Tom Horn: Things Sure Did Look Like War
This is the second episode in the paid subscriber only series over Tom Horn. I am making this one free for all listeners though, not only to entice you to sign up, but also because it’s a nice addition and end to the broader Apache series which I put on pause last summer. This episode essentially begins where the Apache series left off and it covers Geronimo’s escape and Crook’s invasion of Mexico. Obviously, Tom Horn plays a significant role since this is his series, but Mickey Free, General Crook, Geronimo, Al Sieber, and a ton of players return in this episode. Including the Apache Kid whom I have done an entire series on for subscribers.
I hope you enjoy this little addendum to the Apache Series and I hope you enjoy it enough to sign up to become a paid Roadrunner subscriber.
Without further adieu, Things sure did look like war.
The People Pine for Dead Indians.
An anonymous letter printed in the Arizona Weekly Miner in May of 1885.
By early 1885, the hero of our story, Tom Horn had been in Arizona for nearly five years and the whole time he’d been witnessing or taking part in the Apache wars. A lot of that time was spent with or near Al Siebert. Some of that time he was prospecting. Most of the time he was working for the Army or the San Carlos Reservation in some capacity as a civilian. He’d seen a lot in that small span of half a decade and he never wanted to leave it or the excitement it gave him.
And then the excitement ramped up in May of 1885 when a 63 year old man I only talked about briefly in my Apache series, a man named of course, Geronimo, in May of 85 he’d flee the reservation with over 100 of his warrior friends and family and they’d head for Mexico leaving a bloody trail of carnage and senseless death in his wake.
At around this time, Horn was more than willing to go hunt down Apaches. Or really any Indians. He and a buddy had recently started their own ranch with 100 heads of cattle and 26 horses. But before long, quote, the Indians and Mexicans cleaned me out.. and left me dead broke. End quote. He and his friend even ran down some of the thieves at one point but this unfortunately, got his friend killed and himself injured.
So, only a few days after hearing that Geronimo had sprang for Mexico, Horn was back with the Pack Muler Long Jim Cook. But almost immediately, Al Sieber personally tapped Horn as his man, as his chief of scouts on the trip to retrieve the wayward medicine man.
But even before this escape of Geronimo, Al Sieber and Tom Horn had been on a few adventures at the reservation. On one such occasion, when Al Sieber was actually sober, he learned that an old Apache named Centipede was brewing their favorite drink: Tiswin. If you’ll remember, General Crook had forbade the Apaches from brewing or drinking Tiswin. Oh, and also he forbade them from beating their wives and cutting off their noses. So Sieber and Tom Horn went to investigate on one of Sieber’s many Tiswin Raids. I may have told this story in the Apache Kid series but I’ll tell it again. Or rather, I’ll let Paul Andrew Hutton from his incredible book, the Apache Wars, describe what happens next. Quote:
Sieber and horn surprised an old Apache called Centipede in the act of preparing a potent pot of home brew. Centipede, as tough as Sieber, called the scout a quote unquote meddlesome old squaw and went for his rifle. Before the apache could grab his gun, Sieber had him by the hair, and to Horn’s surprirse, quoting Horn now, Made one swipe at him with his knife which nearly cut his head off. end quote. Sieber then stuffed the dead Apache into the large tiswin brew pot. He ordered the Apache women who were helping the brewmaster to tell everyone what had happened and quote, that they had better leave off making that stuff. End all quotes.
It’s incidents like these that help explain how Horn becomes so violent later in life. As one man who knew him would later say, quote, by custom and habit, had the idea baked into his very soul, that there was nothing wrong in killing renegade thieves. End quote. Sieber and the quote unquote savage Apache warriors, according to this man Jim King, were Horn’s tutors in the art of violence.
And violence was coming.
On May 15th, 1885, The military leader of the San Carlos Reservation awoke to find, according to Hutton, quote, all the Chiricahua leaders waiting for him. Geronimo, Naiche, and chihuahua were still so drunk from a tiswin party the night before that they could barely stand. Loco, Nana, and Bonito were hungover but upright. Two dozen warriors, some of them armed, milled around behind their leaders. End quote. These Apaches were angry at the prohibition of tiswin and wife beating and they wanted a meeting with the White Eyes.
The night before, Geronimo had thrown a huge fandango of a tiswin bender. 75%, around 90 Chiricahua men, including all of the leaders except a man named Chatto, they all arrived at this planned party. Geronimo told everyone tomorrow, as we recover, we will confront Lt. Davis, the head of the Res, and we will tell him we are fed up with the prohibition against Tiswin. Geronimo even suggested, they can’t arrest us all on account of the calaboose not being big enough. So that’s just what they did.
Loco did the talking as he squatted on the floor of Davis’ tent and Mickey Free interpreted.
But actually, quick aside about Mickey Free. If you’ll recall from the Apache series, Mickey Free was the one eyed, mean muggin’ half breed who had been kidnapped and whose kidnapping led to the cutting of the Tent and the war with Cochise and Mangas Coloradas. And this war continued against the Rebels during the brief Confederate Territory of Arizona which gave Baylor so much trouble.
I ended the Apache series early but the next two episodes were going to be about Mickey Free and Geronimo. As well as Victorio and Nana. But I had had enough talk of Apaches so I moved on to the Civil War where… I got to talk about the Apaches. And for y’all I wanted to do Tom Horn so… I get to talk about Apaches. You cannot talk about the Southwest without talking about these storied and martialled people.
Mickey Free, if you’ll remember, was hated by the Apaches who called him the coyote. He was a scout for the army. He was of mixed race. He could not be trusted. Geronimo on multiple occasions even thought that Mickey Free would assassinate him at the reservation. Mickey Free was no fan of Geronimo and Geronimo, according to Paul Andrew Hutton in the Apache Wars, quote, Geronimo now blamed Mickey Free for every bad tale told about him. End quote.
So we’ve got all these angry Apache leaders and warriors and medicine men and Loco is talking but Chihuahua, who was quote, palpably drunk and in an ugly humor, end quote, he had had enough of Loco’s slow meandering speech so he interrupted. Chihuahua then berates the whites for drinking while off duty, and heck, even on duty, while simultaneously barring the Apaches from drinking at all. He also said the white man had no business in what an Apache man does in his home to his wife. Chihuahua said, quote, they were not children to be taught how to live with their women and what they should eat or drink. The treatment of their wives was their own business. They were not ill treated when they behaved. End quote.
Lt. Davis responded with his own lecture against the evils of drinking and wife beating but Nana, the old chief, he interrupted with some harsh Apache words and then slinked off. Davis, naturally, asked Mickey Free what he had just said but Mickey avoided answering… that is until Davis forced him to. Nana essentially said, quote, tell the nantan Enchan, that he can’t advise me how to treat my woman. He is only a boy. I killed men before he was born. End quote.
That’s some hardcore words.
Chihuahua then added essentially, we drank tiswin last night. What are you gonna do about it?! Put us in jail?
Davis responded with, I just might. But let me send a telegram to Nantan Lupan, Captain Grey Wolf, General Crook, let me ask him what he wants to do. After that, the Apaches dispersed.
Crook though, never received the telegram. Davis sent it to a new man in the field, a New York man from the war named Captain Pierce. He had fought Rebs, but he’d never dealt with Apaches before. Naturally he was confused by the telegram so he awoke his trusted head of scouts Al Sieber and asked him. Of course, Sieber had been up all night gambling and drinking so he was hungover and sleeping it off and he wanted nothing to do with Apaches at the moment so he told Pierce, quote, it’s nothing but a tiswin drunk. Don't pay any attention to it. End quote.
Davis had no idea that his message was ignored and as the days trickled by, he began to get a little worried. Davis wasn’t a fan of Geronimo’s, few Anglos were a fan of him, honestly. Davis said of Geronimo that he was a quote, thoroughly vicious, intractable, and treacherous man. His only redeeming qualities were courage and determination. His word, no matter how earnestly pledged, was worthless. His history was a series of broken pledges and incitements to outbreaks. End quote. How right he was, as you’re about to see.
Geronimo and the Apaches, were worrying far more than Davis and they grew increasingly paranoid. Over the coming days their imagination ran wild with how they imagined Davis, whom they didn’t like, and Crook, whom they respected, they imagined what the White Eyes were going to do to them. And then finally, Mangas, the son of Mangas, his wife, the chief brewmaster of tiswin, she gave a rousing speech and called into question the Apache men’s bravery. She yelled, quote, if you are warriors you will take to the warpath and then the gray fox must catch you before you are punished. End quote.
This speech may have been enough.
By the afternoon of the 17th of May, 1885, Geronimo and a bunch of Apaches had cut the telegraph line and had fled the reservation with 42 men and 92 women and children.
Davis would learn of this from Mickey Free as he was umpiring a baseball game.
Chihuahua and Mangas Coloradas’ son Mangas went into the northern section of the Mogollon Mountains while Geronimo and Nana went into the southern section. I have talked extensively about this place. I have also visited it often and I love those mountains. I love camping on the Gila River and exploring the Cliff Dwellings or walking along the Catwalk Recreation area. Geronimo was born near the headwaters of the Gila River. It was a place he and many of these Chiricahua Apaches knew well.
Immediately after the lines were fixed and he heard the news, Crook sent around 80 men and a few scouts in hot pursuit, but they weren’t very successful. At this time though, Horn and an Apache Scout named Spike were sent to retrieve Nana. They wouldn’t get very far and many of the men were recalled after the forest fires the Apaches set made it hard to pursue them.
Davis realized he did not have enough men to round up 144, the final tally, Apaches. He was gonna need a bigger boat.
Not to get too into it but, once in these mountains, Chihuahua realized he had been duped by Geronimo into leaving the reservation in the first place. When he learned this, Chihuahua went to go kill Geronimo. He figured if I kill the old drunk, that’ll give me some leeway with Crook. But, Geronimo learned of this and he fled east, towards the Black Range. This division would not heal during the duration of the war. Although Chihuahua would never get to kill Geronimo.
This entire time that Geronimo and the Apaches were fleeing, they killed every White Eyes and Mexican they came across. They slaughtered and mutilated entire families in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Just a few miles north of Silver City, between Pinos Altos and that town, Geronimo and his thugs killed two entire families including their young children and infants. They also hung a teenage girl from a meathook in their barn. She would not survive her injuries.
And this… this and many more examples to come, are why I had to quit the Apache series when I did. As I began to study and read for future episodes, reading these very stories, I realized the depredations were ceaseless and the violence was ugly. I’m not as strong as other history podcasters like Dan Carlin and Darryl Cooper who can somehow go on about atrocities. It eventually got to me so I moved on. I guess I’m back now though.
One Lt. Parker who was in pursuit got very sick of burying the dead that littered the Apache’s trail. He would later say of stacking rocks on top of the corpses, quote, we became very expert in the business. End quote.
This same Lt. Parker would get into a heated shootout in the Mogollon Mountains at a place known as Devils Canyon. His superior officer, a Captain Smith, walked the entire troop and their scouts into an ambush which began while Smith was bathing! Parker knew better, and so did his scouts so when Geronimo, Mangas, and Naiche, sprang the trap, they were ready. Parker, only months before had been out hunting with Geronimo… and now he was trying to kill him. Parker raced up the side of the canyon with 17 troopers in tow, all the while being shot at by the Apaches and the other troopers below them in the canyon. It took him half an hour to scale the walls at which point, Geronimo and his warriors fled the scene. Two troopers and one scout had been injured. In Edwin Sweeney’s Tome, From Cochise to Geronimo, he writes of the end of the battle and says that Smith had arrived to the top of the canyon after some time, quote, dressed in his drawers and boots. For this, the silver city enterprise sarcastically dubbed the fight The battle of the shirt tail. End quote.
On June 8th, a Captain Lawton of the 4th Cavalry along with seven troopers and a few scouts as well as wagons loaded with 40 days worth of rations and up to ten thousand rounds of ammunition, Captain Lawton and a scout went to look for the Apaches in the mountains of southwest New Mexico. Unfortunately, while he was gone, his sergeant and the troopers and all that ammo and rations, were attacked. Chihuahua himself started the ambush when he shot a private in the forehead. The soldiers, who were eating lunch, were so startled and confused, at first, they thought the private had shot himself. But then the quote unquote thunderous volley rained down upon them. Their sergeant would take four bullets, and another private would be killed as he retreated. Finally the wagons caught fire and some of the ammo began exploding. The troopers used this diversion and fled the hour long ambush. Chihuahua then ran south to head into Mexico… with all of the rations, animals, and ammo they could carry. The entire lot of them then crossed the border.
Captain Lawton will feature heavily in the final capture of Geronimo.
The past few weeks had cost the lives of over 20 Americans and Mexicans in the Southwest. But the war was only just beginning.
Naturally, the New Mexican press began to call for the complete extermination of the Apaches and they dismissed Crook’s plan of appeasement and his use of Apache scouts. Which the southwesterners had done since Crook had arrived, truly.
