Tsebekinende, Agua Nueva, Zitachisene

[ouroboros]

The Agua Nuevas or Aguas Nuevas were a famous and warlike, even if a mysterious Nde group which belonged either to the Chiricahuas or Mescaleros, or was a distinctive and separate group with close ties to both. The Agua Nuevas are identified with the Tsebekinende or the Zitachisene/dziłdakłijende.

Harry W. Baseheart, in his book 'Mescalero Apache subsistence patterns and socio-political organization', who made some interviews with Mescalero Nde who remembered the pre-reservation period, comments this issue as follows (part 1):    

Tsebekinende and Agua Nueva. People called the tsebekinende (Rock House People) and the “Blue Mountain” Apache constitute the groups ordinarily referred to by other than leaders' names by Mescalero informants. The identity of these groups is difficult to determine. Informants report that the tsebekinende engaged in regular seasonal movements from a permanent base in Chihuahua to the Sacramento range. A common pattern was to move northward in the spring, crossing the Rio Grande, and proceeding northeast to the Guadalupes. After visiting in this area, the group moved on to the White Mountain region, where they spent the summer. In autum, some group members began the return trip to tsebekin, while others might accompany buffalo-hunting parties to the plains before returning south.

Tsebekinende and Mescalero intermarried frequently, and the two groups were, in consequence, linked by a network of marriage ties. Nevertheless, informants generally insisted that the tsebekinende were not Mesoalero; some considered the former to be a distinct Apache group with close Mescalero ties, while others held them to be related to Chiricahua. The tsebekinende base in Chihuahua was placed frequently in the Corralitos region, an area utilized by all three Chiricahua bands.

The problem is complicated further by the question of the identity of the “Blue Mountain” Apache (dziƚdak?ƚijende). The “Blue Mountain,” like the tsebekinende, were said to center in Chihuahua, though the former did not engage in seasonal moves to Mescalero; marriage with Mescalero was common. Indeed, on occasion informants confound these two groups; an individual will be considered “Blue Mountain” by one source, and tsebekinende by another. An additional complication is introduced by the fact that a Chiricahua “local group” with a favoite base in the panhandle of New Mexico, was also known as “Blue Mountain People.” Examination of informants' accounts indicates an understandable tendency to confuse these groups; in consequence, it is hardly surprising to find a wide range of variation in informants' responses. A usually reliable informant, whose father was “Blue Mountain,” stated that the group was not Mescalero, but “a people by themselves”; this Blue Mountain was located south of tsebekin. Possibly, the reference here is to the Apache group which lived near Agua Nueva, which will be discussed below.

The historical records contain frequent references to the Agua Nueva Mescalero, as the group was accused of extensive raiding. As early as 1856 Steck had become convinced “that at least 3/4 of the robberies committed by Moscaleros have been committed by Agua Nuevo Apaches who range on both sides of the Rio Grande between El Paso and Presidio del Norte” (82). The following year Steck reported: The Mescaleros who have been committing depredations belong to the dept of Texas live in the southern portion of the Guadalupe and in the Limpia Mts from there into the mts between the City of Chihuihui & the Rio Grande (Nortenos and Aguas Nuevas) (38). Lt. Col. Reeve echoed Steck's complaints in 1858, noting that he had received a report “through an Indian boy belonging to Binanchio's [Venancio] party (Agua Nueva's) that some of his men had stolen some horses and mules, and brought them to his camp at the Alamo, where they have been planting.” He added: Binanchio, and Mateo are bad, troublesome men, the former particularly so, and there is a great deal of hostility between him and all the Mescalero Chiefs, except Manco, who is his father-in-law (83). By 1859, Steck wrote that the Mescalero had been divided for more than a year, and “the Agua Nuevas have lived in the vicinity of Dog Canion and nearly all if not all the thefts have been traced in that direction. And I am further of opinion that there are now Camanches with them in the Guadalupe Mts.” (67).

