Indeed, in the early November 1885 a party of 10 warriors led by Ulzana crossed the border and entered Florida Mountains in New Mexico, where a party of 16 warriors who had just crossed the border joined them for some time. On their way, they killed two Navajo scouts and one of White Mountain Apaches, and they left one of their warriors with a broken leg in Los Pinos mountains (Mexico). Not far from border, Apaches killed 2 more civilians. After that, 14 of them returned to Sierra Madre having taken all the loot. Ulzana's party hid for three weeks in the mountains north of the border, and soldiers decided that Apaches were gone.
However, on November 23 Lieutenant James Lockett (who at that time was a substitute for Fort Apache commander Lieutenant Gatewood, who was on an field) notified General Crook that a small group of the hostiles was spotted 4 miles from the Fort, and that his scouts were ready for pursuit hot on the trail. While that message was transmitted, telegraph line was cut, and General could not learn any more. When the line was repaired, he found out that peaceful Apaches of the reservation were horror-struck. Small group of hostiles killed everyone they could reach. They made exclusion just for several women whom they took with them.
On November 24 early morning Chiricahuas killed two white cowboys who were driving a herd of reservation cattle, stole a herd of chief Bonito's horses and with the sunrise they headed towards Eagle Creek River leaving the pursuers empty-handed. Lieutenant Charles Nordstrom with 10 privates and 19 scouts led by Chato began pursuit. Captain Crawford with a hundred of scouts urgently started to Bowie Station cutting any chance of breakthrough southward. Troops of the whole South-West were brought in fighting trim.
On November 27 Lieutenant Lockett sent Crook a telegram: "It seems probable hostilies had slain eleven women, four children, and five men and boys" just to terrify other reservation Apaches and make them join. The hostiles had one casualty: scout Sanchez shot hostile Chiricahua man by name Azariquelch in the head. Fleeing south-west on fresh horses, the renegades wounded a man named Johnson near Black Rock, rushed through Aravaipa Canyon and stole more horses in Pueblo Viejo Valley, not far from Solomonville. A group of townsmen thought the thieves to be ordinary rustlers, so they began pursuit and were ambushed near Ash Fork Creek and lost two men killed. Apaches' path led through Ash Canyon to Duncan town on Gila River. Having discovered all this, Crook ordered Colonel Bradley to move all troops and scouts from Fort Bayard (New Mexico) and to block the hostiles preventing them from moving westward to Black Range and Steins Peak.
All South-East of the United States was so alarmed, and the political crisis was so serious that resulted in official inspection of Arizona military district. Lieutenant General Phillip H. Sheridan left Washington to meet Crook at Fort Bowie. Having examined the situation he summarized: “[The renegades] should all be exterminated or captured”. Unfortunately, this task was rather hard to be performed: in his letter to Bradley dated December 6, 1885 Crook wrote that “The events of the past two weeks have clearly demonstrated that when Indians get through the line into rough country north of the railroad, it is practically impossible to do anything with them… The country is so indescribably rough that any pursuit is almost a farce” [19, 336].
On December 8 Major S. Sumner wired Crook that Ulzana and his people killed two more civilians under Alma and fled to Mogollon Mountains notwithstanding that Samuel W. Fountain with ten Navaho scouts and Troop C of the Eighth Cavalry were on their heels. At last, on December 9 Fountain attacked Ulzana near Papanosas: “...that the Indians scattered in the dark, and from signs left thinks they intend to come together on their back trail, and endeavor to get south by their old trail by Mule Springs. Lieut. Fountain is now west of Mogollons, and Lieut. Gaston with troops of Eighth Cavalry is near old Fort West on the Gila. All troops have been notified. Lieut. Fountain counted sixteen in the party. This agrees with last report from Apache, received yesterday, that the hostiles carried off six White Mountain women and on child. There are only ten bucks, or possibly nine, as one was believed to have been badly wounded at the time the one was killed” [10, 54]. But that was not really so. Actual success of the Americans was restricted to capture of 14 horses, one mule and field supplies of the enemy.