As soon as Crook found out about the escape, he sent word to Sonora and Chihuahua. He sent word to Washington. And he secured the border in case The Apache tried to return. Crook also manned every watering hole. He then had a second line of protection further north and still a third line of protection that manned the railroad. He wasn’t taking any chances. But all this wasn’t enough. He knew he had to send a force into Old Mexico and capture or kill these renegade Apaches. He set about organizing two separate columns to pursue Geronimo and his thugs into Mexico.
One important Apache Scout leader was a man named Chatto. He had not participated in the Tiswin drunk and he had been on guard with Mickey Free when Geronimo came in with the other leaders to complain about the prohibition. Chatto was a trusted Apache although he had been with Cochise during those many years. Cochise had been his chief. Chatto was a cousin of Mangas the younger and he had grown up with him. But now he was on the side of the White Eyes. Chatto was said to have great medicine. Medicine he claimed he got from his dreams which foretold the future. Oh and also from muscle spasms which warmed him of imminent danger. Chatto will play an important role in the coming battle.
But so will Tom Horn. On this trip into Mexico in hot pursuit, opposed to the trips in the previous episode where Horn had SAID he was a scout but he was really just a Mule pack train man. For this pursuit, Horn REALLY was a scout with Al Sieber… and Mickey Free and most likely… The Apache Kid. So, Al Sieber, the German whose family were 48ers, Mickey Free the mixed blood Scout, the future renegade and most feared Apache of all time, The Apache Kid, and Tom Horn were sent with Captain Emmett Crawford.
Emmett Crawford had just been relieved from Arizona and was in Texas when all these violent shenanigans began but Crook recalled him and the tall, sad, handsome, 42 year old who was not known to laugh aloud, dutifully joined. Lt. Davis, who had taken his place, was glad to have him back. He said of Crawford that he would have been, quote, an ideal Knight of King Arthur’s Court. End quote. Davis also said of Crawford, quote, his expressed wish was that he might die in the act of saving the lives of others. End quote.
On June 11th, Crawford crossed the desert boundary with Mexico and entered Sonora with his scouts and Tom Horn. Horn would write, quote, things sure did look like war. End quote.
Immediately, the going was rough in northern Mexico. And Al Sieber wasn’t helping. After some Apache scouts killed a bear, a thing which I thought they avoided since Apaches can be reborn as a bear. But apparently some Apache scouts killed a bear, Al Sieber skinned it, and then from what I can tell, he either wore or carried the skin right into the pack of Mules which spooked the creatures so bad that it took an hour to round them up! Horn would write that after Al scared em, quote, the plain was full of brawling, crazed mules, running in every direction. End quote.
On top of the pranks, the Apache could not help themselves and they were continually drunk. A theme throughout this episode. Eventually Mexican ranchers mistook two hungover Apache scouts who were lagging behind for the renegade Apaches and shot them which resulted in one of the Apaches dying. Chatto, Lt. Davis, and Al calmed down the Apaches who had dressed for battle and wanted to seek revenge by killing every mexican they could find. They almost succeeded. But a few scouts went and killed 25 heads of cattle in revenge. An action for which they were discharged and sent back to the states to stand trial. Captain Crawford then had to compensate the Mexican rancher.
There were also the 16 hour marches in temperatures that soared to 128 degrees through impossible country filled with thorns, cliffs, and canyons. Many a mule toppled over the edge of these cliffs.
At this time, the State of Sonora had their own problems. The Governor had petitioned Papa Diaz in DF to send help against this new Apache threat from the States but he got no response. Eventually Governor Torres would tell the leaders of the towns that they were on their own. The state was at that very moment fighting against the Yaquis and Mayo in southern Sonora and could not help. Governor Torres wrote that until the fight was done in the south, the leaders in the north would have to quote, rely on the patriotism of his own people. End quote. But then he suggested that they bill the governor for any expenses incurred during the campaign.
So the Americans and Apache scouts were going it alone in northern Mexico… for now.
On June 22nd, Sieber, Davis, and Crawford heard of a band of renegade Apaches hiding north of a town called Oputo. So, they fatefully sent Chatto the Apache and his scouts with no white officers or soldiers to go get them. Eventually, Chatto and his 30 odd scouts, after a blinding rain storm, discovered Chihuahua’s camp in the foothills of the Sierra Madres. After surrounding the camp, Chatto opened fire. The Apaches only had time to flee. Chihuahua hid the women and children in a cave while the warriors tried to draw Chatto away. But they were unsuccessful. Eventually, those not dead or hiding, fled. Chatto captured 15 women and children, including all of Chihuahua’s family. They also killed an old women, and one male warrior.
The three leaders of the expedition blamed themselves for not capturing Chihuahua and for not going with Chatto. The problem was, Chatto had gone on raids with Cochise into the states of Sonora and Chihuahua and had killed and looted from many a Mexican, so he was leery of going to Mexican towns. During the march from Arizona, he had even been stopped a few times and recognized by Mexicans and Mexican officials. Davis even recorded that in the town of Oputo, quote, every family had lost one or more male members at the hands of the apache. End quote. Had Chatto been among the murderers?
The Leaders, meaning Crawford and Sieber felt that Chatto’s hesitation cost the Americans a decisive victory against Chihuahua.
But Chatto hadn’t completely failed. He had recovered the wagons of rations and ammo that Lawton had lost and he had captured all of Chihuahua’s family. He sent a woman to Chihuahua with a message. Either surrender or kill Geronimo for us and you’ll get your family back.
Although Chihuahua was furious at Geronimo and still wanted to kill him, the taking of his family only enraged him towards Chatto whom he now vowed to kill.
Most of the captured Apaches were sent north to Fort Bowie, including Chihuahua’s family, where a special jail was built for them. Crook now hoped news of their imprisonment would lure Chihuahua back to Arizona.
The other column of Americans were led by a different Davis, a Captain Wirt Davis. Although he was a Virginian, Wirt had enlisted as a Yankee during the Civil War. A war which he earned many accolades in and was promoted regularly. He was a hard drinker and a crack shot with his guns. He’d fought hard against the Rebs and he’d fought hard against the Indians on the northern plains. Sweeney describes him thusly, quote, at five feet ten inches, with a handlebar mustache and hair now more gray than blond, he looked more like a gentle hearted grandfather than a veteran Indian fighter. End quote. Like Crook, Wirt Davis trusted his Apache scouts and during this war against Geronimo, he will be an incredibly important figure. This column would cross into Mexico in July.
Also in July, Geronimo, Mangas, and Naiche, began raiding towns at the base of the Sierra Madres. They killed Mexicans and horses, and stole plenty of cattle.
Fed up, Captain Leonardo Gomez and 150 Mexican National Troops went in hot pursuit. A pursuit which spooked Geronimo and his men, forcing them to split up. Mangas took a group east. Naiche took a group north and would soon meet up with Chihuahua. While Geronimo, with most of the women and children, went northeast.
It wasn’t just the Americans and Mexicans the Apaches were afraid of. They feared the Apache Scouts who many of them knew personally. And they also feared the Tarahumara… the probable descendants of the Anasazi who lived in the deep canyons and mountain tops of the Sierras. The Tarahumara were no friend to the Apaches whom they may have fled from half a millennia before. Which I have talked about previously… and may talk about again.
So, Geronimo and his people had to stay on the move and they couldn’t leave their women and children behind. They just knew either the Apache scouts or the Raramuri aka Tarahumara would find them.
In desperation, it didn’t take long for the Apaches to again raid the slopes of the Mother Mountains.
On July 23rd, Captain Wirt Davis and his men found and encircled the camp of Geronimo and Mangas. The two had since reconnected. When the Americans and Apache scouts sprang the trap though, they realized the camp was empty. But they had been close.
The night before, an older Apache woman with Geronimo had warned him that they could not stay any longer at this camp. Her medicine had told her they needed to leave. While Geronimo dismissed it, the rest of his people heeded her warning and the camp promptly left. She had been right. Her medicine had been strong.
What Wirt Davis and his men needed were their own medicine. So, Wirt himself asked the Apaches to use their power to find out where Geronimo had gone. One man, Gush I guu, agreed. I’ll let Sweeney describe the unbelievable scene. It’s just hard to believe an Anglo would ask for Apache medicine. But it’s a very cool story.
Quote:
Davis requested that a medicine man conduct a ceremony to figure out where Geronimo had gone. Only one Apache, Gush-i-guu, consented to use his Power. His specialty was healing the sick, but he told Captain Davis that his Power was omnipotent: "I can tell all things," he confidently proclaimed. The Apaches "tied up" four drums (four buckets provided by the soldiers) for the ceremony. That night the officers attended the service. All the scouts helped the medicine man sing. Around midnight his Power began to talk to him. He went into a detailed litany of the daily movements of the hostiles and what the scouts would find. He said that Geronimo's followers had camped at the crest of El Tigre Mountains, "on a long narrow bed." Then they had moved down toward the Bavispe River, where the women had gathered acorns. From here, they went to a mountain opposite Bugatseka, where they had cooked mescal.
The hostiles had left one large piece of mescal behind. Gush-i-guu said that if the scouts found this piece of mescal, then "all will be good." At Geronimo's camp, he said, they would see a yellow mule. Then the scouts would attack the village at Bugatseka, killing a few and capturing many women and children. End quote.
Gushiguu’s medicine seems to have been strong.
On August 7th, Wirt sent Lt. Day, and a White Mountain Apache Scout named Bylas, along with 15 men in search of Geronimo’s camp at the base of Bugatseka Mountain. The same mountain the medicine man had predicted they’d be at. As Day and Bylas surrounded the camp though, a mule noticed the intruders and made a call which alerted Geronimo’s camp. With the element of surprise gone and before they could surround the camp, Bylas had to open fire.
Despite Geronimo being shot at by everyone and despite Geronimo holding his infant son, the medicine man got away. He did leave his son behind though. When the scouts saw him drop the child, they assumed they had hit Geronimo. But that wasn’t the case. Although many escaped, in the end, 15 women and children, including Geronimo’s three wives and five children, had been captured. While two women and one small child, who took a ricochet to the eye, unfortunately perished.
Later, Lt. Day would say, quote, every single thing that the medicine man had told us had come true. End quote.
While the raid had partially been a success, Geronimo had indeed escaped. So had Nana and Mangas. Nana and forty survivors were with Geronimo and they fled southeast towards Chihuahua. Mangas and the few who were with him fled north.
Eventually, Lt. Day and Bylas and the scouts made their way back to the mule train where they ran into the leader of the other invading column, Captain Crawford and his Apache scout, Chatto.
It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the star of this series, Tom Horn. So let’s get into what he was up to.
In August of 1885, the same month that Wirt Davis’ men ran into Geronimo, Captain Crawford had decided to go across the rough and rugged Sierra Madre to meet up with them. Once on the western slopes of those grand mountains, Crawford ordered Lt. Davis, Al Sieber, Mickey Free, and thirty two scouts back east and down into the rough and rugged Sierra Madres to look for Geronimo. Their chase lasted weeks and was quite grueling through a heavy rain that some scouts believed Geronimo could summon with strong medicine.
But, if chief of scouts Al Sieber left, who was now in charge of the Scouts that were still with Davis? I’ll let Larry Ball in Tom Horn, In Life and Legend, tell y’all. Quote:
By sending Sieber away, Crawford had, in effect, left his immediate command without a chief of scouts. Since Tom Horn had been assisting Al Sieber, he became an acting "chief of scouts" by default and assumed responsibility for the scouts remaining with Crawford. End quote.
So, finally, Tom Horn became Chief of Scouts. Despite what he says in his autobiography, this is indeed the first instance where this is true. Even still, it was quote unquote acting, chief of scouts.
This wasn’t the first time though. Throughout the campaign, Al Sieber would take some scouts and go on side missions to sniff out the enemy and when he did, he would leave Tom in charge. Sometimes, Tom would accompany Al and other times, Tom would be sent out on his own side quests with scouts. By this time in the conflict though, Al Sieber felt strongly enough about Tom to let him lead the scouts with Crawford while he had been commanded to go search the mountains. Al Sieber would later write of Tom, quote, I ever found Tom true to the last letter of the law to any and every trust confided to his care. End quote.
But immediately upon taking command, Tom was presented with the challenging Apache nature when a tiswin and gambling bender got out of hand. Eventually, the small curfuffle grew and the Apaches were itchin’ to fight each other. Thankfully, Horn, with some possible Apache tongue mastery, as I talked about in the last episode, he stepped in with Crawford and disarmed the situation, and the drunk men. As Ball says in his book, Tom had passed his first test and had quote, gained the confidence of his commander and gained the trust of his scouts. End quote.
