaches he was now chief of scouts of. And I believe it’s the same Pedro that went east.

Once Bourke and Crook had to leave to make more preparations at Fort Grant, they put a man named Lt. Alexander Brodie in charge. This man would later become one of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders! He’d also later be territorial governor of Arizona.

So now, Randall, Brodie, Cooley, and 47 Apache Scouts were ready to head out into the field with Randall’s small column. And one of those Apache Scouts would be Mickey Free.

Randall and the gang’s main target were a group of Tonto Apaches led by a man named Delshay or Red Ant. And he was as mean as his name suggests. Hutton writes of him, quote, the chief was one of the most successful fighters in the mountains, so much so that he had disdained to talk peace with either Colyer or Howard. End quote. Well Crook, using Randall and his men as his tool, Crook wasn’t asking to talk to Red Ant.

Crook had actually called the man The Liar. He said Red Ant or Delshay had quote, the worst reputation amongst all the Indians for villainry and devilment. End quote.

The Apache scouts were more than happy to make war against Red Ant too for the Chiricahua had been known to go on raids against them and even capture some of their women. Red Ant, for his part, was not afraid to stand up for his Tonto Apache people which led to many battles and fights between the two Apache factions. This is exactly why Crook was using the Chiricahua as scouts to begin with. He was playing off of this animosity.

On December 10th 1872, the Army came knocking on Red Ant’s door. That morning 8 soldiers and twenty scouts, with Mickey Free included, waged a small 2 hour battle which would see fourteen Tontos killed. The attachment then burned the Rancheria to the ground. Red ant and most of his people would escape but without any food and without most of their stolen mules and down many a warrior.

Three days later, in a repeat, Mickey Free, the other scouts, and the 8 soldiers killed another 11 Tontos of a different band and this time they captured 6 adult women and a child. After this win, the usually pretty colorful and almost always vocally anti-Apache paper, the Arizona Weekly Miner, even they gave the Apache scouts some praise when they wrote, quote, the friendly Indians too deserve the thanks of all good Americans. End quote.

Meanwhile, Lt. Bourke was absolutely beaming with praises of his boss’s wisdom in hiring the Apache Scouts. He would say, quote, the longer we knew the Apache scouts, the better we liked them. They were wilder and more suspicious than the Pimas and Maricopas, but far more reliable, and endowed with a greater amount of courage and daring. End quote.

Everyone who’s listened to the previous episodes know the Apache are not in any way lacking courage or daring. Remember that 1660 quote by the Spanish Missionary that said the Apache, quote, hurl themselves at danger like a people who know no God nor that there is any hell. End quote. I believe I said that quote in my episode that lead up to the Pueblo Revolt.

The very next year after these engagements, in 1873 a Lieutenant Walter Scribner Schuyler would comment on the Nnee that quote, An Apache only knows two emotions: fear and hate. End quote. In these engagements with their fellow Apache, they proved themselves full of hate.

That minor battle, the first encounter of Randall’s men against the Tontos, well one day after that, on December 11th, a different column that had been sent out by Crook, this one led by Captain William H Brown, he had led his 5th Cavalry and thirty Apache scouts, as well as Captain Bourke, who was eager to see some action, they were all headed towards infamy and a place known ominously as Skeleton Cave.

Brown’s thirty Apache scouts were led by a man named Archie McIntosh and McIntosh was Crook’s favorite head of scouts.

McIntosh had been born in Ontario up in Canada to a Scottish father and a Chippewa Indian mother. He was pretty savvy when it came to the wilderness which makes sense. He had started trapping when he was 10 years old. He was also a survivor.

When McIntosh was just a wee lad he was in a canoe with his father up in Canada, trapping the Fraser River when Indians ambushed them and put an arrow into his father, killing him instantly. Young Archie McIntosh was able to escape though. After that, he was sent to Scotland to gain an education but before long he’d be back in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest where he’d work for the Hudson Bay Company before being a guide and interpreter for the US Army by 1855.

One of the reasons Crook liked him so much was because McIntosh, in Idaho some years before, had guided Crook through a blinding blizzard and had saved his life. Crook trusted the man with his life and he learned to trust the guide’s instincts always.

Only problem with McIntosh, a problem Crook forgave, but the only problem with the half Scot half Indian was his propensity for being a raging drunk. It was a well known fact that occasionally he’d have to be propped up on his horse which lead the way while he was passed out. Sometimes he woke up in the back of wagons after having fallen off his horse.

When Crook brought him from the Pacific Northwest to the American Southwest, during that journey in the summer of 1871 which saw the two and a few others go from Portland Oregon to Tucson, McIntosh was roaring drunk the entire journey. A lot of that was because he didn’t want to go to the desert, but once there. He proved to be an invaluable leader of Apache scouts.

McIntosh had actually led Crook on that first mission through the Tonto’s land where the Tonto Apache had jumped off the Mogollon Rim after nearly getting an arrow into Crook’s noggin.

So Brown, Bourke, McIntosh and the scouts, they were also in search of Red Ant. But instead of finding that Tonto Apache, they came upon a large group of Yavapai who were camped out in the Salt River Canyon.

The confusion came about because an Indian, not sure what band or tribe of Indian, but an Indian told Crook and Bourke that Red Ant was in a cave stronghold in the Mazatzal Mountains which sat high above the Salt River. This area today is just west of the Roosevelt Dam near Tonto National Monument. A monument bearing the name of the Apache while housing ruins of the Mogollon.

Another scout also told Crook and Bourke that not only is that the stronghold but he was raised in the cave and he can take them directly to Red Ant.

The date was December 28th and the battle that ensued was not a battle at all but was instead, a massacre. A blood bath that would be known as the Skeleton Cave Massacre.

Sadly, many of these Yavapai had actually, earlier in the year, been on a reservation. They’d already surrendered and had lived as the white eyes wanted them to but while at the reservation, many got malaria or got sick from the food rations so they left. They went back to these mountains and out of sight of the whites. This would have dire consequences.

That very early morning in late December, Bourke and 220 soldiers with a bunch of Pima O’odham and Maricopa scouts, they ascended the landscape towards the opening of the cave and completely surprised the inhabitants. Led by around a dozen snipers, the men came to the opening of the cave where they saw warriors dancing around a fire while women were preparing food.

Here’s how Roberts describes what unfortunately happened next:

There was no discussion of surrender. In the morning gloom, each sharpshooter chose a warrior; at the whispered signal, all fired. Six of the Yavapai men fell dead. Hearing the gunfire, the rest of the army patrol came running up. A broken wall of boulders ranged across the front of the cave: at once the Yavapai warriors sprang to positions behind these rocks and started shooting at the soldiers, while the women, children, and old men cowered inside the cave. There was no hope of flight, for the soldiers had the cave surrounded.