[ouroboros]

Ibidem:

The specific territorial associations of the Agua Nueva, then, include a center in the general region of the town of Agua Nueva in Chihuahua, and the Dog Canyon area of the Sacramentos. They ranged over a wider area, however, and were often charged with responsibility for raids in Texas. American observers definitely identified the group as Mescalero, and clear historical evidence testifies to a close relationship between Agua Nueva and Mescalero. At the same time, at least a portion of the Agua Nueva also had ties with Chiricahua. In February 1859, Venancio and Mateo, two leaders considered to be Agua Nueva, visited Steck at Apache Agency in order to disclaim participation in an engagement between U.S. soldiers and Mescalero at Dog Canyon. Steck reported that they “wish to remain west of the river [the Rio Grande] among the Mimbres band,” and directed them to “remain with the band between the agency and the Coppermines” until responsibility for the attack was fixed. He added: They wish to make their permanent home with the Mimbres band—a good beginning for a removal of this whole Band and if a campaign should be sent out I have no doubt many more will follow if they are permitted. (67) The Mimbres band referred to by Steck was, of course, a part of the Chiricahua tcihene division; it is interesting to note that the area of tcihene exploitation in Mexico included the region to the north of Agua Nueva. In any case, the Mimbres and Agua Nuevas evidently were on friendly terms, though it may be surmised that the relationship was by no means as close as between the latter and the Mescalero.

The Agua Nueva group, by that name, was not familiar to any Mescalero informant. However, the pattern of movement reported for the tsebekinende parallels that depicted by historical sources for the Agua Nueva; the possibility that these groups were the same deserves examination. Against this identification is the insistence of informants that the tsebekinende were not Mescalero, in contrast to historical information strongly linking Agua Nueva and Mescalero. Informant disclaimers of the tsebekinende, however, could have developed in consequence of the historic division between the groups noted above; the limited knowledge of raiding among living informants should be recalled in this connection. Agua Nusva and tsebekinende regularly utilized Mescalero territory, and it is difficult to understand these land use patterns if the groups were not Mescalero. Further, records of the 1850s offer no instance of denial by “northern” leaders of the Mescalero affiliation of Agua Nueva. 

The related problem of the identity of the “Blue Mountain People” (dziƚdak?ƚijende) also must be considered. It is possible that the “Blue Mountain People” were the same as the tsebekinende, as some informants have claimed, though it is difficult to be certain on this point. If there were several “Blue Mountains” and one was indeed located south of tsebekin, equation of the two groups would appear highly reasonable. 1 From this perspective, the hypothesis that the historic Agua Nueva were identical with the tsebekinende and dziƚdak?ƚijende of informants' accounts, and that all were Mescalero, would be consistent with the available evidence. An alternative proposal, again equating the Agua Nueva with informants' named groups, but suggesting that the group was an independent, interstitial band with links both to Mescalero and Chiricahua, also fits the historical and ethnographic data. The writer is inclined to prefer the first hypothesis, on the ground that this alternative is somewhat more congruent with the historical material.

[ouroboros]

I came up on two infos on the existence of a group known as Zitachisene:

1) W. Gifford, Anthropological record 4:1, p. 4, writes that a Mescalero Apache called Piganzi told him that his mother belonged to a Apache group called Zitachisene:

His father was Ni'ahane, his mother was Zitachisene (Blue mt. people) from Chihuahua. Zitachisene got rations from Mexicans at Chihuahua City. Although still Apache, they wore sombreros and trousers of white material; spoke some Spanish.

2) Alfred Louis Kroeber, (Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America, p. 37) commenting Gifford notes that:

Zitachisene, of Azúl, toward Chihuahua City, perhaps belonging rather with Chiricahua than with Mescalero.

[ouroboros]

The problems are complicated further:

1) As noted by Baseheart a local group of the Chiricahua also bore the name "Blue Mountain People". It was a local group of the Nednai/Nedni/Nednahi called by the Mexicans the Janeros. Their autonym was Dzilthdaklizhénde - "Blue Mountain people".