Shortly after taking command, Horn and his scouts had a funny little encounter with an Irish Sergeant who was escorting the captured women and children from Geronimo’s camp that Wirt Davis and his scouts had successfully accomplished. I will now read from Larry Ball’s book which also quotes Horn’s autobiography. Who knows, with Horn, if this story is true to the letter, but it’s great. Quote:
When this tough Irish sergeant spied Horn and his scouts approaching, Nolan mistook them for hostiles and ordered his charges to take cover. Preparing to protect the prisoners with his life, Nolan exclaimed, according to Horn, now quoting Sargent Nolan from Horn’s autobiography,
Ladies, there are people approaching that are your friends and are enemies of mine and the United States Government. Now, I, Sergeant Nolan, do order you to get behind that reef of rocks, and I want you to be d—d quick about it, and not stand there gaping like a lot of low-down shanty Irish! Here, you little black-haired imp of the devil, let that pack horse go and come along here! To h— wid yer damn talk, and do ye moind! You think that you will be rescued, do ye? Not while Nolan is at the wheel; you won't lose your course. I will order a court-martial and hang every mother's son of ye to the yardarm! End quote.
When a member of Nolan's party finally convinced him that these would-be assailants were actually scouts, he exclaimed, quote, God be praised!
I was afraid I would have to take a life, and I was using my best judgment to conduct myself as a gentleman before ladies. End all quotes.
Crawford would actually take these women from the Irish Sargent and he would interrogate them himself with Chatto’s help. The story from Sweeney goes that after a rather easy questioning in which Geronimo’s wives said they knew nothing… Crawford grew impatient, took these Apache women to his tent, drew his pistol on them, pulled back the lever, and asked them again where Geronimo and the Apaches were heading. Here’s Sweeney’s telling of the rather shocking event. Quote:
Eager for information, Crawford took custody of Wirt Davis's prisoners. He and Chatto interrogated two of Geronimo's wives, but they knew nothing of Geronimo's immediate plans. They did say that Naiche was in the mountains west of the Sierra Madre. They knew nothing of Chihuahua because they had not seen him since May 19. Then, according to Chatto, "Crawford took [the women down to his tent and questioned them all about Geronimo." They reiterated what they had told Chatto. Crawford then made a move that seemed uncharacteristic of him. He pulled out his revolver and threatened the women. They "were on the verge of tears, but they claimed they did not know [anything]." Crawford backed down. This was a sign that the two months of exacting duty in Sonora were beginning to wear on Crawford. He knew that Crook needed results, and he was prepared to straddle the line to achieve them. End quote.
War’s a helluva thing…
By the end of August, with constant monsoons harassing the men, the two armies had split up again. Crawford decided to take his men which included Tom Horn and he followed Geronimo’s trail. Wirt Davis decided to head to the western side of the Sierra Madres.
On his way to the western edge of the mountains, Wirt Davis got word from a Mexican general Diego Guerra that he and his 366 men were in hot pursuit of the renegade Apache and Guerra wanted nothing more than to exterminate every last one of them. Men, women, and children, all. Also, he would like a word with the American Captain.
On August 27th, Guerra showed up to Davis’ camp in all his Hispanic pomp and asked to speak with the commander.
Sweeney quotes a man named Hooke about Guerra’s arrival and I want to quote it for you.
He was all dressed up. He had silver buttons on both sides of his coat, and silver eagles on each side of his hat. His saddle was all silver mounted with big conchos and eagles. His horse had silver eagles on both sides of his bridle also. End quote. There’s just nothing like Latin American machismo. It’s a glorious description.
And then, Guerra’s actions just reinforce the Latin American machismo. Apparently Guerra informed Davis that he had fought with Chihuahua just two days before and unfortunately, Chihuahua and his 12 men, which included four teenagers, had bested the General and had killed two of his men before escaping. So Guerra asked Davis to use some of his Apache scouts. Bylas, the scout who had led the raid on Geronimo not long before, absolutely refused. He was not going to go with the evil Mexicans who the Apaches hated even more than the White Eyes and who they had fought against for centuries. For goodness sakes, Geronimo’s own family were slaughtered in the dead of night by the Mexicans which is probably what made him so mean.
Outraged, Guerra stormed out and rode away with his men.
By the way… a foreign army is in your land and you outnumber them but you can’t order them to leave or help them tackle your enemy? Goes to show either the weakness of the Mexican forces or the strength of the American.
Anyways, Davis packed up and left and followed the trail of Chihuahua. And this trail included the site of the battle where Guerra lost two men. Two men they had apparently left behind because this same Hooke would describe the place as stinking like death.
In reality, the entire months of July and August and most of September, Chihuahua and his men killed nearly 20 Mexicans and Americans on both sides of the border. And they wounded about a dozen more. Chihuahua wanted to reach his family so he made his way north, killing whomever he came across… including women and two small children. And then in Arizona he realized the heat was too hot so he went again back south into Mexico. And by now, as the General Guerra story suggests, warriors and officials on both sides of the border were hunting down the renegade Apaches.
While Davis was hot on his trail, he wasn’t fast enough and Chihuahua and his band, which occasionally included Naiche and his people, the two were constantly meeting up and then dividing, but the Apaches continued their killing and raiding.
Here’s another story from Sweeney’s From Cochise to Geronimo Tome that I’d like to quote from to emphasize the fear and heroics that an Apache attack can illicit. Quote:
on the afternoon of September 18, 1885, his scouts (meaning Chihuahuas) spotted a party of five Americans who had left Nacozari en route to a mining claim in the Juriquipa Mountains. They had originally outfitted at Tombstone and were traveling with several burros packed with mining supplies and provisions, "everything that a miner uses in his outft." Chihuahua was waiting. Though his opening salvo did no apparent damage, it frightened off two men, who abandoned their three friends and fled for their lives. That left two men and one woman to fend off the Chiricahuas. One brave man fired several shots from his Winchester and a few charges from a shotgun before a Chiricahua volley cut him down. Then the woman, Belle Davis, ran over to her companion, unbuckled his cartridge belt, grabbed his Winchester and shotgun, and fired four "loads of buckshot at the hostiles." She and her husband crawled into shelter behind rocks. Unwilling to approach the two entrenched Americans and anticipating that the two who had escaped would bring help, Chihuahua abandoned the fight. End all quotes.
There’s this fantastic fiction writer named Elmore Leonard that I have read for over a decade now but I had no idea he wrote a book about American cavalry men who went down into Mexico on a secret mission to hunt for Apache called The Bounty Hunters. I loved the show Justified which he wrote and was based off of his novels. Raylan and Boyd are direct creations of Elmore Leonard. But before he wrote about Miami underworld and the Dixie Mafia, he wrote westerns. Including, by the way, 3:10 to yuma! But he wrote a book in his early years called The Bounty Hunters and it is a perfect companion to my Apache series. He writes like how I speak of the Apache. He keeps them real, savage, sorry for that word but it fits, and human. He shows the ineptness of the US Army against them while at the same time showing that a few amazing soldiers had the game figured out. He also showed the absolute ineptness and the cowardice of the Mexican Forces, many of which in this novel and this episode, but many of the Mexican forces were freed prisoners sent up north to fight Apaches. Anyways, Elmore Leonard’s great and you should read that novel, the Bounty Hunters. No, it isn’t anything like Blood Meridian although scalp hunters are a main part of the story. But it shows that Americans were heavily involved in northern Mexico at the time. Mostly as prospectors but there were also the Mormons who fled the states to continue polygamy. There were the railroaders, the mercenaries, the bounty hunters! Anyways, a story like this one about prospectors getting waylaid by renegade Apaches reminds me of the interconnectedness of northern Mexico and the US at that time. And of the novel Bounty Hunters.
So, the very next day after the attack against Belle and her husband, Davis and his men and over 100 Apache scouts made their way to a ranch which had also been attacked by Chihuahua even before the Belle Davis attack… too many Davises in this episode. But Belle and her husband mistook this American and Apache Scout force as more of the enemy so they hid. But the Scouts saw them, motioned in their direction, and spooked Belle and her husband who began to run, but Wirt Davis, called out to them in English and asked them to please come back. Belle and her husband stopped and then returned, by the way, Sweeney describes them like this, quote, a relieved Belle Davis, wearing a cartridge belt and carrying a shotgun in one hand, end quote. You had to be hearty back then. Such an awesome image of a frontierswoman.
Belle immediately recounted to Wirt Davis the previous days events and he sprang into action. They rode to the scene of the crime, buried the dead American, and then took up the trail. Bylas the Apache scout eventually led them to the same mountains where they’d sprang the trap on the empty Geronimo camp a month or so prior. But the trail continued higher up into the mountains. The Americans and their scouts followed the trail.
Eventually one of the head scouts realized that they were walking into a trap… but rather than recount the whole ordeal, I’ll sum it up as, 100 of Wirt Davis’ Western Apache scouts went up against 25 of Chihuahua and Naiche’s Chiricahua men and women and they did not put up much of a fight. After hours of shooting back and forth, the fighting lulled and Chihuahua emerged from the rocks to basically brag that they’d already killed one western apache scout, how many more want to die?
One of the Apache scouts, a scout named Long loins… which… nice. But long Loins realized that it was Chihuahua that yelled at them so he responded with basically, we are only looking for you and we don’t want to fight, we just want to talk.
Chihuahua responded with quote, alright then, we will go on that bluff there and talk it over. End quote.
Long Loins, excited to bring in his relative, for Chihuahua was a relative and he was one of many Apache scouts that signed on in the hopes of bringing peace instead of violence, which is also why they probably didn’t put up much a fight, but Long Loins… I can’t get over that name, Nahn Tee Nesn, he asked Davis for a horse but Davis refused. Flat out. Davis would not let the Apache go visit his relatives for fear of Chihuahua being duplicitous… it was a HUGE missed opportunity. A missed opportunity which only reinforced in Chihuahua and Naiche’s minds that the Americans and their race traitor apache scouts were only out for war and not peace.
In reality, some of the Western Apache scouts were truly out for war. When chihuahua had yelled that we already killed a western apache, who else wants to die… he wasn’t lying. After Long Loins was denied a parlay, Wirt Davis met with his head scouts and men and they attempted to come up with a plan. At the meeting was the brother of the western apache the Chiricahua renegades had killed earlier in the day. This brother basically called Davis a coward and said essentially, you’re always willing to point a gun up at the res but now here, you aren’t willing to even let us die. The brother of the slain Western Apache, his name was Ish Isn Na gosl, he eventually mutinied and led 11 scouts up to the battle to look for his dead brother.
It’s a rough read but here’s what Sweeney wrote about what happened next. Quote:
They found the corpse, and Ish-Isin-na-gosl went over to his brother. Hooke described the poignant scene: the scout embraced his brother's body and "talked to him, just as if he were alive. All right, you are killed now; you are traveling by yourself now. This is what we joined up as scouts for, and I am still here. I intended to go with you also, but I missed out." The scout untied a blanket from his waist and covered his brother. End all quotes.
The following day, the entire group of soldiers went up to the battle ground, uncovered the dead brother and realized to their horror that Chihuahua and his men had brutally mutilated the body. They’d cut off his nose and stuck a large knife through the cavity. The crying Apache men… an action I had never read about in terms of Apache men before this… but the crying Apache men could not dislodge the knife. So, Captain Wirt Davis stepped down from his horse, leaned over the dead Apache scout’s face, and pulled the knife from his skull. He then told his scouts, quote, What the Chiricahuas have done here is wrong.... The other Chiricahuas are all up at San Carlos and Fort Apache. But these Chiricahuas down here, still on the warpath, will never go back to San Carlos or Fort Apache because they have done wrong on this body. End quote.
He was not lying.
During all of this business with the various Davises and Chihuahua and Naiche, Captain Crawford and Tom Horn had followed Geronimo’s trial north.
By September 1885, the 63 year old Geronimo had decided to head back to Arizona and try and retrieve his family who had been taken prisoner and sent to the reservation. Geronimo’s biographer, Angie Debo aptly describes why he was forced to get his family when she wrote, quote, Apaches were devoted to their families, also in their well structured division of labor, a man without a wife to prepare food and clothing was as seriously handicapped economically as was a woman without a male provider. End quote. The man needed someone to brew his tiswin, cook his meals, and mend his moccasins. Not to mention, the man loved his family.
Crawford’s, Horn’s, Chatto’s, and Davis’ journey across the Mexican mountains from west to east and then north through the Chihuahua desert, much of it through blinding rain and violent thunderstorms was fraught with peril and tension. Tarahumara Indians at one point set up an ambush for a Lt. Elliott and his Apache scouts but ominous clouds prevented them from springing this canyon trap. These Tarahumara Indians would eventually encircle Elliott and fire nearly 100 rounds at him as he waved a white flag. But, because the Mexicans were horrible shots, Elliott was unscathed. Elliott and his Apache scouts would eventually be rounded up and arrested by these Mexican forces. Lt. Davis, who spoke Spanish would bail them out of jail after challenging the Mexican forces with quote, we will fight right now. End quote.
