Cochise

The Chiracahua Apache Indians had disputes with Mexican troops, during which Cochise’s father was killed and Cochise himself was even taken captive by the Mexicans for a brief period. However, the tribe enjoyed fairly civil relations with white settlers for quite some time, even after Cochise became Chief in 1856. Cochise and other members of the tribe were even employed by the Apache Pass stagecoach station, mostly as woodcutters. But this peaceful coexistence all came to an end in 1861.

John Ward, a rancher in the Apache Pass area, fell victim to an Apache raid in 1861. During this raid, some of Ward’s cattle were driven away, and his 11 year old stepson was kidnapped. Believing Cochise to be among those responsible for the raid, Lieutenant George Bascom confronted Cochise about it. Cochise truthfully said that his people were not responsible, but that he knew the Coyotero Apaches were. Cochise even offered to act as a go-between in negotiations for the return of the child and cattle. Bascom did not believe Cochise and arrested him, along with several other chiefs. Cochise escaped, but the other prisoners, which included relatives of Cochise, were hanged. This incident, commonly known as the “Bascom Affair”, led to more than a decade of bloodshed and war between the whites and Apaches in New Mexico. Cochise and his warriors were so successful in their campaign due mainly to the fact that they had entrenched themselves firmly in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona.

Cochise finally surrended in 1871. At that time, the Chiracahua Apaches were being moved to the newly-established Tularosa Reservation. Cochise did not want to live on the reservation, so he escaped for a brief time in 1872 before surrending again. After his second surrender, Cochise lived on the Chiricahua Reservation that was established in New Mexico in the summer of 1872. It was there that Cochise passed away on June 8, 1874, at the age of approximately 62 years. After Cochise’s death, Natchez, one of his 2 sons, became chief.

There are no pictures available of Cochise. The location of his grave is even a secret, as he did not want the white man to know where he rested. But he left his legacy in his actions and words instead. One of his most powerful quotes is “Nobody wants peace more than I do. Why shut me up on a reservation? We will make peace; we will keep it faithfully. But let us go around free as Americans do. Let us go wherever we please.”

The Chiricahua Apache Indians had few problems with white settlers at first. Many of them even worked for the settlers and helped them settle in to their new homeland. The Mexicans were the main enemies of the Chiricahua Apaches until the gold rush began. Peace treaties were being broken by white settlers encroaching onto Apache land in search of gold, which Mangas Coloradas referred to as “yellow iron”. In 1851, Mangas Coloradas himself was severely beaten by a group of white miners. The beating, as well as the continuous violations of the peace treaties by white settlers, began a series of Apache attacks in retaliation.

A decade later, in 1861, the so-called “Bascom Affair” occurred. The Bascom Affair involved several Chiricahua Apache Indians, including Mangas Coloradas’s nephew Cochise, being falsely accused of a raid on a white rancher’s property. During the raid, which was actually carried out by the the Coyotero Apaches, several of the rancher’s cattle were driven off and his 12 year old stepson was kidnapped. Despite his claims of innocence, Cochise and several other chiefs were taken into custody. Cochise escaped, but the others were killed.

Following the Bascom Affair, Mangas Coloradas joined forces with Cochise. Together they led raids on their white enemies across New Mexico and Arizona from their stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona. In 1862, tired of fighting and wishing peace would return to his land, Mangas Coloradas told his people he wanted to meet with the white men to discuss a truce.

On January 17, 1863, in response to a white flag raised by the white forces, Mangas Coloradas took several warriors and went to meet the white forces to discuss a truce. Once they arrived, Mangas Coloradas was taken into custody at gunpoint, and the other warriors were released to spread the news that their leader had been captured.

Mangas Coloradas was taken to Fort McLane, where he was held prisoner until being killed by his guard, most likely in January 1863, and possibly even the day after his capture. It is said that he was killed while trying to escape, but other accounts dispute this, and say that he was also tortured prior to his death.