The commander now, according to Bourke, quote, directed his interpreters to summon all to an unconditional surrender. End quote. Apache scouts yelled out the appeal. "The only answer was a shriek of hatred and defiance," reported Bourke, "threats of what we had to expect, yells of exultation at the thought that not one of us should ever see the light of another day, but should furnish a banquet for the crows and buzzards.” End all quotes.

The Yavapai would indeed fight back until they ran out of ammunition and arrows. At one point, 20 warriors rushed the soldiers with what weapons remained but they were all killed or pushed back.

Then, Bourke sent a small group of soldiers up onto a ledge that overlooked the cave where they were told to push every boulder they could onto the people below. They did. It was devastating.

The survivors within the cave then fled to the back of the cave where, out of fight and out of hope, they cowered in the darkness. But it wouldn’t help them.

The troops and the scouts were then directed to fire at the ceiling and the cave walls where the bullets would bounce and ricochet into the huddled Indians. The lead finished the job as the pinging bullets killed indiscriminately.

As the men slowly made their way into the cave, the O’odham were recorded by a Yavapai survivor as bashing the heads in of any survivors with rocks before the soldiers could stop them.

After the dust cleared, the cave was filled with 76 dead Yavapi men, women, and children. Only 20 women and children, and almost all of them wounded, were taken captive.

That same Yavapai survivor would also say, quote, one woman who was badly wounded and could not sit on a horse was left behind. Some soldiers gave her food and water, but when they were out of sight, some Pimas went back and mashed her head to jelly. End quote.

61 years later, the bleached and broken bones were still strewn about the cave and its opening. Eventually a party of Yavapai came and gathered what remained and buried them at Fort McDowell Indian Reservation. The ricochet marks the bullets made on the caves walls and ceiling can still be seen today.

Crook was satisfied with the quote unquote battle’s success, although he was disappointed Red Ant hadn’t been among those crushed or shot dead.

In the second week of January, 1873 Captain Randall had his men and his Apache scouts right back out in the field. Winter, after all, was on the Army’s side. Hutton writes of the winter, quote, the cold was his, meaning Crook, the cold was his ally, for it hampered movement by the Apache warriors, encumbered by their families, and prevented them from replenishing their food supplies… Hutton goes on… Crook counted on winter snow to provide his mobile strike forces and their pack trains with enough water. This was a risky gamble, but it would pay off for him. End quote.

This area that Crook was fighting in, the Tonto Basin area, it reached heights of 8,000 feet. And the Apache were sure to stay at the highest possible elevations so they could escape capture. They couldn’t build fires either because those would give away the Apache’s positions. Not to mention, all the food they would be eating over the campaign had to have been gathered in the fall so if an encampment was discovered, the people would lose all of their stored up foods.

So in January, Randall sent Brodie with 44 men and Apache Scouts back out in the field. Their mission was to clear out the land south of the White Mountains of any remaining Apache. They were also to reestablish Camp Grant at a different location. This location would be two miles west of Mount Graham across the Gila River. Mount Graham is northeast of Tucson and straight north of the town of Wilcox which is on I-10. Crook sent the men there to specifically locate and destroy Cochise and his band. Or as Crook put it, quote, iron all the wrinkles out of Cochise’s band. End quote.

As the Skeleton Cave Massacre showed, the Apache weren’t the only ones in need of rounding up according to Crook and the US Army. The Yavapai were also refusing to come in and they needed to be shown the way.

After a month of scouring the wilderness of southern Arizona with nothing to show for it, Randall caught a break when he came upon Brown’s fifth cavalry. They had very recently fought a small engagement with the Yavapai which resulted in three of their women being captured. Randall interrogated these women and eventually they gave up the location of their main rancheria or mountain hideout.

Randall, being the ranking commander took charge and ordered everyone to assault this mountain fortress stronghold. But ahead of the large group were the scouts and with them, Mickey Free. They were looking for a spot known as Turret Peak.

I’m gonna let Hutton describe what happens next in all of its… harrowing details. Quote:

Randall's troopers followed the scouts on foot, with gunnysacks wrapped over their boots to muffle the sound. It was tough going over sharp lava rock studded with cactus, and Mickey and the scouts had to physically pull several of the exhausted men up over the rocks. Through the darkness, they could make out Turret Peak looming above them. The rancheria, Mickey reported, was on the circular mesa that marked the top of the mountain.

Randall's men struck at dawn on March 27. The surprise was total. As Mickey and the scouts swept through the compact rancheria, the inhabitants fled toward the waiting soldiers and were shot down or captured. Some jumped off the cliff in an attempt to escape. A few managed to hide in the brush but many simply hurled themselves into eternity in a blind leap for freedom. All thirty-three warriors encountered were killed, while thirteen women and children were rounded up by the scouts. End quote.

Two days later, on March 29th 1873, Randall, his troopers, and his scouts all returned triumphantly to Camp Verde with their prisoners. At the fort, Brodie promoted a few of the Apache scouts including Mickey Free. He was now a corporal. Obviously, a war dance was enjoyed by the Apache and with them it was recorded, some of the White Eyes joined in, in celebration of a long winter campaign having been successfully completed.

Apparently, Turret peak was thought of by the Apache and Yavapai both to be… impregnable. Its downfall was as Hutton put it, the final straw. The Apache were tired of running. They had been cold and hungry all winter and Crook’s soldiers were everywhere all the time. They were impossible to escape. It was impossible to be a free Apache.

By mid-April, 1,200 Yavapai and Tonto Apache had come into the new Fort Grant. Individuals, families, and eventually bands all surrendered and came in from the literal and figurative cold. The war had been a success.

Crook himself was at the fort to greet many of the surrendering Indians. One of the Yavapai chiefs even told Crook that quote, you see, we are nearly dead from want of food and exposure, the copper cartridge has done the business for us. I am glad of the opportunity to surrender, but I do it not because I love you, but because I am afraid of General. End quote.

That had been, after all, General Crook’s stated aim and desire from the onset of hostilities against these quote unquote renegade Apache. He was out to prove there was no escaping the future and that future was a nonstop onslaught of never ending Anglos pouring into the country to cultivate, civilize, and capitalize this desert Apacheria wilderness.

On April 9th, 1873, Crook issued General Order 14 which officially ended the war against the Apache in Arizona. Although, a few weeks later, the final coup de gras occurred when on April 25th, Randall and his men ran into Red Ant, the toughest renegade Tonto Apache chief of them all… but there was no fight to be had. Red Ant waved the white flag. He and all his people were led into Camp Grant without a fight.

General Crook said later that Red Ant told him, quote, he had one hundred and twenty five warriors last fall, and if anybody had told him he couldn’t whip the world, he would have laughed at them, but now he had only 20 left. End quote.

By the end of the campaign, 2,300 Apache and Yavapai Indians were on reservations in Arizona.

Crook, when congratulating his men said, prematurely, in a very… deck of an aircraft carrier way mission accomplished! And they had done an outstanding job and that they, quote, finally closed an Indian war that has been waged since the days of Cortez. End quote.

