Читать книгу General Crook and the Fighting Apaches - Edwin L. Sabin - Страница 8

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A large collection of Indian tribes inhabiting the Southwest. They first are mentioned in 1598 by the early Spanish explorers in New Mexico.

The name “Apache” is derived from the Zuni word “Apachu,” meaning “enemy.” Their own name was “Tinde (Tinneh)” and “Dine (Dinde),” meaning “men” or “the people.”

They always were bitter enemies to the Spanish and Mexicans, who offered high rewards in money for Apache scalps, and enslaved captives. They were not openly hostile to the Americans until, in 1857, a Mexican teamster employed by the United States party surveying the Mexican boundary line shot an Apache warrior without just cause. The survey commissioner offered thirty dollars in payment, which was refused, and the Apaches declared war.

In 1861 Cochise, chief of the Chiricahuas, who had been friendly, was confined, on a false charge, by Lieutenant Bascom of the army, at the army camp at Apache Pass, Arizona. He cut his way to freedom. His brother and five others were hanged by the Americans. Cochise hanged a white man, in return, declared war, and almost captured the stage station where the troops were fortified.

Beginning with the Civil War, the Apaches ravaged all southern Arizona and the stage line in New Mexico also. Terrible tortures were committed upon settlers and travelers.

In 1863 Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves), an old Mimbreño chief related by marriage to Cochise, was treacherously imprisoned and killed by soldiers, at Fort McLane, New Mexico.

Thenceforth the Apaches and whites in Arizona had little common ground except that of “no quarter.” There was constant fighting.

In March, 1871, a number of Arivaipa Apaches gathered peacefully under the protection of Camp Grant are killed, captured or put to flight by a vengeful party of Americans, Mexicans and Papago Indians from Tucson.

In the fall of 1871 the Government peace commission tries to adjust the differences between the white people and the red. The Apaches are offered reservations and guaranteed kind treatment. They have little faith in the words.

The Apaches, with the exception of the White Mountain in Arizona and the Warm Spring in New Mexico, and some smaller bands, decline to gather upon reservations. In 1872 General O. O. Howard arrives as special peace commissioner, and by his talks and actions wins the trust of the Indians. The reservation idea seems a success. Cochise and his Chiricahuas agree to remain in their own country of the Dragoon Mountains, southern Arizona.

In the winter of 1872–73 General George Crook proceeds against the outlaw Apaches of Arizona, especially the Tontos and the Apache-Mohaves or Yavapais. His cavalry, infantry, pack-trains and enlisted Indian scouts trail them down and subdue them.

General Crook’s plans to make the Indians self-supporting on their reservations appear to have brought peace to Arizona.

In 1874 the control of the reservations passes from the War Department to the Indian Bureau. Reservations given to the Indians “forever,” by the President, are reduced or abolished, and various tribes are removed against their protests. Agents prove dishonest, the Indians are not encouraged to work, and are robbed of their rations.

The Chiricahuas are generally peaceful, although Mexico complains that stock is being stolen and run across the border into the reservation. Chief Cochise, who has kept his word with General Howard, dies in 1874. Taza his son succeeds him, as leader of the Chiricahua peace party, until his death in 1876.

In April, 1876, whiskey is sold to some Chiricahuas, at a stage station on the reservation. A fight ensues, and killings occur. The great majority of the Chiricahuas refuse to join in any outbreak.

In June, 1876, it is recommended by the governor of Arizona that all the Chiricahuas be removed to the San Carlos reservation. They do not wish to go, but the majority follow Taza there. Chiefs Juh, Geronimo, and others escape.

The policy of the Indian Bureau contemplates putting all the Apaches together upon the San Carlos reservation. The White Mountain Apaches, who have voluntarily lived upon the White Mountain reservation, their home land, adjacent, and have supplied the government with scouts, decline to go to the low country. When forced, they drift back again, and finally are allowed to stay.

In 1877 the Warm Spring Apaches and the Geronimo Chiricahuas who had taken refuge there are ordered from the Warm Spring reservation in New Mexico to San Carlos. Some escape; the remainder escape a little later. Thereafter, Chief Victorio and his Warm Springs are constantly on the war-path, out of Mexico.

