Apaches poor horsemen?

[ouroboros]

I read John Gregory Bourke's book "On the border with Crook". A fascinating book written by US army Captain who fought under the famous "nantan lupan". One of Bourke's statements has drawn my attention: The observation that the Nde were poor horsemen.

"Unlike the Indians of the Plains, east of the Rocky Mountains, they rarely become good horsemen, trusting rather to their own muscles for advancing upon or escaping from an enemy in the mountainous and desert country with which they, the Apaches, are so perfectly familiar. Horses, mules, and donkeys, when captured, were rarely held longer than the time when they were needed to be eaten ; the Apache preferred the meat of these animals to that of the cow, sheep, or goat, although all the lastnamed were eaten. Pork and fish were objects of the deepest repugnance to both men and women ; within the past twenty years since the Apaches have been enrolled as scouts and police at the agencies this aversion to bacon at least has been to a great extent overcome ; but no Apache would touch fish until Geronimo and the men with him were incarcerated at Port Pickens, Florida, when they were persuaded to eat the pompano and other delicious fishes to be found in Pensacola Bay."

Such statements can be found elsewhere: books.google.pl/books?id=mf7BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT24&dq=apaches+poor+horse+riders&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiv18jn9ofoAhWj16YKHVl1B9sQ6AEIQDAC#v=onepage&q=apaches%20poor%20horse%20riders&f=false

books.google.pl/books?id=fQl3CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT122&dq=apaches+not+skilled+horsemen&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8iqSy94foAhUQ0qYKHVAHDNkQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=apaches%20not%20skilled%20horsemen&f=false

I wonder whether Bourke's observation concerns all the Nde divisions or rather only the Chiricahuas against whom he mainly fought. As Morris Opler argued, the Mescaleros before the end of seventeenth century became horsemen: books.google.pl/books?id=MSnuy2n5TrgC&pg=PR8&lpg=PR8&dq=Apache+Odyssey&source=bl&ots=9vdRdZpDxb&sig=ACfU3U3W132Eapbm5JXpuAUTogVNHQxphg&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQlM-C-IfoAhUGxMQBHfG6B8kQ6AEwBnoECBUQAQ#v=onepage&q=horsemen&f=false

EDIT: You can legally download Bourke's book from archive.org: archive.org/stream/ontheborderwithc002470mbp/ontheborderwithc002470mbp_djvu.txt

The same must be said about the Lipan Apache.

Of course, the best horsemen of all were the Comanches whose riding skills were unmatched, but did really Apaches were poor horsemen?

[ouroboros]

I have looked for infos on Apaches as horsemen and it seems that the opinion that they were poor horsemen doesn't apply to all tribes. The Lipans were considered superb horsemen and their riding skills even matched those of the Comanches. As the famous french traveller Jean-Louis Berlandier

"The Lipans are a fine group of men, skilled at warfare, excellent horsemen, and with great talent for breaking and training wild horses"

There is also a description on Lipan cavalry tactics:

“Neverthless, the Lipans were fierce and feared warriors, wily and treacherous, and excellent horsemen who wihile riding barebeck could disguise themselves by grabbing the horse’s mane and using the strength of their legs to hold on to side of the horse, making it appear that the horse was riderless. The unsuspecting observer, Berlandier wrote, “he believes he is looking only at a herd of wild horses, Then, when closue enough, [the Lipan warriors] fall on their enemies with extraordinary velocity”

Quotation: Frontier Naturalist: Jean Louis Berlandier and the Exploration of Northern
Mexico and Texas, p. 57

Link: books.google.pl/books?id=gptLcEJYRUgC&pg=PA57&dq=Berlandier+Lipans+excellent+horsemen&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdxvDmwKHoAhWnl4sKHfi2CxwQ6AEIMzAB#v=onepage&q=Berlandier%20Lipans%20excellent%20horsemen&f=false

Berlandier thought the Lipans were better horsemen and warriors than the Comanches:

"The Lipans live almost constantly at war with the Comanches, and the dispute over the herds of bison, which constitute the principal food of these indigenes, increases the hatred which is so easy to arouse in them. The former, although more courageous and more warlike than the Comanches, are forced to yield to numbers . . . . The Lipans are the best Indian horsemen, and their skill promptly places them beyond the reach of their adversaries."

www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/amis/aspr-34/bibliography.htm

[ouroboros]

I found some new statements about Lipans being excellent horsemen:

1) Joseph E. Chance, José María de Jesús Carvajal: The Life and Times of a Mexican Revolutionary, p. 78:

"Comanches and Lipans were practically born on horseback, and when riding on a raiding party, they arguably formed the finest light cavalry in the world"

link: books.google.pl/books?id=ZETpCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA78&dq=the+Lipans+are+the+best+horsemen&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9mImf143pAhVQ_SoKHaaEBaMQ6AEIbTAH#v=onepage&q=Lipan&f=false

2) And the spanish/mexican officer Francesco Ruiz wrote:

“In my opinion, the Lipans are the best horsemen"

Quoted after: Sherry Robinson, I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches, p. 174:

link: books.google.pl/books?id=ZF-PKg6Q4Y8C&pg=PA174&dq=the+Lipans+are+the+best+horsemen&hl=pl&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZq7Hu3I3pAhVqxIsKHbdvB80Q6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Ruiz&f=false

[ouroboros]

The Mescalero Apache were horsemen also, and they admitted that they differed from the Chiricahuas in this respect:

"We were not like the Chiricahuas, who could do without horses. We were accustomed to having them."

Quoted after: Eve Ball, Indeh: An Apache Odyssey, p. 285: books.google.pl/books?id=Nh_vMuCuUc8C&pg=PA285&dq=we+were+not+like+the+chiricahuas,+who+could+do+without+horses.+We+were+accustomed+to+having+them&hl=pl&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=we%20were%20not%20like%20the%20chiricahuas%2C%20who%20could%20do%20without%20horses.%20We%20were%20accustomed%20to%20having%20them&f=false

[ouroboros]

There is an account by the Spanish officer Captain Nicolas Flores on the Lipan horsemen, what is most interesting that these warriors used "saddles with iron stirrups"

William Edward Dunn, 'Apache Relations in Texas, 1718-1750', in: The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Jan., 1911), pp. 198-275, at p. 222:

Customs. The equipment of an Apache warrior, the witnesses tell us, was quite elaborate. They possessed many horses, had good saddles with iron stirrups, and used bridles. Their horses were usually protected from the arrows of the enemy by buffalo skins, and the Apaches themselves used skin armor, painted variously blue, red, green, or white. No mention is made of the Apaches having firearms, and it is made to appear that they fought entirely without them. Their arrows were generally tipped with iron, we are told, and they also used a kind of iron dart (chuza) in offensive warfare. Their clothing, as a rule, was of buckskin.

You can download this paper from jstor: www.jstor.org/stable/30243013