The war against the Apache though… it was not over. But this battle certainly was.

The battle really was an enormous military success. A success that could have gone wrong at any time throughout the widespread campaign. The chances of the men getting lost in the desert, forests, and mountains and being ambushed was extremely high. But it didn’t happen.

The bulk of the success must go to Crook himself who planned everything down to the letter including what straw to use on the pack mule’s backs. He was also a lead from the front kind of commander. Bourke would write of him, quote, there was no private soldier, no packer, no teamster, who could 'down the old man' in any work, or outlast him on a march or a climb over the rugged peaks of Arizona; they knew that, and they also knew that in the hour of danger Crook would be found on the skirmish line, and not in the telegraph office. End quote.

He also kept his men in high spirits. It was remarked that several times after a long and hard days march, Crook would leave the camp with his shotgun, only to return in the morning with a pack full of game birds slung over his shoulder. The men would get to enjoy the delicious fresh meat instead of the same old dried peaches, flour, beans, and bacon. 

On the other hand… the success for the US Army meant utter and complete defeat for the Apache. In just one of these nine columns, Bourke recorded over 500 Apache deaths… The Apache starved throughout the campaign all throughout Arizona Apacheria. Diseases spread. Rancherias were burned to the ground. Many of the Apache’s spirits were broken. Many of them… for a century. The sweeping and successful campaign was in Robert’s words, quote, brutal in the extreme.. and it quote, verged on the kind of genocidal persecution favored by Carleton and Baylor a decade before. End quote. Apparently, during the entire campaign, not a single surrender was recorded. Every engagement over the 140 days between the Army and the Apaches ended in violence, bloodshed, and death. Remember, that surrender by Red Ant was after the campaign had been officially declared complete.

The remainder of the success was absolutely on account of the Apache scouts. They were always one or two days ahead of the main column and they were SUPPOSED to trail the enemy, find the enemy, and then run back and tell the main force who would catch up and engage. But instead, these Apaches were so gung-ho and filled with fight that they’d just go ahead and engage the enemy whenever they came upon them.

After Red Ant’s surrender he would tell either Randall or Crook himself and whomever he told would record quote, he said they used to have no difficulty in eluding the troops, but now the very rocks had gotten soft, they couldn’t put their foot anywhere without leaving an impression by which we could follow. That they could get no sleep at nights, for should a coyote or a fox start a rock rolling during the night, they would get up and dig out, thinking it was we who were after them. End quote.

The Scouts were able to follow and track the Apache far better than the Mexicans and the Anglos were practically incapable of tracking.

Mickey Free would reenlist after his 6 months were up and he would be promoted to Sergeant. Other Apache scouts would receive the medal of honor. Crook’s plan on using Apache scouts had certainly paid off.

Mickey Free wouldn’t be the only one getting a promotion though. In October of that year 1873, in a tidal wave of manifest destiny, the telegraph line was finally completed between Fort Yuma to the south and Prescott. The first message sent over that line was from President Grant himself who informed Crook that he had been promoted two grades higher to Brigadier General. Arizonans were ecstatic in their support and the Prescott Miner newspaper called Crook the quote, Napoleon of Successful Indian fighters. End quote.

But Crook still had not captured his ultimate goal: The Napoleon of successful fighting Indians: Cochise.

Two episodes ago I used Naiche, son of Cochise, I put Naiche’s face on the famous painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David, except the background was the Mogollon Mountains. Naiche apparently looked a lot like his father so it’s safe to assume that Cochise looked like Naiche. Looking back, I probably should have saved that cover for this episode. I honestly had no idea the series would be this long. Surprise, surprise.

So now I’m going to back up a little to before Crook’s campaign during the winter of 1872 and 1873 and I’m going to talk about General Howard and Cochise.

In the summer of 1872, in August, before the grand successful offensive, General Howard returned to the American Southwest after his trip with the Indians on the east coast. And with him, he brought his aid, Lt. Joseph Sladen. Sladen had aided Howard both during the Civil War and during Howard’s tenure at the Freedman’s Bureau.

Their mission by President Grant himself; was to make peace with the elusive Cochise.

The first two runners sent out to ask for a parlay were unsuccessful. So, Howard decided he was going to go east to New Mexico to the newly established Fort Tularosa, north of the Mogollon Mountains where maybe he could meet with someone, anyone who knew the elusive Apache Chief. 

But before Howard even left, he was told that there was indeed a man amongst the Apache who knew Cochise but this man, was a white man. That man’s name is Tom Jeffords but the Apache called him Taglito. Or Red Beard. I have an entire Roadrunner exclusive episode over the man’s incredibly interesting life. And that episode is a great companion to this series as it talks a lot about the Apache. All of the roadrunner exclusives so far are good supplements to the apache series. So subscribe at Substack for that episode and a whole bunch more.

Howard and Sladen were both warned to be leery of this white man who was friends with Cochise. He was called a quote unquote bad egg. It was rumored that he was blood brothers with the Apache, he took Apache women home, he traded stolen stock for guns, he gave the Apache whiskey, and he even may have raided down into Mexico with Cochise! The settlers believed Jeffords had white man’s blood on his hands. None of those things were true, by the way. But the always colorful Arizona press certainly pushed those rumors.

By September of 72, Howard and Sladen had made it to Fort Tularosa where they attempted again to meet with Cochise. They immediately sought this Jeffords fellow but he was nowhere to be found. But while the two were there, and while they were waiting for Jeffords to show up, the two Army men met with quite the plethora of Apache leaders including: the son of Mangas Coloradas, Mangas. They also met Nana, Loco, and Victorio, as well as a few other men of note. And what did they learn from these Apache?

They learned that the Apache at this ill fated reservation hated Tularosa. While yes, it was beautiful, it simply wasn’t their homeland and they felt no connection to the ground beneath them. Not to mention, the winters were too cold, the water was bad, and the growing season was much too short. Also, the Apaches recorded that there were a lot of flies. Too many flies. Like, tons of flies. And lastly… the place was home to a significant population of Mexican spotted Owls. This is important because for the Chiricahua, the hoot of an owl was a bad omen. The hoot of an owl brought death. Tularosa then was filled with bad spirits and the promise that more spirits would arrive. Their own spirits.

This whole reservation had been set up by Colyer who refused to give the Apache the land they wanted at Ojo Caliente because there were too many hispanics already living there at the time and Colyer didn’t want to kick them out of their homes and fields. Which… would have started a whole lot of trouble. As I said before, this would have consequences for Victorio and his small band.

The Apache leaders though, they told Howard, especially Victorio, he told Howard, look, if you just relocate us 70 miles southeast to Canada Alamosa at least, we will be happy there. Heck, even Cochise camps there and would come in if you moved us there!

This spot, Canada Alamosa, is near present day Monticello, New Mexico which is east of the Black Range and west of Elephant Butte Lake and I-25.