After more pursuing and traipsing through the desert with tired horses, weary men, and exhausted rations, the Americans under Crawford, which included Tom Horn, ran into some Mexican officials for a second time and were told in no uncertain terms to leave Mexico. This did not bother the American commanders and Lt. Davis would later write that he was not sad for, quote, we were practically at the end of our rope. End quote.
Speaking of rope, while on route back to the reservation and into the States, Captain Crawford and his men ran into a Maj. Frederick Van Vliet who was on a scouting mission against the Apaches. With Van Vliet was an army surgeon named William T Corbusier, and this surgeon would recall this chance meeting well on account of one scout named Tom Horn who was performing rope tricks for everyone’s amusement.
Over in New Mexico, Geronimo, with about 10 followers, half women, half men, they’d crossed back into the States and they were taking a circuitous route back to Fort Apache with one goal in mind: rescue the captured family members. They sleuthed around the mountains of southern New Mexico for quite some time before finally being seen on September 10th. The race was on.
After being spotted, Geronimo had a new goal: throw the Americans and scouts off his trail and create a diversion… a violent diversion.
Beginning on September 10th, Geronimo and his small band would raid every ranch, cabin, and homestead they came across. They’d steal horses and whatever else they desired from the buildings. They set fire to cabins and homes. They killed five people, pretty much whomever they ran across, including a 17 year old boy. They’d usually send shots through the men and then smash their heads in with a rock. They kidnapped the 17 year old boy’s 11 year old brother and they went from the black range to the mimbres valley and then over to the mogollon mountains where they camped on the Gila River not too far from the hot springs my wife and I enjoyed this time last year. Surprisingly, he did come across a woman and her two children which they spared. Thankfully.
By now, state militias, the father of the dead and kidnapped boy, and the army were all in pursuit. Many would eventually give up only hours behind the Apaches. The boy’s father would remark that he didn’t want to spook the Indians for fear that they’d kill his son, whom he presumed was still alive. This boy’s name was Santiago Mckinn and, spoiler alert, he’d write about his ordeal later in life.
This raid was meant to be a diversion but it had profound consequences for Geronimo’s people, the Chiricahua Apaches. The Fedral government was in talks with Mexico to have joint operations against them. Crook had talked to Governor Torres in Sonora and the Governor agreed that American Forces may enter Sonora in pursuit and that Sonoran forces would even help him. And very importantly, Washington decided to hand control of the reservation solely over to Crook and the army. Life was about to get a lot more difficult for the Chiricahua Apaches at San Carlos. But the final change this raid made was that Washington decided that if these hostile apaches ever turned themselves in, they’d be shipped straight to prison at Fort Marion, near Saint Augustin, Florida. Eventually that would expand to every Chiricahua. And it was all thanks to Geronimo’s escape, raids, and the lengthy international pursuit.
Obviously, Geronimo knew none of this and now that he had distracted the White Eyes, he was going to break his family out of the reservation.
By September 19th, Geronimo had crossed into Arizona. And his first action was to shoot a man through the mouth which killed him. For the next few days the old medicine man slowly made his way through the rugged mountains until he reached the outskirts of Fort Apache shortly after midnight on September 22nd. He ran into a White Mountain woman who told him that the only family members who were there were his wife and child whom he’d sent to the Mescalero Apaches over by Ruidoso and Fort Stanton. The mescaleros, at this time wanted nothing to do with the outbreak. They had been punished thoroughly for for their role in the Victorio War. This war happened between my last episode and this one and I did not cover it and I will not be covering it. So when Geronimo’s family arrived at the Mescalero’s they promptly turned them into the authorities who then brought them back to Fort Apache.
Well, undaunted and happy to at least have one of his wives back, he snuck into her wickiup and took her and his son in the dead of night. They slipped back as quickly as they could east towards New Mexico again.
Just like that… Geronimo had led an enormous military force through the deserts and mountains of the American southwest and mexican northwest. They’d killed and tortued and mutilated Americans and Mexicans and even their fellow Apaches. Geronimo had then snuck back into the states, killed and mutilated again, gone all the way back to Fort Apache near where it all started, and successfully broke his wife and child out of the reservation. All in only four months. And Geronimo was in his 60s…
General Crook’s response: Quote, Kill Geronimo and his entire party. End quote.
On his way towards New Mexico, and ultimately Old Mexico, Geronimo and his party killed a wagon driver and looted the wagon which included a whole bunch of candy, candy which the Apache ate in one sitting. Young Santiago Mckinn would later say, this candy binge made all the apache quite ill. He also said that he believes they spared his life in a game of chance, The Apaches favorite pastime. Luckily for him.
On October 6th, Geronimo was back in Mexico. But not before killing yet again. This time, an Army private.
During Geronimo’s daring raid both Chihuahua and Naiche had also travelled back into the states and they were doing their own depredations around the Chiricahua Mountains. They killed two ranchers. They killed a miner. They shot another guy through the stomach. They stole a ton of horses. They raided homes. And then they too returned to Mexico.
I don’t want to get into the stories but the Apaches would leave Mexico briefly to find their families again and they would kill a Navajo scout, wound and kill soldiers, kill cowboys and miners and anyone they came across including a woman. They killed a woman’s husband and thens stripped her naked before bashing her in the skull with a rifle. She survived. They stole, they mutilated, etc… it gets tiring. The residents of the American Southwest and the politicians in Washington were also tired of it.
Having little left to do but plan, General Crook released the scouts until he could formulate another incursion into Mexico. For this attack he was again sending Wirt Davis and Captain Crawford. Crook wanted 8 companies of 25 Apache scouts each which would be a total of 200 Apache Scouts with 100 going with Davis and 100 going with Crawford. Both Chatto and Mickey Free declined to sign up for this mission.
Crawford’s second in command would be 35 year old Lt. Marion P Maus. For this mission, Tom Horn was officially, for the duration of of the campaign, chief of scouts. Why not Al Sieber? Horn said it was because he was too quote, crippled up and too old for such hard work. End quote. But another chief of scouts claimed it was because Al didn’t get along with Crawford. Another interpretation was that Crook needed Sieber at the res in case trouble happened. Which, if you subscribe and listen to the Apache Kid series, you know is exactly what happens. Speaking of the Apache Kid, he was on this mission as well.
Tom Horn spoke Spanish and some Apache so he was a great asset to the mission. Regardless, Horn was in charge of 25 Apache scouts as they headed east and then south.
They’d leave for Fort Bowie on November 11th, 1885.
While this was going on, One Chiricahua Apache hostile leader named Ulzana had snuck back into the States to kill Chatto and Mickey Free. And Ulzana almost got Chatto, too, but he was unsuccessful in his vendetta when Chatto got one of his muscle spasms and fled on horse with his wife to the safety of Fort Apache.
During Ulzana’s 1,000 mile stretch of raids there were beaheadings, children’s heads were bashed in and thrown into a fire. The Chiricahuas at the res got angry. More people were killed.. There was almost a war between the White Mountain and the Chiricahua Apaches… it was a huge thorn in Crook’s side. But beyond that, it was just more relentless violence and the slaughter of so many of what I would call innocent people. Something like 45 Whites, Mexicans, and Apache women and children were killed by Ulzana before he escaped back into Mexico yet again.
Crawford and Horn were called on to find Ulzana which they attempted to do in western new mexico and eastern Arizona but were unsuccessful.
On December 11th, Crawford and Horn as well as Wirt Davis and his men all crossed over into Mexico.
Immediately, things went south. The Sonorensens and people of Chihuahua thought they were being invaded by Apaches. The Apaches were occasionally allowed to wander and hunt but they were supposed to be accompanied by a white man. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough of those on this expedition so Mexicans and Mexican police often thought the Apaches were the enemy. At one point there was a kirfufle in a town that saw the Apache kid get arrested by the Russian Kosterlitzky. I talked about that in the Apache series though. In the end, it was up to Tom Horn to smooth things over.
It was also up to Tom to find the trail of Ulzana… which he, kinda did. He actually found the trail of Chihuahua when he and his scouts were sent south to the Carcay mountains on Christmas Day by Crawford.
Despite his pride in being chief of scouts, Tom Horn would write in his autobiography, quote, How I did miss Sieber, for he knew everything! End quote. Tom would later say that his scouts did the best they could and they stuck doggedly on the trail. Just for fun, I’ll read the names of some of his scouts by quoting from Sweeney. Quote:
Noche, whose knowledge of the Sierra Madre rivaled Geronimo’s.
He continues, Tsedekizen, Fatty, Cooney, and Juan Segotset. End quote.
They’d be gone for two weeks as they searched for the renegades.
Meanwhile, Crawford set up a basecamp on Christmas Day near the small town of Nacori Chico. Horn actually describes Crawford in his book. He wrote of the man, quote:
I did not know Crawford, but he had a great reputation as a "go-to-em" kind of fellow, and no man would look at him and call him afraid or negligent. He looked good to me; he had a regular wolf snap to his jaw. Really, the only thing that I was afraid of was that the country would be too rough [for him]. When I was leaving him fifteen days before he said: "Now Chief, you show me the way and I will be there in Hank Monk time.’ End all quotes.
Who is Hank Monk you ask? Good question! Apparently, he was a real man and a real fast stagecoach driver that Mark Twain wrote about. He was famous for driving a stagecoach in the 1870s from Carson City, Nevada to Placerville, California in record time. So Crawford was a reader. He was also a man of much contemplation and a man who seemed to have had his own sort of medicine. I say that because a few weeks prior to his encampment in Mexico, he had met an old friend at Fort Grant, which they’d passed through. While reminiscing with this old friend, he’d told the man, who wrote it down that, quote, when I go down into Mexico I will not return. End quote. It seems the Apaches weren’t the only ones who had premonitions of the future.
On New Years Eve, some trouble was almost stirred when a deputy US Marshal arrived to Crawford’s camp and presented an arrest warrant for one of the scouts who’d committed a murder back in 1882. Obviously, this alarmed the Apaches who began to worry they all might get into trouble with the law for their past. Crawford though, deescalated the situation and convinced the deputy to let this Apache continue to scout and he can be arrested after the mission. The Deputy agreed.
To further allay the situation, Crawford then announced that there would be a $100 dollar award for the man who discovered Geronimo’s camp. And also, that they were leaving on the 3rd of January, 1886 and they were going to link up with Tom Horn and his scouts who were apparently, hot on the trail of the Renegades.
The night before they left, the Apaches held a ceremony with the officers watching and they danced, and kissed a sacred object, and then a medicine man predicted they would soon meet Geronimo. And he was right.
I believe in medicine. I believe that there is a connection to the quote unquote supernatural that modern western man seems to have forgotten about. My medicine is christianity. But I believe that there is power on the earth and humans can access it. I get mine through the Holy Ghost, others get theirs through dances or sings or any number of rituals. The older I get the more open I am to the ways of the ancients. I won’t follow them, for I have my medicine already, but just because I believe mine is the true medicine does not mean that the others are powerless. I actually believe many have immense power… just not always for good.
This ceremony came at a pretty fortuitous time for the Apache scouts because up until now, Crawford had become frustrated with them and had began assuming, and so did his subordinates, but the Army in Mexico had began to think the Apache scout’s hearts weren’t in it and that they were keeping important information from them. This seemed to calm their fears and it was just in time.
Down south in the rugged and harsh mountains, mountains filled with Anasazi ruins built by the descendants of the Chacoans, in the Sierra Madre mountains, Horn led two other scouts, or maybe the other way around, but Horn and his scouts were hot on the trail of some renegade Apaches and eventually they approached a rough stretch of mountains known in Spanish as espinosa del diablo or, the Devil’s backbone. Horn described the area as quote unquote fearfully broken.
A few days before, Horn had sent two scouts up to Crawford to inform him that he would soon make contact.
On the seventh, Crawford received the word and he immediately packed up he and his scouts to follow Tom Horn. He left most of his American soldiers behind and he took primarily Apache scouts. He then informed the small group that no fires were to be made, despite it being January in the mountains of the desert, and he told them they were to wear moccasins instead of boots since they would be quieter. A fine idea, except, they wore out faster than they anticipated. Which is not surprising considering the terrain. Deep canyons, high cliffs, sharp rocks… one of Crawford’s men would write of the area that quote, the country was so rough that it seemed that nature must have made a special effort in that direction. End quote.
Along the way, the American men were amazed at the Apache scouts who were now on their best behavior. The previously mentioned Maus said about them, quote, nothing escaped their watchful eyes as they marched silently in their moccasins feet… their system of advance guards and flankers was perfect. End quote.