The fighting did not end with Mangas Coloradas’s death, as his nephew Cochise, then a chief, continued to lead their forces against white troops for another 9 years before surrendering and living with his people on a reservation. No pictures exist of Mangas Coloradas, but his desire for peace and his sense of betrayal show in the words he left: “You came into our country. You were well received. Your lives, your property, your animals were safe. We believed your assurances of friendship, and we trusted them.”

One of the more documented as well as important ceremonies of the Apache was the Na’ii’ees or the “Sun Rise Dance”.   This is a dance that told the tale of the Apache creation myth.   It explains  how a “Changing Woman” had sex with t he sun and gave birth to the “Slayer of Evil Monsters“.   Then she had sex with water and gave birth to changing water.   These two men went out to rid the earth of all evils.  This symbolism can be interpreted and obviously seen.  This was a puberty dance of young women coming of age and showing then how sacred they were, their gifts were, and what could come of their sexual unions.

There was also a dance called the “Brush Dance“. This dance represented the changing of the seasons.  It started with an elaborate painting and dance of the sun.   It was a celebration of the sun, and the a celebration of the sun’s waning power.  The dancers would brush the sun away, symbolizing the way that the seasons slowly brush away the power of the sun and signifying the time of harvest.  The time we call Autumn.

The “Tian Paye” or The gourd dance was a harvest dance.   But not a harvest dance as we would see it, rejoicing for the harvest.  But a dance that celebrated the harvest that the Buffalo would now eat and the great herds would again return.  This was a dance with a giant gourd, many pieces and directional clues; but also a representation and an asking the gods for the harvest to come.   This is not to say they had no crops, for this dance was also to have a good crop season as well.   However, the crops they had were not as important as the crops for their main source of eating.

The “Cigarillo Medicine Dance” and “Healing Dance“  was one of the more sacred rituals.   It told the story of the healing of the world by the great twins, as well as a celebration of all of the elements and nature.  It was a thanking of all of the gods and could only be performed with a person who was skilled in the healing arts.  To date, there are no people alive that can practice these magical and mystical arts.  This ritual went on for many hours, and could heal and mend all ills.

The most important weapon the Apache had was the Bow and Arrow. They made these bows from Mulberry, Oak, or maple. These bows were normally 3 to 4 feet long, with the power to kill a Buffalo in one shot. They understood the technology of the Bow to such an extent, that their Bows took over 10 days to create. They would cut it, form it, die it, dry it, and let it bake and “cure” for 8 to 10 days. The strings were often Buffalo skins or internal structures such as the gut.

The Apache arrow was about 2 feet long and made out of the hard woods Oak or Mulberry or Buffalo bone. It was fortified with an arrow head of strong flint was secured by both a notch and a rope of buffalo hide. They would use the feathers of the eagle or the hawk for the Arrow “flights”. Because of the power of the bow, strength of the arrow shaft, and the strength of the arrowhead; these arrows could pierce most anything.

The Apache shields could be used to attack just as well as defend. These approximately four foot shields could take the full force of an arrow, and there were many stories of Apache’s deflecting bullets with these beautiful decorated items. The shields were made from the thickest and strongest part of the buffalo, the neck, and could deflect an arrow with no thought of the beast itself. The hide and muscles was kept intact. They were stretched and dried to make them as solid as possible. They were then painted with sacred personal symbols and mystical objects that were specific to the warrior and his beliefs.

In addition to these traditional weapons, the Apache also used knives they would create from flint and buffalo bone. But not only that, they would also find and pilfer knives from the Europeans that would trade and travel through their territory. The Apache also were some of the few tribes that immediately saw the benefit of the Europeans guns, and took as many of these as they could. Because the weapon was so new to them, they preferred their more accurate and more deadly bow and arrow. However, the gun was a normal piece in the Apache repertoire of weapons as the years continued.

Chief Victorio chief of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apaches was known as one of the fiercest of the Apache fighters in the late 1800s. Known as Bidu-ya or Beduiat by the Apache, and Lone Wolf by many of the soldiers who fought against him, Victorio was born in 1825 in the Black Range of New Mexico.  There were rumors that he was part Mexican, but no written or oral record exists to support them.