Howard would actually consider this and I even read that he decided while at Tularose to close the place down. He even set a date to travel to the spot, Canada Alamosa with Victorio. But for now, his main goal was peace with Cochise.

And that goal grew closer when on September 7th, Jeffords arrived to camp. Jeffords wasn’t in no hurry to meet with Howard since he didn’t like that he posed as a quote unquote christian soldier, and also, while he was friends with Cochise and the Apache, Jeffords wasn’t too thrilled with Howard’s quote unquote well known humanitarian ideas. Not to mention, Jeffords was a Democrat, not some loony Republican. Nonetheless, Howard was quick to find the red bearded man wether he wanted to be found or not. And once found, Jeffords made quite the impression on the one-armed General. 

Howard wrote of meeting him, quote, the first tent I entered, a tall, spare man, with reddish hair and whiskers of considerable length, rose to meet me. He was pleasant and affable, and I was in the outset prepossessed in his favor. End quote.

Howard though, he got straight to business. He told Jeffords to send a message to Cochise saying that he, Howard, wanted to meet with him at the Camp.

Jeffords looked at Howard and told him… no way, Cochise will not meet here. If you wish to talk to him, you must go to him.

Howard asked the man who was apparently puffing on a cigar, do you know where Cochise is?!

Jeffords responded with, yeah, I can find him.

Howard then asked if Jeffords could please take a message but Jeffords said, I’ll do you one better. He said quote, General, ill tell you what ill do. I will take you to Cochise. End quote.

Elated, Howard agreed to go with Jeffords at once. But… Howard was told that he could take no soldiers with him. It had to be a small party and he could only take his aid. Therefore it could be dangerous. Deadly even. Howard… agreed.

Jeffords would later say of Howard, quote, I saw then that he was not only a brave man, and fearless as far as his person was concerned, but was really in earnest about trying to stop the destructive war which Cochise was waging upon my countrymen. End quote.

On September 13th, a group of Apache and Anglo men gathered at the Fort and left for Cochise’s stronghold. Among the Anglos were Howard, Sladen, and Jeffords, with Victorio, a bunch of his warriors, and Chie among the Apache. Chie was Cochise’s nephew whom he’d raised like a son after Chie’s father was hanged by Bascom immediately after the cutting of the tent incident in Apache Pass. The incident which started this whole war. The incident which only happened after Beto stole the coyote boy Felix aka Mickey Free.

The following journey is quite the saga in and of itself with a lot of terrain covered and a lot of close calls but… the adventure would be well worth it in the end.

On their first night out the small group camped near Ojo Caliente and Cañada Alamosa where the following morning, Victorio would show Howard how important this land was to these Apaches. Again, the only problem was the nearby Hispanic settlement that didn’t want to share water or land with their ancient enemy, the Apache. Howard promised to talk to Washington about it upon his return to the capitol.

For his part, Howard would indeed talk to Washington but… the Indian Affairs Bureau refused to change the reservation’s location. Even though he’d already said he would close Tularosa, there would be no res at Canada Alamosa.

After the tour of this beloved land, Victorio took his warriors back to Tularosa. Meanwhile, Howard’s group continued in search of Cochise. Apparently, an Apache man named Ponce was to meet them and take them to their leader.

Ponce was the son of Ponce and the elder Ponce had been one of Cochise’s closest friends… at least right up until he got murdered by another Apache in a drunken brawl in 1854. Either that… or… Ponce is another one of Mangas’ many children. I’m not sure.

Regardless, when Colyer moved the res to Tularosa, Ponce refused to go. Therefore, he’d been raiding the countryside from the Rio Grande in central New Mexico to the Dragoon Mountains in southeastern Arizona. This put him right up against and intermingled within Cochise’ Chokonen territory which made Ponce, one of Cochise’s quote unquote favorite friends.

Jeffords said that once they met up with Ponce, he would take the group to the Cochise stronghold.

Well, they did’t have to wait long because only 12 miles south of the Canada Alamosa camp, they ran into Ponce who was happy to see Taglito aka Jeffords. He also, surprisingly, told the General Howard he and his people were coming in now. IF, the general gave him a horse and promised to protect and feed his people. Howard agreed to both demands. Which was yet another victory for the general. 

The following morning Ponce showed up sans horse since he had to give it to his wife who was upset that he was leaving. Which yeah, that’s how it works sometimes. So Ponce led the group on foot which apparently did not phase him not even a little. Howard’s aid Sladen would write that, quote, on foot he went and whether we travelled twenty miles up and down the rugged mountain sides, it was all the same to Ponce. End quote.

From there the group travelled to Fort Bayard which was near Pines Altos in the southern portion of the Mogollon Mountains.

After Bayard they traveled to Silver City which had only been established two years before their visit. And it was here, at Silver City where the group finally ran into some trouble. But it wasn’t from the Apache. Rather, the trouble came from some angry prospectors.

Silver City is a great town directly south of Pinos Altos and the Mogollon Mountains which is where Geronimo and Mangas Coloradas were from. A lot of the action of previous episodes occurred around this area. Silver City has a really amazing Mimbres Pottery museum that I encourage everyone who visits the area to take a look at. Also the hot springs in the mountains to the north are incredibly nice.

So at Silver City, the group of Anglos with two Apaches, they ran into some prospectors and one of those prospectors had lost a brother to Cochise. So this man was none too pleased to see these Apache. Back in town, the prospector began to gather a posse.

Howard, Sladen, and Jeffords, they eventually got word of this posse so they made it a point to leave as quickly as possible. Remember, these Anglos were without a military escort, despite being in the military themselves. It was just those three and two Apaches. The small party was pretty vulnerable. So they left Silver City only to run into this now angry and armed posse on the road north.

After some exchanged words, the slighted brother in the posse raised his rifle to shoot down the Apache but heroically, Howard apparently stepped in front of the men and shouted, quote, you will kill me first, end quote. Brave man, indeed. After that, the posse dispersed with utterances of that quote unquote damnable peace policy.

Obviously, the two Apaches, Chie and Ponce, they were confused at what on earth they had just witnessed. So, Jeffords had to explain to them that the White Eyes General had just put his life on the line for these Apache men. Apparently the two Apaches chuckled to themselves but they would never forget the act and the courage it took and they would also tell Cochise which would make an impression on the old warrior as well. It was things like this that impressed the Apache. More so than wagons of food and cloth.

Shortly after that drama, when they were 70 miles away from Cochise’s mountain stronghold, either Chie or Ponce, I read both, but one of the Apaches abruptly halted the party, built a small smoke signal, and then ran ahead of the group where he proceeded to howl like a coyote. Much to the Anglos’ surprise, another coyote off in the distance responded!

The Apache then ran up a mountain only to return with one of Cochise’s scouts. This was a Chokonen Apache like Cochise but his band leader was a man named Nazee. He told them about where Cochise was and then the group proceeded.