Another one of Crawford’s men, a man named Shipp, he said of the Apache, quote:
Watching the scouts one could not help thinking how hopeless was the attempt to catch the hostile Chiricahuas with men trained and equipped in the manner of our own soldiers. End quote. He went on to say, quote, The Chiricahuas were a never-ending source of wonder. Their knowledge of country; their powers of observation and deduction; their watchfulness, endurance, and ability to take care of themselves under all circumstances made them seem at times like superior beings from another world. If our little army of 25,000 was composed of such men, and animated by the proper spirit, it would be unconquerable by the best army now existing in Europe. End quote.
On January 9th, 1886, Tom Horn and his men finally saw the camp of the Renegade Apaches. He immediately sent one of his scouts to run back and tell Crawford, who was again, already on his way.
Once word made it to the Captain, who had already been marching for 6 hours, he decided to march another 12 miles to meet up with Horn. 12 miles, by the way, of dangerous and steep and treacherous territory, as I have outlined so often already. With his 75 scouts, Crawford decided on an overnight 12 mile journey. The night was dark and quiet. There was no moon. Crawford though, was undaunted, he was going to put an end to the Apache’s depredations and bring the American Southwest into the 19th century.
In the early dawn hours of January 10th, before the sun had risen, Crawford and his scouts finally met up with Tom horn and his Apaches. Horn, Maus, Shipp, and Crawford had a small and quiet meeting where they decided they were going to surround the camp. But… as they were attempting to, rocks were displaced… mules and horses were spooked… and the renegade Apache within the camp became alerted.
The firing began near the horses and mules when the renegades approached the beasts to see what the fuss was about. Maus, who was not yet in position, later said the renegades opened fire first. But Shipp and Horn disagreed. They claimed the angry White Mountain Apaches opened fire on the Chiricahuas in retaliation for past grievances. Mainly the slaughter of their family by Ulzana I mentioned earlier. Regardless, the shooting started, and with an opening to the south, on account of Maus not being in place yet, most of the Apaches escaped.
The animals had been 400 yards from the camp so the Renegades had a good head start as Sweeney put it. Horn mentions that he clearly heard Geronimo’s voice yelling for the women and children to flee and for his warriors to fight. But… Horn also has a whole paragraph where he commands the men to surround the camp with their scouts which… that was Crawford. Crawford ordered that.
When Horn published his autobiography later, a lot of military men were both angry and tickled because in many spots throughout the book, Horn places himself in the commanding officer role telling others what to do when in reality, he was the one being told what to do.
So, Geronimo’s people fled and many of the warriors fired at Crawford’s men as they did so. Crawford’s and Horn’s and the Army and scouts fired back but it seems like no one was wounded on either side. Therefore, all 80 hostiles escaped into the mountains. Many of the scouts gave pursuit but still no enemies or scouts were injured.
Shipp and Maus, and even some of the Chiricahua scouts later, believed that the battle and pursuit were fruitless because the Chiricahua didn’t want to kill their brethren. Except for Geronimo. They woulda killed him. Not to mention the White Mountain Apache scouts that were there were too afraid of Geronimo’s band to give a hearty pursuit. So while the scouts were adept at finding the enemy… they were less so when it came to killing the enemy.
Crawford then occupied the camp that not so long before had held the sleeping Apaches. Crawford then realized he was in possession of all of the renegade Apaches possessions. Their food, blankets, all their animals, extra weapons… all of it.
Geronimo’s people realized this too, and not long after they fled, Naiche sent word to Crawford that he wanted to parlay. There was no way they could survive the winter with nothing and with both American and Mexican and Apache forces hot on their trail. Geronimo had believed this hideout, one used for centuries, was the Apaches safest stronghold in this region, possibly all of the Southwest… except for one very remote one in the Mogollon mountains. So where else could they go? What else could they have done besides continue running and raiding and running and killing and raiding and running… they’d been doing this for centuries. The endless wave of Anglos would eventually drown them out, even in their mountain strongholds.
Naiche then sent a woman to talk to Crawford, Horn, and Maus, and the Apache woman relayed the message that… they were ready to surrender. Surrender… and return to the reservation. Naiche and Geronimo had high hopes…
Crawford agreed to talk and they assigned a high plateau to meet on the following day.
Relieved that the mission was about to be accomplished, excited about the prospect of finally bringing in Geronimo, but also dead tired from the long, arduous, and dangerous 24 hour hike, Crawford set up his sleeping bag about 100 yards from the renegade’s camp, and he went to sleep.
Meanwhile, the various scouts and sentinels on guard duty, who had just burned everything that wasn’t important, also began to pass out. But not just go to sleep, they seemed to be lulled to sleep. This puzzled and worried one Chiricahua scout who began to believe that Geronimo had used sleeping medicine on the entire outfit. So, he countered it with a long sing and some of his own medicine. This seemed to have worked as one by one, the scouts began to awaken again.
Now this night was cold, very cold and rainy. When it wasn’t raining, it was misting and foggy. When Geronimo, who had indeed been spying on the camp noticed that the scouts were countering his medicine with their own, Geronimo began to yell at the scout’s medicine man in anger. Many of the scouts took this as an ominous sign.
At 7am the following rainy cold morning, to quote Maus, loud cries of alarm came from some of the scouts who were lying down below among the rocks. Lt. Shipp, Mr. Horn, and I ran forward at once to ascertain the cause of the alarm, when a severe fire of musketry was opened on our camp. End quote.
Musketry? Were these Wirt Davis’ scouts believing, after following the trail that these sleeping Apaches were Geronimo’s and Naiche’s renegades? It was in fact, around 128 irregular Mexican soldiers made up of the Apaches enemy, the Tarahumaras and the ex convicts of the Public Security. They had been marching for 17 days on the trail of the renegades and it seems, they mistook the Americans and their scouts for those fearful hostiles.
In the initial volley, three scouts were injured. Most of them had been sleeping. Some of the scouts screamed in Apache still believing them to be their Apache allies, but only Mexican Spanish was the response.
The irregulars were shouting Viva Mexico! Or Viva Guerrero! Or, as Tom Horn later recalled, quote, Follow me, valientes! End quote. Some of the Mexican soldiers were even commenting on how quote, the hair of the scouts was good and long. End quote. These Mexicans wanted to take some scalps.
Crawford and the other sleeping commanders reacted quickly and Crawford sent Maus, Shipp, and Tom Horn to, quoting Horn, go ahead and see about it, end quote. Crawford was right behind them with a white handkerchief. Horn wrote that as they approached the fighters, quote, straight at us they came on a run. End quote.
Many of the Americans and even some scouts confirmed Tom Horn’s bravery in this moment as he ran towards the Mexicans in the open shouting Soldados Americanos! American Soldiers! He then climbed on a rock and began waving his arms and shouting in Spanish for the Mexican soldiers to stop firing! Crawford then yelled to Tom Horn, quote, My God, chief! Cant you stop them?! These scouts will kill them all! End quote. And the whole time Crawford’s also standing in the open waving the white handkerchief. And this went on for apparently 15 or 20 minutes!
Finally! Horn seems to have gotten to the soldiers and some of them were approaching the Americans. Larry Ball in Tom Horn in life and legend describes what happens next. Quote:
By this time dawn was breaking, and Lieutenant Maus, who could see Chief of Scouts Horn talking with the Mexicans, "felt sure that the trouble was over." Crawford and Maus then approached them. "I told them distinctly [in Spanish] who we were," declared Maus, and pointed out that he and other officers were in uniform. When four Mexicans approached Horn, "the first three passed me without stopping," he wrote, while "the fourth stopped... [and] drew a bead on me. ... I called to him in Spanish: 'Lower your rifle! We are American soldiers!' He lowered his rifle about a second, and smiled. End all quotes.
During this whole shootout, the Apaches had only responded with a few rounds. The Americans had not shot at all and in fact they were all unarmed, except for Crawford who held a white handkerchief. One of the Mexican commanders, Major Mauricio Corredor, the slayer of Victorio, actually, he believed the Americans had been low on men and ammo… a mistake he would regret.
Corredor, it turns out, had no intentions of peace. He was thinking only of one thing… I want my scalps. Corredor and ten of his armed men approached the Americans while 15 or so also armed men began to surround the Americans on the rocky hill above. They were encircling Crawford and his men.
During this encirclement, the Apache Scouts slowly began to emerge from cover. The Tarahumara and Chihuahuan forces started to notice them in return and eventually, they all started to hurl insults at each other. They were, after all, bitter enemies with centuries of fighting between the three groups. Corredor and his men had killed Victorio and even Joh. One Apache scout yelled at the Mexican forces, quote, don't run away if you are men for you are going to meet up with men today! End quote. The Mexicans responded with quote, we are the troops that cleaned out Victorio’s bunch. We killed Victorio and we can kill every one of you. End quote. This whole time, one Apache scout had been leading an ammunition mule to the hidden scouts who were replenishing their ammo belts and rifles. A battle was certainly about to begin and it did when when Fatty, one of Horn’s scouts, yelled, all right, get ready! We are going to fire on you right now! End quote.
I will let Sweeney deftly tell the tale of what happens next.
The American and Mexican officers were unaware of the critical moment until they heard the "sharp snap of the breechloaders" as the scouts inserted their cartridges. However, Major Corredor, who had seen the heads and rifles of fifty to sixty scouts concealed in rocks thirty yards in front of him, became noticeably nervous. He began to back away from open ground toward Horn. While the parley was going on, which lasted less than ten minutes, other Mexicans moved around to their left, toward the highest hill on Crawford's right flank. Crawford, sensing the explosive situation, said to Maus, "For God's sake, don't let them fire." Corredor and another officer, realizing that they had based their treachery on faulty assumptions, said, "No tiros, No tiros" (Don't shoot, don't shoot), imploring Crawford to restrain his scouts. Now, Maus pivoted and walked briskly toward the scouts, ordering them not to shoot. Crawford "climbed on a five-foot high rock, conspicuous above every other object," waving his flag of truce. About twenty-five yards from the captain, one member of Corredor's peace party had taken cover near a "little tree." Evidently the one designated to open the double cross, he fired the first shot, sending a bullet into Crawford's forehead, mortally wounding the stoic captain. End all quotes.
Crawford wasn’t the only one hit. Horn, who had also been standing on a smaller rock, had been shot through the arm by the Mexican Commander Corredor who at first lowered his rifle and smiled, like the other Mexican had done with Maus. Horn wrote, quote, suddenly he changed his mind: then he took a quick aim at me and fired, hitting me in the left arm. End quote.
Except for that one sharp shooter, the Mexicans really are not good shots… I believe I mentioned that in one of the earlier Apache episodes.
In Horn’s autobiography he recounts how he, despite the painful flesh wound, immediately took charge after Crawford’s murder and ordered Maus to one flank and Shipp to the other. But of course, that is not what really happened and instead Maus immediately took charge and sent Horn on one flank and Shipp on the other while he tried to gain control of the situation. A situation which was quickly spiraling out of control as the Mexicans began taking shots at every unarmed American they saw.
But the tables turned very quickly and within minutes, Corredor had been shot through the heart, another Apache scout killed the man who had shot Crawford, Corredor’s second in command took 13 bullets… rather quickly, nine out of ten of the Mexicans who had duplicity approached the Americans were dead.
The Apaches, filled with medicine and bravery relentlessly attacked the Mexican and tarahumara forces, which drove them back some 3 to 500 yards away, all while taking not a single scratch. Later, Tsedekizen, the leader of these brave scouts who were under Horn, he would laugh about how these Mexicans, quote, fell over each other to try to get out of the way. End quote. Eventually, Tsedekizen, asked Horn if he and his scouts could pursue the fleeing Indians but Horn refused to give the command. One of Horn’s scouts would later say that if had allowed them to pursue, they would have killed every one of the Mexicans.
This second battle where the Mexicans were retreating lasted about an hour and all the while, both sides were hurling taunts at one another. Horn would yell at the Mexicans at one point and ask, quote, how they liked the entertainment? End quote. Horn said they responded with, quote, if we had not had enough to come out and fight again, end quote. Larry Ball describes a bit more of this conversation between the injured Horn and the Mexicans.. Quote:
When a Chihuahuan asked their identity, "I told him we were a bunch of sportsmen down from the United States, looking for some game, and thanked him for the time we were having." Horn invited this man "to get his 'valientes' brave ones] together again, and try another charge." When the Mexicans asked, ”What do you want?" Horn replied, "Everything you have." Harvey Nashkin was close enough to hear these shouted challenges. When a Chihuahuan asked "our officer [Maus?] to give him twelve of us scouts to kill," recalled Nashkín, Horn replied, "You think these scouts are like boys, but they can fight."
"The fight was going on again quite briskly," Horn recalled. Anyone who left the cover of the rocks was in danger of losing his life. "It was not worth my while to try to stop it," Horn frankly admitted. The Americans, Horn among them, were still mystified at the persistence of the Mexican attack. "I thought Mexico and the United States were at war, and that we were in it," he recalled. End all quotes.
Maus eventually asked Horn to restrain his men and see if he could get a parlay with the new enemy.