The very next day Ulzana attacked Lillie’s Ranch on Clear Creek, killing the owner and the manager. Having replenished the food supplies and ammunition, Ulzana's warriors saddled up again and disappeared in frosty mountain air. Crook ordered Major Biddle to move from Horse Springs with 40 scouts towards Mogollon Mountains. The troops restlessly ransacked in all directions, but still could not find any trace of the hostile Apaches until December 19, when Fountain on his way to Fort Bayard got in Ulzana's ambush at Little Dray Creek. Asst. Surgeon Doctor T.J.C. Maddox, U.S. Army and four privates were killed, and Lieut. De Rosey C. Cabell and one private were wounded. Apaches again had no losses. Socorro Country (New Mexico) got in turmoil again. Soon after that Indians killed the freighter and plundered his wagon.
The night before Christmas Ulzana changed horses of his party for fresh ones near Carlisle few miles from Arizona boundary. Lieutenant David N. McDonald with M Troop, 4th Cavalry, and fifty Navaho scouts under Lieut. George L. Scott began pursuit. Very soon officers had had problems: on December 26 the Navajos went on strike: they “refused to go any further alleging a number of reasons, which were but excuses”, reported Crook angrily [19, 338]. Navajos knew very well that Apaches were great masters of ambush and understood that such pursuit was in spacious area of barely passable rocks was useless and deadly dangerous. Neither threats nor persuasions could make scouts move forward, and finally they turned back to Gila River just downstream of Duncan town. McDonald tried to trail Apaches himself, but they moved across “exceedingly rough rocky country”, so Lieutenant found further pursuit impossible and abandoned his intentions in Steins Peak Mountains 25 miles northward from Horse Shoe Canyon.
On December 27 Ulzana's party showed up in Chiricahua Mountains having killed two white men near Galeyville town. Four cavalry troops searched the nearby mountains long and hard, but found nothing but old tracks. Soon the three-day snowstorm covered ground with snow, and Ulzana successfully fled from the pursuit and headed to warm and sunny Mexico.
Henry Daly wrote about this Ulzana's raid (he however thought that the party was led by Chihuahua): "He slipped through all the snares laid for him by the scouts of Major
15 Wirt Davis’s and Captain Crawford’s commands. The troops guarding every water hole along the line could offer no resistance to his whirlwind dashes through their lines. He slipped into Fort Apache in November 1885 and killed twelve of the friendlies and carried off six of their women. He stole a bunch of horses out of a corral at White’s Ranch when there was a lot of cowboys guarding them who had remarked that they would like to see the color of a redskins that could get away with their horses. His party dashed into the various hamlets across the Mexican line and purchased what supplies of ammunition, mescal etc., that they wanted and made love to the Mexican women of those villages. When occasion demanded, they could ride one hundred miles in twenty-four hours and could nearly do the same on foot with as much ease" [8, 470].
15 - He was Captain then.
During that two-months raid, Ulzana covered more than 1,200 miles, killed 38 people, stole and rode to death 250 horses and mules, caused damages to the US citizens' property for many thousands dollars and returned home having lost only one man who was killed not by an American soldier but a reservation Apache.
In New Mexico papers criticism of General Crook’s inability to manage the situation became hysterical. One of the papers called the raiders “Crook’s Pet Murderers”.
General Sheridan however appreciated the efforts of the military leaders: “I have the greatest confidence in General Crook’s ability to accomplish this purpose, though the difficulties are very great”.
On November 18 Crawford again led expedition to Sonora with two companies of Indian scouts and one infantry company. By the end of December, Apache scouts found traces of a large group of people heading East. Lots of traces of horses and cattle indicated successful plunders. By that time all hostile Chiricahuas (excluding small group of Mangus) were wandering together. After several days of exhausting pursuit in the mountains, Crawford attacked their camp on December 9, 1886. Apaches escaped leaving all their unsophisticated belongings to the victors. The next day and old squaw came to Americans offering to begin negotiations. By her words, Crawford concluded that the enemy is ready to surrender, but the interpreter dropped behind with the train, so the meeting was appointed for the next morning. In the morning however Apache scouts were attacked by a party of Mexican
rurales (volunteers) who took them for the hostiles. Captain Crawford was deadly wounded. Lieutenant Marion P. Maus took the lead and got in contact with Apache chiefs again; on January 15 officer and interpreter entered their camp. Naiche, Chihuahua, Geronimo, Nana and 14 warriors gathered for that meeting. “Why did you come down here?” asked Geronimo. “I came to capture or destroy you and your band,” said Maus. After all, Apaches agreed to meet Crook "in two moons" at Canon de los Embudos not far from American border [7, 251].