So, the three Anglos of Howard, Sladen, and Jeffords, plus the two Apache Chies and Ponce, the five of them were soon on their way west towards the Chiricahua Mountains while being led by this scout. This scout, by the way, had been trailing them for 2 days and 40 miles. Unbeknownst to Howard and Sladen. And by now, as they grew closer to the mountain fortress, Sladen began to grow… a little terrified. Howard while urging him forward, was privately debating about sending him back. He’d ultimately keep him on though.

When the adventurous crew reached Dos Cabezas and Apache Pass, where it had all started, they headed north seven miles towards a waterfall fed spring known as Indian Bread Rocks. There, Ponce and Chie made smoke signals to let Cochise know they were there and not to worry. But no response came back.

Soon after the smoke though, Chie sprang up from the camp and bolted up the mountain. He would not return… instead, two young Apaches arrived with instructions to take the group up to finally see Cochise himself. The chief had been waiting for them for days. Chie was also up there waiting.

Once in the Dragoon Mountains that was Cochise’s stronghold, they spent the night in a band leader named Tygee’s Rancheria. This rancheria was in a perfect Apache Mountain stronghold. The archetype of them really. The men were surrounded by Apaches and rocks but Howard seemed to be at ease. Although he would note that the Apache leader, Tygee, he appeared gloomy and reserved. However, Howard noted that the children that gathered around the Anglos were happy and curious. Unfortunately for the crew though, they wouldn’t be seeing Cochise until the following day, October 1st, 1873.

Lt. Sladen obviously got to witness firsthand this mountain stronghold fortresses which the Apache had been using since their original arrival into the American Southwest. Hutton writes of this and says, quote, The lieutenant was amazed at the natural fortification they had entered. The village sat in the center of a fifty acre valley flanked on all sides by rocky bluffs some four hundred feet high. Through its center ran a crystal clear stream, and narrow canyon entrances marked both ends of the stronghold. End quote.

It honestly sounds heavenly… no wonder the apache did not want to give up their freedom to live on a reservation down and out of their mountains…

The following morning while the group was eating a breakfast that Jeffords had prepared a scene from a movie erupted.

At first a commotion had startled the party into looking up and over at a gathering crowd of Apaches. Then Ponce began to say in Spanish he is coming, he is coming, he is coming! He repeated it louder and louder and eventually the entire little rancheria was chanting he is coming together!

I’ll let Hutton describe what happened next:

An Apache, armed with a lance and wildly painted with black and vermilion, galloped straight at them, pulling his pony to a sudden halt, followed by a mounted party of four. "It consisted of a fine looking Indian, who rode up with great dignity followed by a young man and two women," noted Sladen.

The man slowly dismounted and immediately embraced Jeffords. Taglito turned to Howard and said, "General, this is the man." Howard extended his hand and Cochise shook it as he carefully studied the general. "Buenos días," he said.

Cochise then turned to Jeffords. "Will they do as they say they will?" he asked.

“Well I don’t know,” Taglito replied, “I think they will, but I will see that they do not promise too much.” End all quotes.

The historic meeting, the meeting so many before him had wanted and waited for, had finally arrived.

With Cochise was his son Naiche, his wife, and his sister. And his sister was an important woman. Sladen would note that Cochise would consult with her regarding everything he said during this meeting.

Eventually after Jeffords and Cochise had talked for a bit, Cochise turned to Howard to begin the negotiations.

Through Jeffords who translated Apache straight to English, the first thing Cochise asked Howard was… why are you here? He actually said in his very eloquent way, quote, will the general explain the object of his visit? End quote.

Howard responded that he was there on orders from the President to finally make peace between his white people and Cochise’s Chokonen Apache.

Cochise responded, quote, no one wants peace more than I do. End quote.

This was obviously good news to Howard but Howard knew, the only way for there to be peace was if Cochise came in from the cold. So, Howard asked him to please follow he and his men to Canada Alamosa where he and Victorio and Loco and all the Apaches who so desired could live there.

Howard did have the authority to make new reservations, authority given to him by the President but the Bureau and congress still had to OK the plans in the end. And in the end remember, the Bureau does not end up ever establishing a reservation at Canada Alamosa. But Howard doesn’t know that yet and peace is within his grasp. He and Cochise’s grasp.

So Howard had asked Cochise and his Chokonen to join the Chihenne and Victorio at Canada Alamosa. But, Cochise, surprisingly and against what Victorio had said, Cochise replied with no, I’ve never been there. Why don’t you instead give me Apache Pass, the place where the cutting of the tent occurred and not only will I be peaceful but I will guard the pass against other Indian depredations. He said quote, I will see that nobody’s property is taken by Indians. End quote.

Howard really wanted Cochise to go to Canada Alamosa though because that’s where they could farm. There was no way they could practice agriculture in Apache Pass. Also, if the Apache were out of Arizona, they were safer from the Arizonans. Not that the south central New Mexicans were much friendlier. But Howard also realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. So, he told Cochise, okay, I can make you a reservation right here in the Dragoon Mountains, I have full presidential authority to do so. How does that sound?

Cochise thought a moment before asking for 10 days so that he may call in all his warrior captains who were quote unquote making a living. Aka Raiding.

Howard agreed to the ten days and then he agreed that he would head to Fort Bowie to call in all his soldiers so they wouldn’t attack these warrior captains who were heading towards Cochise for this future meeting.

Then a rather funny incident occurred where it was inferred that while Howard was gone, Jeffords and Sladen would stay. Howard, realizing that Sladen, who was already kinda terrified, Howard realized Sladen would therefore be a captive so he objected to Sladen being forced to stay behind. He said, Sladen should go and I will stay. But Cochise refused and told Howard that he was the boss so he had to go. Howard again objected to Sladen being left behind though.

To which Cochise said, quote, our young women will look after the young captain. End quote. Apparently all the Apache women in attendance clapped and laughed at this joke and the tension left the air.

But before Howard left, Cochise made a small speech in which he outlined the entire reason any of this was happening in the first place. He said, quote:

"We were once a large people covering these mountains; we lived well; we were at peace. One day my best friend [Mangas] was seized by an officer of the white men and treacherously killed. The worst place of all is Apache Pass. There, five Indians, one my brother, were murdered. Their bodies were hung up and kept there till they were skeletons. End quote.

This, of course, was the cutting of the tent, brought on by the kidnapping of the halfbreed boy from Southern Arizona. Although, no one knew at this time that Felix, the boy and Mickey Free the Scout were one and the same.

And not to correct Cochise, but six Indians had been killed on that day of the cutting of the tent… but Cochise continued, quote:

Now Americans and Mexicans kill an Apache on sight. I have retaliated with all my might. My people have killed Americans and Mexicans and taken their property. Their losses have been greater than mine. I have killed ten white men for every Indian slain, but I know that the whites are many and the Indians are few.... Why shut me up on a reservation? We will make peace. We will keep it faithfully. But let us go around free as Americans do. Let us go wherever we please. End quote.