As a young man in the 1850s, he rode with Nana and Geronimo on raids into northern Mexico. He joined Mangas Colorado, and in 1863, after Mangas was betrayed and executed by the white authorities, became leader of the eastern Chiricahua and Mescaleros.

San Carlos Indian Reservation

When the government ordered Apaches to move to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona in 1877 to make room for expanding white settlements, Victoria at first complied. Continued broken government promises and refusal to allow his people access to their ancestral lands caused Victorio to take some 300 warriors and bolt the reservation in April 1877 and flee to Mexico. From his ‘refuge’ in Mexico’s Chihuahua State, Victoria conducted deadly raids into the United States, killing many white settlers as well as US cavalry soldiers stationed in the area to protect the settlers.

Victorio’s War

Many of his battles were with the black soldiers of the US 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments, stationed along the border in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to control raiding Apache and Comanche bands, and protect the white settlements in the region. They were also skirmishes with groups of Texas Rangers in the border region. In his anger against the whites, Victorio and his warriors often mutilated the soldiers they killed in battle, In one incident, the bodies of 9th Cavalry troopers were staked out and scalped.

While the mutilations were gruesome, the treatment of the native tribes was strong provocation. Local whites often killed Apaches to collect and sell their scalps to Mexican traders. The scalp of a child, for instance, sold for $15. In addition, the Indians were prohibited from carrying weapons on the reservation and were not allowed to hunt in their traditional manner, because whites objected to having armed Indians around.

Conditions on the San Carlos Reservation were bleak. Food was scarce, and disease was common. Having been deported from their traditional lands, the Apache were basically penned up like animals in a zoo, without the level of treatment and kindness normally shown zoo animals. This treatment, along with the repeated repudiation of treaties by the government sent many Apaches, including Cochise and Victorio, on the path of war.

Victorio and his warriors met their fate in the mountainous haven in Chihuahua, when Colonel Joaquin Terrazas, leader of Chihuahua’s militia and his men surrounded and slaughtered them. Only the women and children survived the attack, and were captured and held prisoner in Chihuahua City for several years; some of them were subsequently exiled to Florida along with Geronimo.

Tribes in the desert area built shelters called hogans. The frames of the hogans were built from logs and sticks, using saplings to weave the roof to the rest of the Hogan. They were covered with dried earthen bricks made of mud and sticks. The mud kept the Hogan cool in the warm desert weather. Male and female dwellings were classified by the shape; a male dwelling was cone shaped and a female dwelling was six or eight sided. The door of an apache always faced the east. Hogans were permanent homes and were meant to last a while.

Another shelter the Apache built in the desert heat were called Kowas. They had a dome-shaped frame made of cottonwood or other poles; they also used small saplings to mend them to the tops of the poles. The saplings gave it the dome shape. Next they used native grasses to thatch the frame and tied them together with strings made of yucca leaves. Sometimes these Kowas were built into the side of a hill or a mound of dirt. These were meant to be permanent homes much like the hogans.

The highland tribes built the wickiup or wigwam, which was the most common Apache teepee. The women were in charge of building the shelter. The frame was made of thick branches and put into a circle and then pulled together with a yucca plant. Then they were thatched with native grasses. Wickiups were very small and were mainly used for sleeping. They were one room shelters and were typically abandoned when the tribe moved on. The Apache abandoned them due to the fact that they were made of plants and trees and materials were particularly easy to find in most of the places they traveled.

The Apache in the plains used the most common Native American teepee we hear of today, a buffalo hide teepee. These teepees were built using tall poles and logs to make a cone shape and they would leave a hole in the top so the smoke from the fire had some place to escape. Then the frame was wrapped in buffalo hide. When it came time to move on the women would then take the teepee down and pack the poles and the buffalo hide and take them to the next campsite.