On March 25 General Crook met chiefs of hostile Chiricahuas. On that day he mainly exchanged accusations of lie with Geronimo, and no results were achieved. The next day General sent Kaytennae (who was already released from prison and was impressed by the might of the white people) and White Mountain Apache chief Alchise to persuade the hesitant chiefs to surrender on terms of two-year confinement. The chiefs decided that Geronimo who was identified by Americans as the leader of the hostiles would not be able to agree with the General, and the tribe needs more flexible spokesman.
On the last day of negotiations (December 27) Chihuahua was the first to make speech: I am very glad to see you and have this talk with you. It is as you say, we are always in danger out here. I hope from this time on we may live better with our families and not do any harm to anybody. I am anxious to behave. I think the sun is looking down upon me and the earth is listening. I am thinking better. 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. I am satisfied with all that you do. You must be the one w'ho 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. There are many men in the world who are big chiefs and command many people, but you, I think, are the greatest of them all, or you wouldn't come out here to see us. I want you to be a father to me and treat me as your son. I want you to have pity on me. There is no doubt that all you do is right, because all you do is just the same as if God did it. Everything you do is right. So I consider, so I believe you to be. I trust in all you say; you do not deceive. All the things you tell us are facts. I am now in your hands. I place myself at your disposition. I surrender myself to you. Do with me as you please. I shake your hand [shaking hands]. I want to come right into your camp with my family and stay with you. I don't want to stay away at a distance. I want to be right where you are. I have roamed these mountains from water to water. Never have I found the place where I could see my father or my mother, until today I see you my father. I surrender to you now and I don't want any more bad feelings or bad talk. I am going over to stay with you in your camp. Whenever a man raises anything, even a dog, he thinks well of it and tries to raise it right and treat it well. So I want you to feel toward me and be good to me and don't let people say bad things about me. Now I surrender to you and go with you.
Naiche was the second to speak: “What Chihuahua says I say. I surrender just the same as he did. I surrender to you just the same as he did. What he has said I say” [6, 207]. Only after those two Geronimo had a word and surrendered too.
Speech of firm and sometimes impulsive Chihuahua shows him as an excellent speaker and far-sighted politician. Many years later Eugene Chihuahua said: “My father, like Cochise, did not want to see his band exterminated; and he well understood what was in store for them if they continued the losing fight… Chihuahua did not know, nor did anyone else, that we were to be prisoners for twenty-seven years” [2, 99].
General Crook arrived to Canon de los Embudos with Camillus S. Fly, a photographer who took a series of unique photos of the last of legendary Chiricahua warriors. Geronimo who already became a famous warrior had his pictures quite willingly. Nana and Naiche tried to evade camera but did not hide. But the leaders of the last raids, Chihuahua and Ulzana, refused point-blank to be photographed notwithstanding all Fly's persuasions. The photographer tricked them only once: after the first round of negotiations, "the main leaders of the hostiles" saw preparations for taking photos, stood up and retreated to the background; the photographer took the first photo, and then when the hidden chiefs relaxed and left their shelter he took the second photo.
Chief Chihuahua at Canon de los Embudos.
Just after surrender, Crook left for Fort Bowie, and he was followed by surrendered Chiricahuas who moved slowly under just small escort of scouts. Having reached the border, the column made a camp and Apaches bought a lot of whisky from local bootlegger Godfrey Tribolet. The latter told Apaches that they made a very stupid thing when surrendered to the Americans who would surely hang them. At night, drunk Naiche and Geronimo began shooting and fled with their supporters back to the mountains, and their war lasted six months more.
Chihuahua however kept his word: his people remained in the camp. The prisoners of war arrived to Fort Bowie on April 2, where the chief reunited with his wife and children. According to the telegraph instructions of the US Military Secretary, on April 7 at 4.00 a.m. the prisoners left Bowie Station by train, under charge of First Lieutenant J. R. Richards, Jr., Fourth Cavalry, under escort of a company of the Eighth Infantry, for Fort Marion
16, St. Augustine, Florida. That was the first of four groups of Chiricahua sent out of Arizona. The group included 77 persons: 15 men, 33 women and 29 children
17. During the travel, one more child was born. Together with Chihuahua's band, there were old Nana, two wives and three children of Geronimo, Naiche's family and other relatives of those who were still hiding in Mexico.
16 - Built by the Spanish in 17th century, original name: Castillo de San Marcos.
17 - Information from General Crook's report. Lt. Davis said that Chihuahua's community included 14 men, 2 adolescents and 57 women and children. Perhaps, they were joined at Fort Bowie by the Apaches captured earlier.
On April 16, a reporter from
Florida Times-Union wrote about arrival of the first group of Apaches to Jacksonville (Florida) for further travel to Fort Marion by ferry: “The bucks were thick-set, muscular, well-fed looking specimens, with generally a sullen and disdainful expression of countenance, looking not all subdued, but rather defiant, though incapable of any attempt at escape or violence.”
Women was to be “equally unfavorable, generally clad in ill-made and baggy calico gowns and indescribable socks and other nondescript garments, the only attempt at ornamentation being necklaces of cheap brass or glass garments, and belts ornamented with tin or brass buttons or spangles”. Young squaws tried to look better. They were cleaner and their calico dresses “were in many instances made with ruffles and other fashionable appendages”.
Look at the young men made the journalist examine men's clothes more close. He found out that many youngsters (“and even some of the grown men”) did not have underwear under their pants. Eventually, the Indians' clothes were found “primitive in the extremes”. Children generally ran altogether naked. Many squaws had their babies bound “into curious wicker-work cradles (Apaches called them "Tsach"), slung upon the backs of the doting mammas”.
The reporter wrote that “the baggage of this queer company of tourists was a sight to behold. Great canvas bags, provided by the Government, filled with clothing; square packages tied with ropes; black tin cans and buckets and pots; packages of splendidly tanned and highly ornamented skins; bundles of dried meat, sacks of meal, blankets, coats, odd-looking blankets and variety of other plunder were spilled promiscuously into trucks (wagons), amid jeers of the colored porters, who were hauling the stuff, and transferred to stream ferryboat
Armsmear, which lay alongside the dock waiting to carry the party across the river [17, 54-55].
Chihuahua's group arrived to Fort Marion on April 16 and was placed in interim tents as they did not want to live in damp casemates of old fort. In September 1886 they were joined by 434 Apaches sent by General Nelson A. Miles out of White Mountain Indian Reservation (Arizona).
Standing in center is Ulzana(?), Nana and Chihuahua. Fort Marion
In April 1887 all imprisoned Apaches were transferred from Fort Marion to Mount Vernon Barracks – an army camp 22 miles north of Mobile (Alabama). Soon, they were joined by warriors of Geronimo, Naiche and Mangus formerly kept in Fort Pickens. All prisoners of war were provided small huts and plots for gardening.
In 1890 St. Thomas' church was built in the reservation. The first child christened there was two-month-old Chihuahua's son named William St. Clair (Sinclair). His godparents were former commandant of Mount Vernon Mr. Thomas Rogers and his daughter [17, 295]. About that time one of Chihuahua's wives died leaving him two children. By the Apaches' tradition, Chihuahua's family left old house and settled in the new one, but they did not destroy belongings of the deceased, which became the deviation from traditions [17, 292].
Geronimo, Chihuahua, Nana, Loco and Ulzana at Mount Vernon
During the years of imprisonment, Chihuahua remained main leader of his people. Senior officer in Fort Marion recognized the chief's seniority and gave him uniform of the Captain of US cavalry. Since then he was never forced to work as opposed to other prisoners. According to Aca Daklugie, it was only Geronimo who was exempt from compulsory work besides Chihuahua: “He had no double bar, but he was Geronimo; and as long as either lived they did not work. It was not intended by Ussen that Apache warriors work” [2, 129]. Concealed opposition of the two leaders showed in mutual criticism. Chihuahua did not take alcohol during the years of imprisonment and condemned drinking and gambling, whereas Geronimo called him hypocrite and snob [17, 293].
Chihuahua, Naiche, Loco, Nana and Geronimo at Mount Vernon
To be continued