In January, 1880, Chiefs Juh and Geronimo of the Chiricahuas agree to stay upon the San Carlos reservation. In August Victorio is killed by Mexican troops.

In September, 1881, Juh and Nah-che (a son of Cochise and a lieutenant of Geronimo), break from the reservation, for Mexico.

In April, 1882, Geronimo and Loco of the Chiricahuas follow.

General Crook is now recalled to the command in Arizona. He talks with the Apaches on the reservations, finds a marked state of mistrust and misunderstanding, and places his troops to guard the border against the outlaws.

In March, 1883, Chato, or Flat-nose, a young captain of Geronimo’s band, with twenty-six men breaks through, raids up into New Mexico and Arizona, and murders settlers. With forty cavalry, about two hundred Apache scouts, and pack-trains, Crook overhauls the Chiricahuas in the wild Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico two hundred miles south of the boundary, and persuades the whole band to return peaceably to the reservation.

The Chiricahuas are placed under the control of General Crook, and he locates them upon good land on the White Mountain reservation. Both reservations are policed by the army. The Apaches seem to be content, under the Crook plan that they shall work for an independent living. In 1884 they raise over four thousand tons of produce. There have been no outbreaks.

In February, 1885, disagreements arise between the War Department and the Interior Department, of which the Indian Bureau is a function. General Crook’s powers are interfered with by civil interests at Washington and in Arizona, liquor is being permitted upon the reservations and the Indians grow uneasy.

In May, 1885, after a controversy with the agent over the right to dig an irrigating ditch, and having obtained a supply of liquor, one hundred and twenty-four men, women and children under Geronimo and Nah-che, his lieutenant, escape again into Mexico. During their raids they kill seventy-three whites and a number of Apache scouts.

General Crook secures an international agreement that United States troops may operate in Mexico, and Mexican troops in the United States, and sends a column on the trail of Geronimo.

In March, 1886, Geronimo signifies that he desires to talk. The general meets him, Chihuahua and other chiefs, and they accept the terms of two years’ imprisonment, with the privilege of the company of their families.

On the march north a vicious white man by the name of Tribollet supplies whiskey to the Chiricahuas, at ten dollars (silver) a gallon, alarms them with lies by himself and his unscrupulous associates. Geronimo and Nah-che, with twenty men, thirteen women and two children, disappear. Chihuahua and eighty others remain.

The general’s action in making terms with the Chiricahuas, and in not so guarding them that they would be forced to remain, is indirectly censured by General Sheridan, commanding the army. Crook explains that no other methods on his part would have met with any success, under the circumstances, and asks to be relieved from the command of the department.

In April, 1886, General Nelson A. Miles takes the command in Arizona. He increases the number of heliostat signal stations, discharges the reservation-Apache scouts (whom he suspects of treachery), employs a few trailers from other tribes, and by a very energetic campaign which permits Geronimo no rest, in September induces his surrender upon only the conditions that his life shall be spared and that he shall be removed from Arizona.

Without delay the Geronimo and Nah-che remnant of hostiles, and all the Chiricahua and Warm Spring Apaches, four hundred in number, at the Fort Apache (White Mountain) reservation, are removed, whether friendly or not, to Florida. This is deemed the only practicable measure of freeing the Southwest from the menace of Apache outbreaks. The expenses of the Department of Arizona are lessened by $1,000,000 a year.

The climate of Florida is unfavorable to the Apaches. Geronimo complains that he and Nah-che had understood that their families were to accompany them. Many of the Apaches die from disease and homesickness.

In May, 1888, the Apaches are removed from Florida to Mt. Vernon barracks, Alabama; and in October, 1894, as prisoners of war to Fort Sill Military Reservation, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

The principal reservations of the Arizona Apaches are the Fort Apache and the San Carlos, each containing between two and three thousand Indians. There are still over two hundred of the Chiricahuas and Warm Springs at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Geronimo died February 17, 1909, at Fort Sill. Nah-che succeeded him as chief.