This plea would fall on deaf ears, of course. The Indians, until their full assimilation, were to stay on the reservations where they would cultivate, capitalize, and Christianize.

But again, this theme of the endless white man and limited Indian is a key reason the Indian wars eventually cease.

After Howard left, Cochise attempted to calm Sladen by promising that quote, I will send off and get some tiswin and we will all get drunk and have a good time tonight. End quote.

Later, Sladen will write of tiswin, quote, it seemed a harmless beverage and was a refreshing drink, sweet and pleasant to the taste, reminding me of the pop of my childhood. End quote. As Hutton writes though, quote, of course, this fermented corn beverage had considerably more bite than soda pop, end quote. And tiswin benders often caused considerable more damage and death than coca cola benders.

During this time of pleasant imprisonment, Sladen would participate in the Apache’s dances, he’d admire the beauty of their women, developed a taste for mescal with mesquite beans. He also enjoyed horse meat! Which, I admit, I do as well. Although at first Sladen did not like the horse and he told Cochise he would rather prefer some pronghorn to which Cochise apparently went out hunting, and got Sladen one. At night he’d share his campsite with Cochise’s son Naiche who would also attempt to teach Sladen some Apache language.

Sladen and Tom Jeffords would also become friends at this time as well. And the group, Jeffords, Sladen, and Cochise would spend a lot of time sitting on a rock which was the roof of the stone alcove that Cochise was forced to sleep in. The area is now known as West Stronghold Canyon.

At one point though, Cochise took Sladen to an important vantage point in his Dragoon Mountains where far below, a driver named Buckskin Alex was carrying the mail between Fort Bowie and Tucson. Cochise then told Sladen that essentially, I could kill this man right now if I wanted to. But I don’t. Because then the US Army would come after me and avenge the destruction of this quote unquote government cart.

Earlier before this interaction, Cochise had taken the man to a different lookout point where he could see by the dust of the troopers, he could tell when they left Fort Bowie. Cochise always had a two day advance knowledge of the Army’s patrols.
This time, it was Sladen that no doubt felt a little bit defeated.

By October 4th, Howard had returned with a man named Streeter. Streeter is another very interesting character that I talk about in the Jeffords episode. Along with Streeter, who was Jeffords close friend, Howard also brought three others, as well as a wagon filled with corn, sugar, flour, coffee, and cloths for the women.

During this time Cochise, Sladen, Howard, and Jeffords would all spend considerable time together and would build trust amongst each other.

Six days later, on October 10th, still just over a month before the offensive would begin in Arizona, Cochise could wait no longer and he finally called his meeting. The main person he was waiting on was his eldest son Taza, who had still not returned from a raid in Sonora. But the Grand Council with Howard must commence.

Although, the first part of the council that Cochise held saw Howard and the Anglos not invited. Obviously, this worried the general but Jeffords placated his fears and said that the Apache would let them know when they were ready to talk. Here’s Hutton for the remainder of the meeting. Quote:

Howard paced back and forth as he listened to the muffled voices of the women as they slowly chanted, louder and louder.

"Then all-men and women-sang with ever increasing volume of sound, and the women's voices rose higher and higher," he tensely observed. "It was a wild, weird performance." Then the call came for them to join the circle.

They gathered under the shade of an expansive oak, circle upon circle, with Howard, Jeffords, and Sladen alongside Cochise and his important war chiefs. End all quotes.

Howard also wrote of the scene and I want to quote that as well because it sounds awesome and intense:

The men inside the ring sat or knelt. Then followed a wonderful song in which all joined. It began like the growl of a bear and rising little by little to a high pitch, lasted ten or more minutes and then suddenly stopped. After this Cochise interpreted to the people the will of the Spirits, saying "The Spirits have decided that Indians and white men shall eat bread together. End quote.

So it was quite the scene and during this scene Jeffords and Cochise spoke often and intently and it was at this time that Howard realized how important Jeffords was to the entire operation. He was indispensable to keeping the peace with Cochise. 

Eventually, Howard agreed that Cochise could have a reservation in his own country and that reservation’s boundary would be the Arizona state line to the east, the Mexican border to the south, and it would include the Dragoon Mountains, the Chiricahua Mountains, and Apache Pass. On top of that, the Army would feed and clothe the Apache. And most importantly, Jeffords would have to be the Indian agent.

Howard turned to Jeffords and said, quote, Captain Jeffords, I cannot make peace unless you consent to act as Indian agent. End quote.

Jeffords, he didn’t mind taking the job but he certainly didn’t want it and at first he did grumble that as a Democrat, he couldn’t oblige to taking orders from a radical Republican but… sure, he’ll do it. But he did have some stipulations.
First, the troops had to stay off the res. Second, Jeffords would have complete and absolute authority. Howard agreed to both of these demands.

Cochise then declared, quote, hereafter the white man and the Indian are to drink of the same water and eat of the same bread! End quote. The treaty was made and hopefully… peace would now reign in the American Southwest. Howard had succeeded… so far. It was truly somewhat of a miracle.

Throughout this whole affair though, for Sladen, Howard’s aid, there was something… bothering him. One of Cochise’s warriors, Sladen couldn’t help but notice, had some pretty significant sway over the Apache War Chief. This Apache was interpreting Cochise’s words from Apache into Spanish although, occasionally, Cochise, who spoke even better Spanish than this strange interpreter, Cochise would sometimes correct him.

Sladen described this man, this interpreter and wrote quote, his sensual, cruel, crafty face, as well as his dissatisfied manner had prejudiced me against him from the first. End quote. Sladen also called him a dangerous man. Sladen simply couldn’t shake the feeling this Apache gave him.

On top of his demeanor, the Apache was wearing a very fine and white white man’s shirt with eyelets instead of buttons. Sladen realized this was an expensive shirt and not one that the Apache would be able to find at a trading post and it certainly wasn’t a ration. So Sladen had inched closer to this scary man and just as the meeting ended and the treaty had been finalized, Sladen saw a word, a name written on the bottom of this Apache man’s shirt. That name read Cushing. The man who had been killed by Joh and Geronimo. The highest ranking Army commander the Apaches would kill in this long war.

Sladen had unknowingly been introduced to the star of our next episode, a man I have talked about before when he lost his family in Mexico to treachery. That man is Goyahkla, the Bedonkohe Apache medicine man. A man the Mexican’s named after saint Jerome. Sladen had met Geronimo.

After 11 years of war, it seemed Cochise had finally had enough. The old war chief agreed to the unthinkable. He was going to settle down on a reservation.

Obviously the local Arizona papers were none too pleased. They chastised Howard for giving into the old chief and giving him a reservation in Arizona instead of New Mexico.