Here’s a mix of Larry Ball and Tom Horn’s autobiography of what happened next. I would quote Horn’s book more often but he is quite the exaggerator and it helps to have someone correct his telling. Quote:
The Chihuahuans only grudgingly replied to the appeals of the chief of scouts. "After we had driven them all away from us they [finally) answered," Horn recalled. A Chihuahuan shouted, "Oh, you white man that talks Mexican, I want to talk to you." "What do you want?" replied Horn; "I spoke to you many times and you would not answer."
”Now we want to talk," came the reply. "I told them to stop firing a minute, and I'd come over and tell them what we wanted," Horn later explained to correspondent Charles Lummis. The Mexicans answered, "All right. Put down your arms and come over." "I took off my cartridge belt, laid down the gun I had picked up [after being wounded," said Horn, "and went over." In a very arrogant tone, one of the Chi-huahuans asked, "What have you been doing here?" to which the chief of scouts replied, "I came over to tell you that we are American troops." When they asked for his commander, Horn informed them that he was severely wounded and would probably die. Then one of the Mexicans, an old man, said, "Our captain is killed, too. Here is his gun [shaking a Winchester in his hand] and I'd like to kill a Gringo with the same gun! End all quotes.
Maus was rather impressed with Horn and his bravado as he walked unarmed and injured over to the Mexicans. At one point he almost called him back but he needed a dialogue and Horn’s Spanish was rather impressive. Eventually, Horn motioned for Maus to join him though, and Maus obliged.
Here’s Larry Ball, Horn, Shipp, and Maus’ own words on the dialogue that occurred next, quote:
When Horn finally beckoned to his commander to join him, Maus "followed him over to where some of them (Mexicans) were lying." While these aggressors protested that the entire incident was "all a mistake" —they were "very sorry," "what a great pity" [que lástima] and so on"—and that they thought the Americans were renegades, Maus did not believe them. Nor did Horn. "I asked them if they did not know an American from a broncho [Apache warrior] at twenty-five yards," he recalled, "and they ... said they saw the Indian heads in the rocks, taking them for hostiles." "All six of us white men were in full view of them when they shot Crawford," wrote William Shipp, and were wearing either uniforms or civilian dress that clearly distinguished them from Apaches. End all quotes.
Despite not believing the Mexican’s explanation, Maus was ready to put this whole bloody and sad international incident behind them. But things were long from over.
Once in the Mexican’s camp, Horn and Maus talked things over with the soldiers who insisted they receive the entire captured herd of animals. Animals the Americans and their scouts had taken from Geronimo the day before. Obviously, the Americans protested. It was their scouts loot from a successful operation the day before. So the Mexicans then asked for five or six to take their wounded men home on. Maus said he’d think about it. And then the Americans returned to their camp.
The situation was still not deescalated though and eventually the Mexicans worked themselves up into anger and demanded Horn come back. Which he did… but this time, Maus sent the surgeon over who had recently arrived with Wirt Davis and his men. Despite the Mexicans duplicitousness and unwarranted violence, Maus still had compassion for the wounded Mexican soldiers. Before Horn walked over again though, he told his scouts to quote, be sure to kill all the Mexicans if they killed me. End quote. It was an order the Apaches would have gladly carried out.
During this entire affair, Geronimo, Naiche, and Chihuahua were watching it all unfold. Paul Andrew Hutton writes, quote, they watched in amazement for more than an hour as the Apache scouts and the Mexican militia, who numbered about 150, blazed away at one another. It was clear that the scouts had the upper hand. Geronimo was not a man given to mirth- but he laughed, and laughed, and laughed. End quote.
After his bout of laughing at all of this death happening because of him, he sent a woman to the Americans camp. She told Maus that, we saw the whole thing and we’re still willing to talk but not until you get rid of the Tarahumaras and the Mexicans. Essentially, we hate them both, was the word from Geronimo. So now, this second meeting had a new goal, get the Mexicans out of the way.
During this second meeting between Horn and the Mexicans, the leader of the Mexicans still insisted, falsely, that they had no idea they were Americans and they thought they were hostile Apaches. A claim that is absurd. And even with the doctor to assist the wounded and some extra rations that Maus gave to the Mexicans, they still refused to leave and in fact, further provoked the Americans by saying, why don't you let your Indians come down here and fight us in this little open plain. Quote, we’ll give them some more of it. End quote. More of what though? A few Apaches had been wounded when they were sleeping. Other than that, the Mexicans had injured an unarmed Horn and had mortally shot the unarmed American Captain Crawford with a bullet to the forehead which left brains on his face after he’d fallen off his boulder. Somehow… he hadn’t died right away but lived for quite a few days more.
The following day, the 12th of January, after an uneasy and sad night’s rest, Maus had had enough and he decided to move camp north in the hopes Geronimo would follow and meet them elsewhere, away from the Mexicans. As the Americans passed by, Maus sent Horn, who was by now, in a lot of pain, and another scout, Aguirre with the six horses. On a ridge above the mexican camp they yelled down for them to come and get the horses. But the Mexicans refused. Horn, in pain and now angry, yelled at them that he wasn’t their slave! Still, no answer. So, the Americans took their horses. But unfortunately, as they were traveling, some of them wandered over to the Mexican camp. Maus sent Aguirre to recover them. But… the Mexicans instead kidnapped Aguirre and the leader said to his men, quote, he is going to die here with us. End quote.
Frustrated, Maus, the only American who could speak Spanish that didn’t have a big gaping hole in his arm, was forced to go get the horses and now his scout from the clutches of the Mexicans. But of course, the Mexicans took Maus prisoner as well.
I’ll spare you the obnoxious back and forth with the indignant Mexicans and the frustrated Americans but eventually, by a stroke of luck, Maus presented the Mexicans with a note from a Sonoran official stating that the Americans were allowed to be in Mexico. So finally, they were released… but not before the Apache scouts began gearing up for war and shouting insults at the Mexicans. This also helped the Americans be freed.
Unfortunately, in Tom Horn’s autobiography and later interviews he greatly overplays his role, which was already significant. He makes up a ruse at one point and eventually states later that Geronimo himself had helped Tom Horn get Maus free. It’s ridiculous and it’s why I don’t quote from Horn’s book too often.
Finally, through heavy rain and fog, the Americans and the many many Apache scouts were on their way north away from the tarahumaras and the Chihuahuans. They then got word that Geronimo was ready to talk the following day.
On the 15th, true to their word, Geronimo, Naiche, Chihuahua, and Nana met with Maus and Horn. When Geronimo opened the meeting with, why are you here and chasing me? Maus responded bluntly with, quote, I came to capture or destroy you and your band. End quote. Surprised, but pleased with the bluntness, Geronimo told Maus that he would meet General Crook on the Mexican American line in one month at the San Bernardino Peak. As a show of good faith, Geronimo then turned over Nana, another warrior, and seven women and children.
Again, in his book, Horn takes all the credit for the meeting and for the hopeful surrender which… is not the way it really went down. And his over talkedness did have international consequences. In one town as they headed back to the States, Horn told a local man who ended up being a spy that essentially the engagement was an accident, which he didn’t even think himself but that’s what he said. Those words were sent to Mexico City and later used against the US.
As the Americans travelled north, miraculously, Captain Crawford, despite the missing brains and the hole in his head, awoke while in transit. He opened his eyes and then put an arm around Maus. Maus, surprised and elated, told the Captain that he would arrange his affairs. Crawford could only nod his head before he passed out again. He would finally die the following day. His medicine had been strong and his prediction had been correct. He would indeed die in Mexico after saving the lives of others. He was buried near Nacori Chico. But his remains would later be transferred to Nebraska.
Crook, devastated at Crawford’s assassination would issue General Field Orders Number 2 and it read, quote, with feelings of the deepest sorrow, the brigadier general commanding announces the death of Captain Emmet Crawford, 3rd Cavalry. His loss is irrepressing… brave as a lion, tender and gentle as a woman, always averse to alluding to his own achievements, temperate, noble, and wise, who was during his life, an honor to his profession and in death is an example to his comrades. End quote.
Shipp would later say of Crawford, quote, it would be well if all of us could keep in our minds the memory of this devoted and chivalrous soldier, whose whole life was one long sacrifice, and whose death was the direct result of his efforts to save others…let us try to remember this one as our ideal of what a true man should be. End quote.
Maus and his men finally reached America on February 1st, 1886. But not without difficulty. First of all, the Mexicans taunted them the entire way and even threatened war at one point. And then Mexican merchants smuggled in mezcal to the Scouts who all got drunk and started fighting. Even to the point where the white mountain apaches and the Chiricahua apaches loaded their rifles and squared off… nothing’s ever easy with the Apaches. But they made it back by February with the hopes that Geronimo would turn himself in soon.
Meanwhile, throughout December, Ulzana continued his killing and raiding and stealing. He’d kill quite a few soldiers and even more civilians. About 15 people perished before Ulzana slipped into Mexico before the new year. The people of the Southwest were even further enraged and the army was embarrassed. And Washington was unhappy. The new president, Cleveland, was thinking of replacing General Crook.
Unfortunately for the exhausted Maus, Crook sent he and all his men and scouts directly back down into Mexico in early February to wait for the hostiles to turn themselves in. This time though, they stayed in camp. Except for a few scouts who would visit two Americans who had set up a mezcal brewery and had no qualms selling to the Apache scouts.
Meanwhile, I will spare you the details but Geronimo, Ulzana, and Chihuahua continued killing countless Mexicans and even some Americans as they looted, stole, and murdered their way through northern Mexico. The Mexican authorities were powerless to stop them and the Americans did not have the will or authority to pursue them. All of this was done to replenish Geronimo and his band’s lost stock before they went north and resettled at the reservation. Which was a goal that was now impossible because remember, once they turned themselves in, they were going to Florida. Unbenownst to them, of course. Otherwise, they’d never turn themselves in at all.
Then in March, this story is truly brutal and awful and, with my own wife being pregnant it pains me severely. But in March, some American ranchers sprang a trap on the renegade Apaches who were trying to steal their horses. One of the Americans shot an Apache named Chinche between the eyes and killed him. The other Apaches ran off. The Americans scalped him and threw his body in a fire.
The renegade Apaches were livid and they took their anger out on the Mexicans. With the first casualties being a family. They killed the three men, and then took the pregnant woman hostage with her two young children ages 1 and 3. They then killed the children and the mother… and placed the pregnant woman’s baby in her dead arms. They left the grizzly and horrific scene as evidence of their anger.
I remember now why I stopped the Apache series in the first place.
Finally, on March 19th, 1886, Geronimo and 22 warriors reached Maus’ camp. They then of course demanded that Crook needed come down there and meet them. For they weren’t negotiating with Maus, only Crook.
Eventually, Maus convinced them to instead head north towards America where they would be safe from Mexicans and where Crook would meet them. Geronimo refused but did agree to go north. Once at the rendezvous location, 12 miles north, at Embudo Canyon, 75 renegade Apaches flooded into the new camp. Only Chihuahua and seven warriors were absent.
Then weeks went by without a sign or word from General Crook. Weeks of hungry, tired, weary, and angry hostiles who were being fed mezcal by those American brewers to the south. The main brewer who had already been asked to stop was named Tribolet. The camp was becoming a dangerous place. Every day Geronimo would ask Maus where Crook was and every day he had to say he was on his way. Things were growing tense.
Then finally, on March 25th, General Crook rode into Embudo Canyon around noon. Before long, Crook chose the meeting place and eventually 24 hungover warriors, every one of them carrying a rifle and two cartridge belts as well as brand new clothes they’d recently liberated all sat down around Crook who’d placed himself on a rock. He scanned the angry crowd and would later remark that they looked as quote, fierce as so many tigers. End quote.
The meeting started with Geronimo going on an angry tirade and blaming every single person and thing under the sun except himself for why they left the reservation and slaughtered and killed and destroyed over the past year. He said at one point, quote, I think I am a good man, but in the papers all over the world they say I am a bad man, but it is a bad thing to say about me. I never do wrong without cause. End quote. Unbelievable.
Apparently, Crook just sat there and stared at the ground as if he was thinking of something else. In fact, it seems he never looked at Geronimo once. At one point Geronimo yelled at him, quote, why don’t you look at me and smile at me? End quote.
Crook already knew that what Geronimo was saying was probably a lie but he let him talk. Tom Horn would say in his book that Geronimo quote, was such a great talker that he could make wrong seem right. End quote.
Geronimo would go and say quote, there is one god looking down on us all. We are all children of the one god. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds, are all listening to what we now say. End quote. Finally, when Geronimo’s speech wore out, Crook said to the old medicine man, quote, your mouth talks too many ways. End quote.
Obviously, Geronimo did not enjoy this slight and said, quote, I want no more of this. End quote.
At first his warriors began to stir but Naiche calmed them down with the wave of his hand.