Though some of the shelters the Apache used were semi-permanent due to the fact that most of the Apache tribes were nomadic, some of the shelters they built were permanent. The type of teepee they built depended on their location and what kind of weather there was.

Apache Indians have a long history.  In this time and day the Apaches live in some urban areas such as New York City, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Phoenix, Denver, San Diego and Los Angeles.  Several thousand Apachean tribes live in the Southern California agricultural regions, and the Colorado River valleys.  There are also many still living on reservations in Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.

The language spoken by the Apachean peoples is related to the Athabaskan speakers of Alaska and Western Canada. The term Apache excludes the related Navajo people. When combining the Apache and Navajo people, they are called Apachean. These native americans tribes speak seven different languages so there was little unity between them.

Conflict with Spaniards

Apachean tribes were very powerful, always battling with the Spaniards and Mexicans for many centuries. Even the U.S. Army said they were fierce and clever strategists.

Apaches of today include the Jicarilla and Mescalero of New Mexico, the Western of Arizona, the Lipan of Texas, the Plains of Oklahoma and the Chiricahua of the New Mexico-Arizona border. The Western Apaches are the only ones living within Arizona.

During the Mexican American War, Apache bands had promised our US soldiers passage through their lands. When the former territories of Mexico were claimed by the US in 1846, Mangas Coloradas, (principal chief and war leader to lead raids against Mexico), signed a peace treaty considering the US as conquerers of Mexico’s land.  This peace treaty held fast until the gold rush times of the 1850’s which led to more conflict between the Apache and Americans.

Apache’s Defeat

The final defeat of the Apaches, according to American historians, occurred when troops forced Geronimo’s band of only 30 – 50 men, women and children to surrender in 1886. After the war, white Americans in special programs had taken Apache children home for adoption.

Native American Indian Dances

One of the Apache’s ceremonial dances is called The Sunrise Dance. It is to celebrate the Apache woman’s entrance into puberty. On the day before the ceremony, A sweat bath is taken by the girl and is atended by male relatives. Then the medicine man is assisted to make ritual paraphernalia. Later in the evening of this same day, the girl dances in her special costume.

One the morning of the ceremony, two or three of the girl’s male relatives make some preparations that are required for the ceremoney. Then the ceremonial dance can begin. There are eight Phases to the dance. The first Phase starts with the girl dancing on the buckskin with her companian. The last Phase 8, is when the girl steps off the buckskin and throws a blanket in each direction. This ends the ceremoney.

Another Apache Ceremonial Dance is called the Apache Devil Dance. They dance with clowns, masks, headdresses and they jumped over fire. This dance was performed to keep the devil away. Another dance was the spirited war dance in which they used weapons and began shooting in time to the music.

Numerous dialects of Eastern Apache exist, such as Jicarilla, Lipan, Kiowa-Apache. All the same, today very few can speak the Kiowa-Apache and Lipan laguages and they’re at risk of extinction. Also several dialects of Western Apache exist, such as Cibeque, San Carlos, Northern , Southern Tonto, and White Mountain.

Other than oral communication, Apaches also intercommunicated with the use of smoke signals from faraway distances. Symbols, pictures , and gestures were used to communicate and establish trade with other tribes.

The Navajo tribal language is closely related to Apache. The phonemics used in Navajo is also similarly employed in the Apache linguistic process. All four vowels (a,e,i,o) are toned in the nasal passage using highs, lows and long combinations.

English, which is the National Language of the United States is sweeping over these American Indian languages. Those who can speak the language are dying and those that have the opportunity to learn it aren’t fluent in speaking the language. With today the need to speak a native language isn’t a priority when English can be used to conduct business or every day activities.

Conserving this language has been a priority. Presently there are 20,000 Western Apaches who can speak it in their natural language. Today the language continues to be instructed to elementry grades, but there English tends to prevail dispite their efforts to teach the Apache language. Nevertheless, classes continue to teach the language in addition to native crafts, making various native weapons such as bows and arrows and basket weaving. The native costumes are created from deer skins and crafting silver jewlery and trinkets is also taught.