Crook was disappointed that he couldn’t go after Cochise in his upcoming campaign on account of Howard’s peace making but he figured it wouldn’t be too long before Cochise was back on the warpath anyways. But again, Crook was about to embark on his campaign I discussed at length so for the time being he was a little preoccupied.

But there was something I hinted at earlier that pretty much only a few Apache and one white man knew. That one white man being Jeffords. But Cochise was in complete and constant physical agony. Most of the pain emanated from his stomach and it only got worse when he ate or drank. Occasionally, he’d go days with only putting water in his stomach. And every day the pain got worse and Cochise grew weaker. His own body was killing him.

But Crook did not know this piece of information and he was still convinced that the wily ole warrior chief would one day start his troubles anew. Crook said of this very Apache tactic, quote: The mere fact of their not having deprecated on our people ... proves nothing, as it is Apache tactics after they have thoroughly aroused a neighborhood by their depredations to cease operations in that locality until the unwary citizen is thrown off his guard, when they commence their outrages with renewed vigor. End quote. It had indeed happened before… many times… for hundreds of years.

So, Crook decided to send Bourke to meet with Cochise.

In December of 1872, during the massive offensive, the United States government made the Chiricahua Reservation official. It was a 55 mile square tract of land in the southeast corner of Arizona which included the Dragoon Mountains, the Chiricahua Mountains, Apache Pass, Dos Cabezas, and was noted by the Apache as being the most perfect reservation ever created for the American Indian. There were springs, antelope, deer, canyons, and the only white eyes building in the whole reserve was a trading post at Sulphur Springs and the barely manned Fort Bowie which sits northwest of Chiricahua National Monument.

Crook really didn’t like that Howard had been able to just create a reservation on the fly for the deadly murderer and on top of that, Howard hadn’t bothered to write anything about the arrangement down! Howard had just assumed that Cochise would keep his word. Crook believed the Apache only relented after they’d been soundly defeated in battle. Crook believed Cochise would rise up again.

Then there’s the whole matter of the Army not being allowed to enter the reservation. A reservation which was ran by one single man. A man who didn’t even want the job in the first place. That man being Tom Jeffords.

So, in February of 1873, Crook sent Bourke and a delegation to meet with Cochise.

One of the things Crook wanted to know was how much was Cochise raiding into Mexico? Because if he was leaving the reservation, maybe Crook had a reason to end the whole thing.

When Bourke asked the old chief, Cochise responded with the fact that the Mexicans, quote, had not asked him for peace as the Americans had. End quote. Which is true but also kinda funny. Like, yeah I made peace with y’all but my boundary is the border with Mexico and I can go down there if I want to, I’m still at war with them. Maybe not he himself. He did later in the conversation admit that, yeah okay my young warriors are quote, liable to go down, from time to time and do a little damage to the Mexicans. I don’t want to lie about this thing; they go but I don't send them! End quote.

I really love the way Cochise speaks.

With that answer to Bourke though, Crook was forced to leave Cochise alone… for now.

In reality, Cochise had kept his word! The depredations, murders, burnings, torture… it had all slowly ceased until Apache violence in Arizona ended. The Arizona press, once critical of Howard and Tom Jeffords, were now praising their actions.

Jeffords really was the best and most lenient Indian agent to have ever Indian agented. I’ll get into the San Carlos reservation in the next episode but those Apache had to wear brass tags. They couldn’t leave. It was a tough life. Here at the Chiricahua Reservation, life was easy and free. No tags. No daily head count. Jeffords would instead of calling the Indians to him for rations, he’d travel the landscape and hand them out! He didn’t even force them to farm! And, they got to camp and live and travel wherever they wanted to on the entire reservation.

When Bourke visited the reservation, he noted that these Chiricahua Apache called the Apache at the San Carlos reservation squaws! Those Apache had to work, like women! For this, the Apache at San Carlos came to hate the Chiricahuas and their freedom.

Crook hated their freedom too. And he would try over and over again to take possession of the reservation from Jeffords. Jeffords would counter with, if you enforce San Carlos laws and rules here, Cochise and his Chiricahua will bounce. And then they’ll commence their war against you and the people of Arizona and New Mexico. No one will be safe.

Crook had to relent.

This problem of the Chiricahua under Cochise continuing to raid Mexico, that really was a point of contention and it really did nearly destroy the ill-fated reservation even sooner than it was already doomed.

If you’ve made it this far into the series, you know how strong the hatred of the Apaches is towards the Mexicans. I probably could have had a couple more episodes over the Spanish and Mexicans if I spoke Spanish more competently. The two really really hated each other. More than I have described or could describe.

For instance, here’s a great story about how Cochise himself felt about the Mexicans.

In March of 1873, Cochise, fairly ill at this time, with not many more sunrises left in him, he headed to Apache Pass for the first time since the Cutting of the Tent which had happened 11 years earlier.

Once there, he and his 20 mounted warriors were met with the Army and the Chief of Scouts Merejildo Grijalva. Grijalva, remember, was Mexican. Sure, he’d been kidnapped and raised as a Chiricahua and he’d met Cochise many years before but still… he was Mexican.

Roberts sums up what happened next between Cochise and this competent Chief of Scouts, quote:

Before the chief had dismounted, Grijalva offered Cochise his hand; but, said a witness, now quoting the witness, Cochise told him he would not shake hands with him until he whipped him; so he got down off from his horse, and struck him two or three times with his whip and then they had a friendly embrace, and commenced to talk over old times. End all quotes.

The two knew each other! But still, Cochise had to whip the Mexican before he could talk with him.

And then, a year later, just before his death, Cochise met with a Mexican trader who had come up from Sonora with 20… Twenty Mexican soldiers onto the Chiricahua Reservation. This trader was there because he wanted to see if he could trade goods to the skeleton crew of American soldiers who manned Fort Bowie. Obviously, before he could make this happen, he had to have Cochise’s blessing. So, at the fort, Cochise met with this Mexican trader and to translate from Apache to Spanish, even though Cochise spoke very good Spanish, but to translate was Grijalva. Cochise told this brave but foolish Mexican trader in an angry tirade, quote:

You come in here and ask to make a treaty with me and to cross my reservation with your wagons and goods. You forget what the Mexicans did to my people long ago when we were at peace with the Americans, and you would get my people down into your country, get them drunk on mescal and furnish them with powder and lead and tell them to come up and get the big mules from the Americans. And when they would commit a depredation and steal mules and bring them back to your country, your people would get them drunk on mescal and cheat them out of their mules. You’ve got twenty soldiers, and what do they amount to?! I can take five of my men and wipe them off the earth. End quote.

It seems like this may have been personal. It kinda seems like Cochise knows this trader specifically and he’s appalled that he’s come up here to ask this of a people he’s cheated. Cochise’s own people. And this next anecdote kinda backs up my claim that it was personal and Cochise did know this Mexican Trader. Because after he said this tirade, one of Cochise’s warriors raised his rifle to shoot this Mexican dead on the spot. But Cochise, he waved his hand at the warrior who understood the command. The Apache warrior then lowered the rifle and began to weep out of anger and frustration at not being able to kill this Mexican man.