The Nednai Dzilthdaklizhénde were confused with the Dziƚdak?ƚijende/Zitachisene. Even Apaches often confused these two groups.

2) The very similarity between the Dzilthdaklizhénde and the Dziƚdak?ƚijende/Zitachisene led to many confusion. I am not sure whether the famous Apache victory over a large Comanche war party at Coyote Mountain, was achieved by a coalition of Lipan, Mescalero, and Chiricahua. The list of Apache groups who fought in this battle included "Blue Mountain people", usually identified with the Nednai.

The main issue is that the Mescalero informant Percy Big Mouth locates the Coyote Mountain in today Davis Mountains, that is in West texas. The Davis Mountains were a favourite camping side of the Agua Nuevas Apaches who are possibly the same as Dziƚdak?ƚijende/Zitachisene.

It is difficult to see why a group of Nednai had come to Western Texas. I will elaborate on this issue in the future.

[ouroboros]

A further information on the 'Blue Mountain People' was collected by Eve Ball during her fieldwork in the Nde reservations. Sherry Robinson, who transformed Ball's notes into a book, writes (Sherry Robinson, Apache Voices: Their Stories of Survival as Told to Eve Ball, p. 240):

Apparently another little-known band, the Blue Mountain Band, was closely related to the Lipans. A splinter group of the Warm Springs Apaches, they lived between Mescalero and the Rio Grande, from Socorro to El Paso. “I don’t know what became of them but Spanish came in from the south, tie them up and march them south. Three times they took them and made slaves of them, march them south. The few left joined the Lipans” (Percy Big Mouth, transcript of interview by Ball, 10 November 1954, Ball MSS.)

Link: books.google.pl/books?id=t8VIryIK7dMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Eve+Ball,+Apache&hl=pl&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Blue%20Mountain&f=false

Why the Blue Mountain People were classified as a splinter group of the Warm Springs Apaches (that is Chihenne - "Red Paint People" of the Chiricahua) is a mystery. However there are a few indications that this statement can be true. The first argument:

1) If the Blue Mountain were the same as the Agua Nueva, Zitachisene, Tsebekinende one should mention that Venancio (or Binanchio, Verancia), the son of the famous nantan Juan Gómez and leader of the Agua Nueva, in 1859, crossed the Rio Grande (boundary river between Chiricahua and Mescalero territories) and requested Agent Steck to permit them to remain among their Mimbres Apache kinsmen west of the river (see Baseheart, Mescalero Apache Subsistence Patterns and Socio-political Organization, p. 82).

The Mimbres Apaches are of course the Chihenne. The statement that the Mimbres were kin to the Agua Nueva makes possibile that indeed the Blue Mountain People were closely related to the Eastern Chiricahua.

It should be noted here that there was a great hostility between Venancio and all Mescalero Chiefs except Manco, who was Venancio's father in law (see Basehaert, Mescalero Apache Subsistence Patterns and Socio-political Organization, p. 136). So one can conclude that there were amicable relations between Agua Nueva and the Chihenne, whilst there was a great deal of hostility between the former and the Mescalero groups (except the one led by Manco).

I will present a second argument in the coming days.

[ouroboros]

The second argument is built upon the treaty from 4 July 1842, with Apaches from the Aguanueva region. It was concluded with the Mimbres Apaches represented by capitan Gomez and other chieftains i.a. Cigarrito:

July 4, 1842

Treaty with the Mimbres Apaches

Captain Gomez, in agreement with Cigarrito and other chieftains from the area of Aguanueva, presented themselves yesterday to his Excellency the Governor and Commandant General of the Department and have celebrated a peace treaty whose articles are identical to those stipulated with the Mezcalero Jose Maria Maria, devoid of any differences other than Carrizal being the establishment which recognized Gomez and his men.

(La Luna, no. 57, Chihuahua, June 21, 1842.)

Link: books.google.pl/books?id=E4hxWwCClG0C&pg=PA167&dq=g%C3%B3mez+mezcalero&hl=pl&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Note few important points:

1) