help with a name...Yavapai?

[Larry Coats]

I'm still searching for information pertaining to my maternal Ggrandmother, and I may have found a clue as to her ancestry. My problem has to do with identifying the tribal/band origin of the following:

So Mek O Mil Conah(b.c. 1898 Maricopa Co. AZ), presumably the son or daughter of a ____Conah and Hak Ko Vak Bod Conah(the father being born abt 1879).

I feel pretty certain that the above is not Apache in origin, but it might well be Yavapai.

I have another first name, which I think would be something like "Tek Te" or "Tek Tay"

Can anyone give me some direction as to a likely tribal connection for the above?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Regards to all,

Larry

[kayitah]

Hi Larry,

give me a few days and I'll see what I can find out.

Please send me a PM so we can discuss this in detail.

Best wishes,
Marco

[besh]

Apache, Western Apache, Yavapai, Maricopa, Hualapai, etc. were all called "Apache" (often erroneously) by White people who didn't know the difference. Apache wasn't written @ all for many years & like most languages, has evolved over the years so translations could vary. There are many around here who speak Apache much better than I do but I think So Mek O Mil Conah translates into: 'Son of the Crazy One'; Hak Ko Vak Bod Kanah into: 'You Crazy Rider' & Tek Tay to: 'Farm Site' in Western Apache. Some Native Americans are cautious about those trying to prove ancestry now that tribes are making some money w/ casinos, etc. so I'd like to clarify I'm not Apache (1/2 Mohawk, 1/2 Dutch) but friends w/ & possibly distantly related to several Apache folks. Hope this helps.

[Larry Coats]

Appreciate your reply, Besh! And just for clarification, I'm not pursuing this research in order to try and establish "tribal" membership...just trying to close out a family mystery that has bedeviled me for the last 46 years.

And just so I don't misunderstand, your opinion is that the names I cited are of Western Apache derivation? I am 99.999% certain that my G grandmother came from the San Carlos reservation, being orphaned there c. 1879-81. Based on what I know of the various bands that came to be located there, and based on what you have cited, It would seem that she and her younger brother, would most likely have derived from one of the following: Tonto, Aravaipa, or Warm Springs apaches??? These bands were located at or near the main agency at San Carlos, while the Coyoteros, Chiricahuas, and S. Apaches were at the subagency. My conjecture is that the Rev. J.J. Wingar, who was the teacher/head farmer/census taker there was primarily engaged at the main agency, and we know that he was the individual who took charge of the orphans. He left San Carlos c. 1881-2 and moved to Prescott, but had no further dealings with native americans in that locale. Would seem that I can remove the Yavapais/Mojave-Apache theory from consideration and concentrate on the bands that were at the main agency HQ. Greatly appreciate your help. My next job is to try and locate the census that was taken at San Carlos in 1881(said to be part of the 10th US census, but I have not yet located it).

Best regards,

Larry

[besh]

Larry, I too came to this forum searching for lost relatives (discussed in another thread), I hope you have better luck here than I have. Native Americans of various tribes were sent to San Carlos, your Grandmother could be one of various tribes there. I'm not a language expert by any means but have found a lot of words are very similar from one branch of Apaches to another, I translated the names you gave as best I can but that doesn't limit them to western Apache. The Chiricahuas & Aravaipas today are scattered from Oklahoma to New Mexico, Old Mexico, White Mountains & a few as far as Cuba so tracing lost family gets pretty hard. Also children from other tribes were adopted and things get very confused. Some tribes inter-married over the years & it gets even more complicated. The archives @ Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott have been very helpful to me, you might get some good information there re: your G Grandmother there if you're in the area. Sorry if I added more confusion than help.

[Larry Coats]

Besh, I can definitely appreciate your comments about the difficulty of tracing to specific bands of Apaches; in my case, I am forced to rely primarily on the portions of the oral tradition that I can more or less corroborate. That means that my search area is still pretty broad<g>.  Anyway, at this point, I am certain that my G grandmother was taken from San Carlos, and I know who, by name, was instrumental in removing her(and her brother).  The most difficult part, though, has to do with the part of our "oral tradition"(from 2 different sources)that at least one of her parents was either killed in the course of an attack on a wagon train or died from being transported on a wagon train.  That narrows my options down to two events:

#1.  the Nov-Dec 1878 transportation of 169 Chihenne from Ojo Caliente to San Carlos. OR...

#2.  the Aravaipa attack on a US Army wagon train at Cienega Wash in July of 1871.

In the case of #1, the problem has to do with documentation of Chihenne deaths resulting from a horrific move in a six -wagon wagon train during a blizzard; secondary sources seem to suggest there were deaths, but none seem to cite any figures.  In the case of #2, there were at least 13 Aravaipa warriors killed during that attack as the Army, using more foresight than usual, hid armed soldiers inside the wagons.  In either case, there seems to be no way to make a direct connection.  That is why I was interested in that second name I cited:  Tek-te/Tektay/Tecte.  If that name can be definitely said to be of Western Apache derivation, then I would feel reasonably secure in dismissing the Chihenne connection.  The Aravaipa connection would then work IF I felt secure in presuming that my G grandmother and her brother(and their mother) were lucky enough to be among the survivors of the Camp Grant Massacre of 30 April 1871; from my readings, some women and children managed to escape, but the exact number seems murky at best. 

In any event, she and her brother became orphans at San Carlos around 1879-81 and were shipped to an anglo family in W. Texas no later than 1881.  Unless by some miracle I come across some documentation, I will likely have to just be satisfied with what I've got.  As I've said before, my family managed to keep this connection buried for a very long time, and the ones who knew the truth from first-hand knowledge are long dead.  Sad state of affairs but with the prevailing attitudes back then, not surprising either. 

My last chance probably has to do with the census that was taken at San Carlos in the Spring of 1881....wish I could find it or find someone who knows something about it.

Thanks again and best regards,

Larry