If you’ve been to southeast Arizona, which I hope you have and implore all my listeners to check out. But if you’ve been to the ruins of Fort Bowie or the grandeur of the Chiricahua Mountains or the beauty of Portal, you know there is no such thing as a Chiricahua Apache Reservation.

And well, that is because it was not meant to last. Over in Washington there was something going on I had no clue about but it involved unelected bureaucrats and their slow destruction, that is still going on, of our once stable elected government. Here’s Roberts describing this fight in DC. Quote:

The fault lay almost entirely in Washington. The Department of Interior, under whose aegis the Bureau of Indian Affairs operated, had launched a power struggle with the Department of War over control of the reservations; the feud would last a decade and a half and cause untold damage, bewildering the Apaches who were caught in the crossfire. End quote.

One of these unelected bureaucrats was named Francis A Walker and his lecherous title was the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Walker was the most managerial man of all of the managerial class. He would be the envy of the progressive politician of today. Actually, they’re not competent enough. So he was no doubt the envy of a New Dealer.

Walker demanded Jeffords keep intricate and extremely petty details of all the goings on at the reservation. Something Jeffords was just not wont to do. He didn’t want the position in the first place, remember? Now he had to write everything down like a boob?! When Jeffords said he wasn’t going to do that but he still needed money and supplies, Walker responded with according to Roberts, quote, red tape, legalisms, or silence. End quote.

Okay so modern progressives ideal hero as well. That is just not how men should act. Especially men in power. Even if they didn’t earn it.

Often times, Jeffords had to pay for meat and rations out of his own pocket… DC was that petty and gross. When Jeffords couldn’t afford it and the Indian Affairs didn’t provide the food the Apache needed to survive, what do you think they did?

Well of course they raided down into Mexico. How else were they to eat? After all, these Chiricahua were not being forced to grow their own food. But even if they had wanted to, this reservation did not have enough arable land with the tools and machinery they had at this time.

And that was another point of contention between Jeffords and this pathetic Walker. Walker told Jeffords that you must force the Apache to farm or else. They were also no longer allowed to roam their own reservation, no sir. Like Crook, Walker wanted them settled. Preferably, within a mile of the reservation’s agency.

Meanwhile, because there weren’t many great spots, Jeffords had chosen and abandoned by late 1873, three separate spots for his agency! So how could he force the Apache to settle near the agency when he himself couldn’t settle the agency!?

Fed up with taking orders from progressive Republicans in a job he didn’t want in the first place, Jeffords telegraphed his resignation at the end of 1873.

But like the unmanly bureaucrat he was, Walker never accepted, rejected, or even acknowledged he ever even received the request.

At least Carleton was man enough to tear up Kit Carson’s resignation in front of the man.

By 1874, neither the Chiricahua Reservation nor Cochise were long for this world. Either colon cancer or stomach cancer was eating the warrior chief from the inside and by the spring of 74, he was daily drunk on tiswin or whiskey. It was the only thing that took away the constant and immense pain.

Taza, Cochise’s oldest son and soon to be chief felt this whole affair was on account of a witch. There was an old man they knew who had recently visited Cochise and he must have been the culprit who had cursed his dying father. So, Taza led some warriors into the mountains to find the man and when they did, they attempted to bring him back to Cochise to burn him alive. That would surely fix the dying old man.

But thankfully, for this old man at least, Jeffords intercepted the crew and forced them to release the possible witch. Jeffords knew that Cochise was suffering from within, not from without.

On June 7th, 1874, Tom Jeffords would meet with Cochise for the final time. Whatever was killing Cochise was about to win. Recently, the old chief had made sure everyone would follow his oldest son Taza once the time came for him to go to the Happy Place. He also made sure they were going to remain peaceful with the White Eyes. Everyone was on board.

Cochise asked his old white friend during this final visit, quote, do you think you will ever see me alive again?

Jeffords responded with, no, I do not think I will. I think that by tomorrow night, you will be dead.

Yes, I think so, too. Said Cochise, and then he added, do you think we will ever meet again?

Jeffords thought for a moment and then responded with, I don’t know. What is your opinion about it?

Cochise said, I have been thinking a good deal about it while I have been sick here, and I believe we will. Good friends will meet again- up there. With that he pointed towards the heavens and the seemingly endless twinkling stars.

Hutton sums up what happened next on June 8th, 1874. Quote:

The next morning, he was dead. A great wail went up from every voice in the east stronghold, then across the Dragoon Mountains, and soon throughout all of Apacheria. It kept up all day and all night.

Cochise's wife and sister prepared him for burial. They washed him, carefully combed his long hair, and placed a majestic feathered bonnet on his head. They painted his face for war, then wrapped his now-frail body in a splendid red woolen blanket.

That afternoon, a sad procession made its way deep up into the towering rocks of the stronghold. The two sons of Cochise, Taza and Naiche, led Cochise's horse upon which the body had been placed, followed by the chief's three wives, a shaman, and Jeffords. Cochise's faithful dog walked alongside the horse. Behind them, hundreds of Chokonen people followed. They carried many of their belongings with them to burn over the chief's grave. They took him high up amid the great rocks where a deep chasm existed. The horse was killed and rolled in, followed by his dog, then his weapons, and finally the body of Cochise was lowered by ropes into a final place of rest. A fire now consumed the clothing and property of the great chief, and then dark smoke rose above the stronghold along with their cries of lamentation. The greatest of the lords of Apacheria was no more. End quote.

It’s reported that the warriors who buried him shot two more horses and placed them at strategic locations which would assist him in the happy place.

The ceremony of mourning lasted four days, a time period reserved only for great Apache men. Jeffords assistant would write that quote, the howl that went up from these people was fearful to listen to. They scattered around in the nooks and ravines in parties, and as the howling from one rancheria would lag, it would be renewed with vigor in another. This was kept up through the night and until daylight next morning. End quote.

Doug Hocking’s Tom Jeffords, Friend of Cochise, which I use in the subscriber only episode over the man, Hocking said that Tom was away giving rations and he did not return until AFTER the funeral. Which means no one but Apaches had been at the burial but it’s very likely Tom was later shown or told where the burial was. Regardless of if he ever visited the site or not, Tom Jeffords would never tell a soul where Cochise’s final resting place resided.

In the next episode the reservations at Tularosa and in the Chiricahua Mountains will end and Geronimo and Victorio will wage an all out war against the Americans and the Mexicans for their freedom. It will be an ill fated war that will see many veterans of this series so far as well as many newcomers appear. Victorio will describe the coming conflict as quote, from now it will be war… war to the death.

Thank y’all for listening, and I’ll see you again soon, in the American Southwest.

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