But then more commotion occurred when Chihuahua and Ulzana and six warriors drove a whole herd of stolen horses into camp. This was not necessarily a good thing sine the White Mountain Apache scouts had not forgotten that Ulzana had killed 21 of their own people. Ulzana also drove his horse right into camp knocking things over and disrupting men’s dinners. But then Chihuahua saw Crook and immediately humbled himself. He got off his horse, strolled over to the wolf and shook his hand. Chihuahua would later say quote, his heart had quieted down. End quote.
Eventually things calmed down again and then Crook stated his terms. He said, quote:
You must make up your own mind whether you wills tay out on the warpath or surrender unconditionally. If you stay out, ill keep after you and kill the last one, even if it takes fifty years. End quote. Reminds me of what Crook told the Chief of the Pit River Indians in Oregon. If you’ll recall, he said, 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.
After telling the Apaches that, he told them to think on it and then get back to him with their answer. He’d later write in his journal though, quote, the result of the interview indicated nothing. End quote.
But the following day, the 26th, Crook met with them again and convinced them that you will have to go east when you surrender but I’ll make sure it’s for only two years. Later that day, Chihuahua sent word that he wanted to surrender. For he missed his family. Also, he wanted his camp removed from Geronimo’s. Crook wrote to Sheridan in Washington and said, quote, today things look more favorable. End quote.
Then finally, on March 27th, at high noon, Geronimo, Chihuahua, Naiche, Nana and all the men came in to formally surrender. Chihuahua said to Crook with an extended hand, quote, it seems to me that I have seen the one who makes the rain and sends the winds, or he must have sent you to this place. I surrender myself to you, because I believe in you and you do not deceive us. You must be our god… you must be the one who makes the green pastures, who sends the rain, who commands the winds. You must be the one who sends the fresh fruits that appear on the trees every year. End quote.
Crook answered in Apache to Chihuahua and told him all is well, En juh. Naiche was next and he said the same. He literally said, quote, what chihuahua says I say. End quote. He said more but…
Geronimo was last and he uttered this famous quote.
Once I moved about like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all… my heart is yours, and I hope that yours will be mine. End quote. David Roberts titled his book over the Apache once they moved like the wind.
Geronimo then asked if Crook could send his wives and children to him to which Crook said they will meet us along the trail on the way home.
Of course, you’re probably looking at how much time is left in this episode and wondering why it’s not almost over. But that is because the end, while nigh, is not yet at hand. Nothing’s ever easy with the Apache.
That night of the 27th, the American brew masters delivered gallons of whiskey to the hostiles who had just surrendered. Tom Horn had warned that this was a bad idea but he was not yet taken seriously. Obviously, mayhem ensued, gun shots went through the mule packers tents. Naiche passed out drunk. They were all hungover and ornery the following day. Well actually, Geronimo and four of his men were still drunk the following morning at 645am when Bourke and Crook were leaving Embudo Canyon on the 28th. Bourke was disgusted as these Apaches were riding on mules drunk as lords, he said. Geronimo embraced Bourke and promised him that he would follow. But Bourke was beginning to have doubts. I talked a lot about the anthropological Bourke in the Apache series. Once Crook and Bourke left the canyon, Bourke turned to Crook and told him he should have the American brew master, Tribolet killed quote, as a foe to human society. If you don’t, it will be the biggest mistake of your life. End quote. How right he was.
Crook absolutely should have stayed in the camp and probably led the hostile prisoners back himself but… he told his men that he had duties at Fort Bowie. Although what those duties were are unknown. Unless it was to explain to Sheridan in Washington why he had deviated from Washington’s explicit orders that these Apaches would never see Arizona again. He certainly had some explaining to do. Most of the men left behind including Maus and Horn and others, disagreed with him leaving but what could they do? He was their superior officer and he was a very well respected man. At least by those who were close to him.
The rest of the camp did not pack up until after noon because most of the Apaches were drunk or hungover or both. Naiche would end up shooting his wife in the leg because he thought she was flirting with another man. So… things were off to a rocky start.
On the morning of the 29th, they continued to slowly leave the area and head for the united states. But before that could be successfully accomplished, Maus sent his Lt. south to destroy the American brewmaster’s still. Tribolet would no longer be a hindrance to this operation. Obviously, when the Apaches found out, they were not thrilled about this.
Chihuahua took up the lead with his people and they seemed to be ready and willing to surrender. But Geronimo and Naiche took up the back and at only two miles to the border, they decided they couldn’t go any further on account of being just too dang hungover. They needed to rest. One of the packers, a man named Daly, immediately grew suspicious of this. He told Maus, quote, The Chiricahuas had gone as far toward Fort Bowie as they intended on going. End quote. Still, Maus was not convinced.
Later that night, the Apaches somehow got drunk again. They fired shots over the American’s heads and two Apaches, one drunk, one sober, came over to Maus and Daly’s fire and began quote unquote gesticulating wildly while cursing at the White Eyes in Spanish and Apache. Daly told Maus that they were trying to get them to go to bed so they could make their escape. Maus was still in doubt. Eventually, everyone but Daly and Maus went to bed but while they were sitting by the fire, another shot whizzed over their head. Daly told Maus that in the coming morning, quote, there would not be a Chiricahua in camp. End quote. Then… the two… went to bed!
He was mostly right. While Chihuahua and his group had stayed and were sleeping, Geronimo, Naiche, eighteen warriors, and 22 women and children were gone by 230am.
Later Naiche would say they left because they didn’t like the way Crook spoke to them, also they were afraid of life in Florida (well yeah, who isn’t), and lastly that they were quote unquote drunk.
Sweeney sums up this whole disappointing episode well when he wrote, quote:
The combination of liquor, Crook's indifference, and fears for their lives under Chatto's rule was enough to persuade them to renege on their promises to Crook, whom they left standing on the sidelines at Fort Bowie, looking like a foreman of a hopelessly deadlocked jury. Their flight would prolong the war by five months and cause Crook, already upset because President Cleveland had overruled the terms that he had negotiated insisting on unconditional surrender), to request to be relieved from duty in Arizona. In the end, this change would have profound ramifications for the Chiricahua tribe. They had lost their one advocate, an influential man who would have continued to work on their behalf. End quote.
I try to be sympathetic in my episodes but this is so frustrating. They’ve caused so much death and destruction and they could have ended it all right here. Instead… another five months of war.
Chihuahua was quoted as saying, Geronimo will never come in now.
When Crook returned to Fort Bowie he received two devastating pieces of news. The first had been from Sheridan in Washington. It basically said, whatever deal you made is null and void. The entire tribe, both peaceful and hostile Chiricahuas, are being sent to Florida forever. The second piece of news was from Maus and it said that the entire deal was null and void because Geronimo and Naiche had fled.
On March 31st, Crook would send a message to Sheridan and the President in which he said quote, I respectfully request that I may now be relieved from this command. End quote. Sheridan and Washington accepted his dismissal.
Crook got word of his dismissal on April 2nd. The same day Crawford’s body arrived in camp. The same day Bourke told Crook that he’d been reassigned to Washington. And the same day that Chihuahuas group marched by single file towards Fort Apache. Heck of a sad day for Crook.
But Crook wasn’t done yet. On the 6th of April there was a minor dramatic display when Chihuahua handed over the kidnapped boy Santiago McKinn. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the boy only spoke Apache now, pitched a fit, acted like a quote unquote wild animal, and refused to leave the Apache’s side. Eventually though, he was given back to his grief stricken father. Later that same day Crook would meet with Chihuahua and he told he and his people, quote, I am going to leave you. End quote. He then told the Apaches to quit drinkin’ tiswin and start herding sheep. He then said you will all be leaving tomorrow.
The following day, these 75 Chiricahua Apaches were disarmed, for the first real time, they boarded a train, and they left for Florida. In the train was Chihuahua, Ulzana, Nana, and many other storied warriors that I did not have the time to go into detail about. Crook wrote in his journal that night, quote, it is a big relief to get rid of them. End quote.
By April 12th, Maus and his men which included Horn had given up hope of finding Geronimo and they had returned to Fort Bowie in time to see Crook embrace his men and leave for Prescott. His new replacement had just arrived and he was General Nelson Miles. Who, was no friend of General Crook and had for years been scheming to get rid of the grey fox with Sheridan and Washington. Miles had no plans to use Apache scouts. But he did not yet tell the scouts this information.
On April 20th, General Miles issued General Order Number 7 which basically said, we White Eyes are the army now. No more scouts. He increased troop levels, increased cavalry levels, began guarding passes and water holes, and he created a sort of special forces until which was to be led by Captain Lawton who was six foot 5 and 225 pounds. This is the same Captain Henry Lawton who got ambushed but survived earlier in the episode. He also set up signal towers and increased telegraph lines. He set up observation posts at the tops of mountains… he was serious about ending the threat.
Meanwhile, unsurprisingly, Geronimo and Naiche and the 40 odd hostile renegade Chiricahua Apaches went as west as they could in Mexico obviously raiding, killing, slaughtering, stealing, the entire time. A lot more people died at their homes or ranches or on the road as they were going about their day. Heads were smashed to jelly. Another pregnant woman was murdered. Children were kidnapped.
By late April the tenth cavalry of Buffalo Soldiers were in Mexico on his trail. They’d engage him but they couldn’t capture him. Mexican forces engaged him but couldn’t capture him. Papago warriors pursued them but fled. Naiche and Geronimo would cross back and forth into Mexico and Arizona, killing everywhere they went. 13 people in two weeks in Arizona. But the number was much… much higher than that. Later Naiche would explain it by saying, quote, we were afraid. It was war. Anybody who saw us would kill us, and we did the same thing. End quote. Oh really? A pregnant lady and the baby you took from her arms before smashing the baby into a wall? They’d kill you. The countless unarmed cowboys and ranch hands? The children?
By May, it seems they wanted to come in and surrender for real. The journey had been difficult. They wanted to talk to Crook again. Problem was, Crook was gone. But they didn’t know that. So they criss crossed Mexico and Arizona killing and killing and just a lot of killing and all the while their goal was Fort Apache.
General Miles knew this by now and so he asked if there were any Apache scouts, that would go to the old medicine man and talk to him. He did not get a single taker. So next he offered a $2000 dollar bounty on Geronimo’s head. Well, actually, dead or alive, but still no takers. At least among the apaches.
Despite all of this… on May 25th Naiche still snuck into the San Carlos reservation and saw his family, talked a while, found out that Crook was gone, and then he left.
Naiche and his men almost fell into a trap shortly after that while they were heading back down to Mexico. But they realized it was a trap at the last second and fled. On their way… I lost count a long time ago, but they killed like 5 or 6 more Americans.
At one point Miles even hired ole Tom Jeffords! The best white friend of Cochise. The only white friend of Cochise. But Miles hired him to talk to Naiche. But it was too late, he was already in Mexico. If you’re interested in hearing about Tom Jeffords, I did a subscriber only episode on him.
On June 7th the special forces that Miles had created and which was led by Lawton, crossed into Mexico in hot pursuit of Geronimo. Tom Horn may have signed up for this and began in its initial phase but was ultimately recalled to Fort Apache where he stayed for some time. He’ll be back soon though.
This march through Mexico was going to be brutal to the extreme. By the end, Lawton and his men will have travelled over 3,000 miles. One of Lawton’s officers would write of the place, quote,
one who does not know this country cannot realize what this kind of service means- marching every day in the intense heat, the rocks and earth being so torrid that the feet are blistered and rifle barrels and everything metallic being so hot that the hand cannot touch them without getting burnt. It is a country rough beyond description, covered everywhere with cactus and full of rattlesnakes and other undesirable companions of that sort. The rain, when it does come, comes as a tropical tempest, transforming the dray canyons into raging torrents in an instant. End quote.
Eventually, Lawton would meet up with a Mexican force led by Patricio Valenzuela on June 18th. The prior day, after much pursuit, Valenzuela had surprised Geronimo and attacked the camp which led to Geronimo’s wife being shot and killed. But not before she emptied a pistol at the Mexican pursuers. Valenzuela cautioned his men on following Geronimo through the box canyon that he’d escaped in but three men did not heed his advice and all three were shot in the head by Geronimo… which is a testament to his sharp shooting skills.
Of course, when Lawton surprised Valenzuela, the Mexicans almost opened fire on the Americans but Valenzuela calmed his men. Valenzuela and Lawton then teamed up and retreated down the mountains where they waited for fresh American troops and scouts.
On the other side of the mountains, Naiche and his band of 20 or so were continuing to ravage and plunder and kill in the countryside. At this time the renegades had split into three parties and all three were spreading death and destruction. But Lawton knew, and Valenzuela agreed, that the three would eventually meed up again in the Sierra Madre Mountains. They just needed to guess where. Lawton was undaunted. He wrote his wife, quote, somebody must do something and I am going to try and do it. End quote.
By now it was late June and the bugs were horrendous and the heat soared to 120 degrees during the day. The new scouts they used were ineffective and the infantry lent to Lawton were mutinous and unreliable. Oh, and they had no officer since he had been arrested during the journey south. And then the waiting was killing Lawton as well. But the Mexicans is what drove him crazy. He said Sonora was quote, a godforsaken country with godforsaken people living in it. End quote. He even said, quote, the Indians are better than the Mexicans. End quote.
Luckily for Lawton, on July 2nd, 1886, Assistant Surgeon Leonard Wood arrived to camp and lifted Lawton’s spirits. Accompanying Wood, was none other than Tom Horn! But… only briefly. For he had been leading horses and mules down for Lawton except on their way there, Horn didn’t place any sentinels and while everyone was asleep the renegades, in the dead of night… stole all the horses. Lawton, once they arrived was thoroughly unimpressed and he sent Tom Horn back north. Horn essentially ignores this in his autobiography. Horn would mill about in Arizona until he settled at the San Bernardino Ranch in southern Arizona on the border with Mexico. He’ll be back in the field shortly.
Lawton who really liked Wood, would put him in charge of the leaderless infantry.
Lawton then got word that the Apaches were killing and on the move. So he and Wood and a commander named Brown left Valenzuela. For the next week or so his whole unit followed the trail which turned out to be two trails which made him realize the renegades were about to meet up. But the trail was tough to follow in the monsoon season rains of early July. Also his apache scouts were near useless in the terrain when there was no trail to follow. And when they were following it, it was miserable. Lawton said the terrain was quote, the worst mountains imaginable with the roughest kinds of canyons. End quote. He also said that it was so hot that the men were forced to march in their quote drawers and undershirts. End quote. On July 11th, he wrote in his journal, quote, everything seems to be going wrong. End quote. But he was still determined to be the one to do something. He also wrote on that day’s entry, despite the hardships, quote, I have one good quality, I do not get discouraged and will never give up. End quote. Sounds like Geronimo.
Then finally, on July 13th, Lawton got some good news from two Mexican Yaqui Indian scouts who had been leant to him. They found the camp of the renegades about 8 miles south. Lawton immediately took pursuit.
I’ll let Sweeney describe the disappointment that happened next, quote:
Hoping to gain positions "well above their camp," the twenty-seven-year-old Brown, who would lead a brigade against the Germans in World War I, had already launched a flanking movement to the left. He planned to assault the village and drive the Indians toward Lawton's infantry. Lawton's force had just begun to approach the ranchería when he heard gun-fire. His men rushed to the village and found it occupied by Brown's scouts, who had fired at ghosts. The Chiricahuas had escaped through the canebrake upriver. Lawton was "so disappointed as to be sick, for here was the chance we had been looking for so long, and it slipped from me without being able to do anything to prevent it. End all quotes.
Want to know something, dear listener? I am as tired of the hostiles constant escapes as you are hearing about them. I am as tired as Lawton and his men. And they were tired. They spent the next few weeks in this camp where they’d captured all of the loot from Naiche and Geronimo, who had by now teamed up. They really needed the rest too. For it turns out, Wood had been bitten by a tarantula and was suffering severely from the wound that wouldn’t heal! And here I thought they were harmless… Lawton himself would almost die from an illness during these weeks of rest in the rough and rugged Sierra madre mountains. Which should be called the smothering mother mountains.
By early August a few more men from New Mexico and Arizona, including two Apache Scouts, which was a reversal of General Miles’ previous plan for the war, but a few more men had joined Lawton’s team which included some scouts who were led by, none other than Tom Horn. He was back in action. He had another Chief of Scouts with him named Daly. His two Chiricahua Apache scouts were named Kayitah and Martine. They were all led by a man named Lt. Charles Gatewood. I talked about Gatewood in one of my first episodes over the Buffalo Soldiers. He had participated in the hunt for Victorio. Lawton and his forces though, were still bogged down in the Sierra Madres for some time.
At one point, Horn would take some scouts and trek 75 miles through the mountains and across two difficult rivers in search of the renegades. Their search proved fruitless.
On August 11th, Horn was out scouting when he and his comrades were shot at. The bullets hit so close that they were sprayed with dirt. Horn was later told it was the Renegades rear guard. They were right on their trail but they rarely knew it. Horn wrote quote, it was a great race, and I knew the renegades could not stand it much longer. End quote. He was right.
While Horn and Lawton were searching for the Chiricahuas, Geronimo and Naiche were in Sonora slaughtering mules, raiding towns, and killing Mexicans and Americans. But in one battle on August 11th, the same day Horn got shot at, six American miners got into a pitched firefight with the Apaches which saw both Naiche and Geronimo get wounded. Naiche would later say that the American that shot he and his rifle had been quote unquote very brave.
On August 15th, Geronimo told some Mexicans that he wanted to surrender. The Mexicans told the mayor who then told the governor of Sonora, the aforementioned Torres. But obviously, Geronimo had no plans to surrender to the Mexicans, although they were, by now, ready to surrender to the Americans. Horn had been right, they were exhausted. They missed their family. They were tired of running. So while the Apaches formulated a plan for surrender, they sent two women and two warriors into the town Fronteras, which I have talked about before. It used to be a presidio. I believe it was built a couple hundred years before this for the sole purpose of… fighting the Apaches. Geronimo sent two women into the old town to buy some mezcal. The ole medicine man was starting to dry up.
Meanwhile, Torres, the governor told his negotiator to tell Geronimo that they can come in but they’ll be relocated to a nice place where they’ll be watched over. He meant a prison in Mexico City. If Geronimo refused, Torres told his man to wipe out the entire band.
Over in the Sierra Madres, on August 19th, Gatewood heard about the two women at Fronteras who had bought the Mezcal. It was 2am but he was itchin’ to end the war. He took six soldiers, the two Apache scouts, and Tom Horn and they rode hard for Fronteras. By August 24th Gatewood and his men were about 4 miles from Geronimo’s camp in the Teras Mountains. Which I have not named up until this point but quite a few shootouts have already occurred here. It was Geronimo’s favorite hiding spot and it his camp was quoted as being on the steepest slope of the steepest mountain in Mexico.
In Horn’s autobiography, he claims this entire scenario I’m about to explain was all because of him. It’s preposterous. So, I will just be ignoring his telling of the end of the Apache wars. But know that he was there for all subsequent meetings as an interpreter of Spanish to English and visa versa.
The two Chiricahua scouts, Martine and Kayitah, and NOT Tom Horn, were carrying a white flag, and eventually they reached Geronimo and his party. The scouts would later claim they were never in any danger but some of Geronimo’s people later said Geronimo wanted to kill them both but he was voted down by an exhausted Naiche. Once in camp, the Scouts told Geronimo and Naiche, quote, you have no friends whatever in this world. End quote. And they went on to talk about the Americans. Quote, their aim is to kill every one of you if it takes fifty years. End quote. Geronimo and Naiche heard the scouts words and told one of them, Martine, to go back to Gatewood and tell him we’re ready to talk.
A few days later, on August 25th, Gatewood and Geronimo met in person. Gatewood told them to surrender or quote, fight it out to the end. End quote. But an important part of that message was that when you surrender, you will be sent to Florida. Geronimo said but we’ve always been allowed to go back to the res after hostilities. Yeah… but look where that has led. Then Gatewood gave em the gut punch when he said all of your Chiricahua people, have already been moved to Florida. There is no more reservation in Arizona for your people. By the way, this was news to the two Chiricahua scouts with Gatewood but their reaction is not recorded. In reality, the Chiricahuas had actually not yet left for Florida but Miles was working on it at this very moment and it eventually would be accomplished.
Geronimo, then angrily said quote, take us to the reservation or fight. End quote. But Naiche calmed Geronimo and eased Gatewood’s fears by promising Gatewood that we would in fact not be fighting.
After a tiring back and forth Gatewood wanted to go back to camp but before he did Geronimo asked him this. Quote, we want your advice. Consider yourself one of us and not a white man. Remember all that has been said today, and as an apache, what would you advise us to do? End quote.
Gatewood responded with, quote, I would trust General Miles and take him at his word. End quote.
On the 26th, Geronimo and Naiche came to Gatewood’s camp… and surrendered. This time, they would not flee in the dead of night.
They began their trek north which was fraught with drunkenness, a Mexican army that threatened to kill the Apaches despite the American’s presence, and some intrigue. Miles told his man that if Geronimo refuses to surrender, then each white man should kill the Apache nearest him. This man then rode down to the camp and told every white men this in secret. Some were on board and wanted to do it right then. But obviously, it did not happen. Horn was absolutely told this but he never mentioned later in life since General Miles became a good friend and it was an order told in secret. If it had come down to it, I believe Horn would have pulled the trigger. And it probably woulda been aimed at Geronimo. Or Naiche.
Miles eventually went south and on the 3rd of September, he met with Geronimo and the hostiles. The interpreter turned to Geronimo and told him this is General Miles and he is a friend to which Geronimo responded, quote, I have been in need of friends. Why has he not been with me? End quote.
Geronimo would go on to tell Miles, quote, this is the fourth time I have surrendered. End quote. To which General Miles responded with quote, and I think it is the last time. End quote.
Naiche, the grandson of Mangas Coloradas would surrender the following day.
Mangas’ band would surrender on October 18th, 1886.
The Chiricahua Apaches would spend the next 27 miserable years as prisoners of war throughout the nation. But their first stop was Florida. To a fort built by the Spanish in 1695. Which was around the same time the Apache were terrorizing the Puebloans after the Spanish had been kicked out of the Southwest.
And with Mangas’ surrender, the Apache wars, a war which had begun with the kidnapping of Mickey Free and the cutting of the tent in 1861 had ended.
But really, the war had begun long before that. It truly started the moment the Apache had arrived in the American Southwest anywhere between 1200 to 1350. They arrived from the freezing north after losing a battle with their cousins. So the war started even before their arrival. Many of the Athabaskans that would later become Apache travelled down the front range, while others traveled on the western side of the Rockies. Eventually they would run into the various peoples who already inhabited the area. Wether or not they fought against the Anasazi is unknown but there’s a good chance the Navajo branch, who’d come down the western side of the Rockies from Canada and Alaska, they intermarried with the Puebloans prior to the Anasazi Civil War. Behind the Navajo were more Apaches who ran out the Mogollon and fought against the O’odham. The Apaches on the Great Plains fought with the Puebloans who had migrated from the Four Corners. They may have caused the settlements in the area to come together instead of being so spaced out. The Apaches fought against the remnants of the Anasazi in Mexico. A people known as the Raramuri or Tarahumara. The Apaches fought against the Jumanos, who were once one of the largest tribes in terms of land in the southwest and great plains. They stretched from Kansas and Colorado to northern Mexico to eastern Texas and Western Arizona. The last time the Spanish mention the great jumanos they termed them Jumanos Apache because if you can’t beat em, join em. The Apaches would eventually hold the entire area the Jumanos Empire once held. The Apaches fought against the Puebloans from their various mountain strongholds that fill the Southwest. And once the Spanish arrived, the Apaches fought them for hundreds of years. When the Comanche arrived, they fought the Comanche. They fought their cousins the Navajo. The fought against the Ute tribe. They raided the Hopis. They raided the Zunis who gave the Apache their name, which means enemy. And for centuries the Zuni used Apache scalps in their ceremonies. When Mexico gained her independence, the Apache fought the Mexicans. And once the Americans arrived be it prospectors, beaver trappers, ranchers, Confederates or Unionists, they fought the Americans. But as Crook famously said, you can’t stop what’s coming. And we will never stop coming.
For a thousand years the Apache fought everyone but in 1886, their war was finally over. And it came at an enormous cost.
In 1894 Geronimo and his people were transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. It would be the closest he’d get to his homeland. But at least the Wichita Mountains are there. The people of Oklahoma though, were not thrilled with his arrival. A local newspaper would write of him, quote, here we go to see the king of murderers and prince of fiery destruction now made glorious by the sentimental adulation of insane freaks and misguided philanthropists. The old devil Geronimo should have been hung fifteen years ago. End quote.
In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt would have Geronimo in his inaugural parade in DC. During which time, Geronimo asked him, quote, I pray you to cut the ropes and make me free. Let me die in my own country, an old man who has been punished enough and is free. End quote. Roosevelt said, No.
On February 17th, 1909 Geronimo would die from pneumonia which he contracted after he fell from his horse in a drunken daze where he laid half submerged in a half frozen creek overnight.
In 1913, Washington allowed the remaining Apaches to return home to the Southwest if they wished. Many stayed in Oklahoma.
This was a difficult series to get through. One can only read about endless slaughter and murder so much before it gets to you. I tried to empathize with all sides but sometimes it was tough. Tough to empathize with the Mexicans because of how they acted. Tough to empathize with the Americans. But most of all, it was tough to empathize with the Apache. But I hope I did them justice.