The preservation of these languages seems bleak, however I do believe that the cuture will endure and go forward…

On July 28, 1866 by an act of congress the President of the United States was authorized to “…enlist and employ in the Territories and Indian Country a force of Indians not to exceed one thousand to act as scouts…” This legislation created the U.S. Army Indian Scouts. Apache scouts were foremost among the Native American scouts that the army recruited and used in the west. These scouts came from a number of different Apache tribes including the White Mountain, Chiricahuas, Mescalero, Tonto, San Carlos, and Jicarilla. At the beginning of their service in the army they were distinguished from other Apaches by their red turbines, but as time went by they generally also wore the U.S. Army Cavalry blue coats.

In August 1871 General Cook was made commander of the U.S. forces in the Arizona Territory and was given the principal task of bringing the Apaches under control and onto the reservations. He recognized the necessity of Apache scouts and was convinced that the American horse soldier could not defeat the Apache without their help. He knew what few others in the army were willing to admit. The Apaches warriors were better horsemen, they were better conditioned to live and fight in the harsh desert conditions, and that he and his army would never find the Apaches they were after using standard cavalry tactics. Although many in the army questioned his policy of using Apaches to find Apaches it proved to be the answer the army needed for victory. During the later stages of the Apache Wars (1851-1886) Apache scouts working for the army were the principal reason for the eventual defeat of the great Apache chiefs Cochise, Victorio, and Geronimo.

Apache scouts continued to work with the U.S. Army into the 20th century. They were involved in the Punitive Expedition in 1916 as the U.S. 11th Cavalry pursued Pancho Villa into northern Mexico. Their courage, unique qualities of analysis, and attention to detail earned them high praise from officers in the 11th Cavalry.

Apache scouts were active with the U.S. Cavalry through World War I until 1921 when the army discontinued the Indian Scouts. Their work for the U.S. Army from 1866 to 1921 was invaluable, providing a service no one else could have done.

They had decided to give him one more stock of supplies, and if he made away with that he should be killed.

Knowing that he could not resist the temptation to gamble if he had any property in his possession, he decided to leave the tribe before their wrath should overtake him. The next day he began to chop down a tree from which to build a boat.

The Woodpecker, Tsitl-ka-ta, commanded him not to cut the tree; the woodpeckers must do that for him. They also cut out the inside of the trunk, so that he could get into the cylinder, after which the spider sealed him in by making a web over each end. The woodpeckers carried the log, thus prepared, to the Rio Grande River, and threw it in. The faithful Turkey followed along the shore.

In the whirlpool above San Juan the log left the main current, and spun round and round until the Turkey pushed it on into the channel again. Farther down the river the log caught in the rocks in an upright position above a fall, but the Turkey again started it on its journey. At the pueblo of Isleta, the boys hauled out the log with others for fuel. The Turkey’ rescued the log and placed it in the water, and again, at another pueblo far down the river, the log was returned to the stream.

Far to the southward the log drifted out of the channel into a grove of cottonwoods. The man came out of the log and found a large quantity of duck feathers lying about. That night he had no blanket in which to sleep, so he covered himself with duck feathers. He killed a duck, and with the sinews of its legs made a bowstring.

After he landed, the Turkey soon overtook him, and they remained there for four days. During this time the man cleared a small space and leveled it.

“Why do you clear this place?” said the Turkey. “if you wish to plant something you must make a larger field.”

Then the Turkey ran toward the east, and the field was extended in that direction: toward the south, the west, and the north he ran, until the field was large enough. Then he ran into the field from the east side, and the black corn lay behind him; from the south side, and the blue corn appeared; from the west, and the yellow corn was made; from the north, and the seeds of every kind of cereal and vegetable lay upon the ground.

The Turkey told the man to plant all these seeds in rows. In four days the growing plants appeared. The Turkey helped his master tend the crops, and in four more days everything was ripe. Then the man took an ear of corn and roasted it, and found it good.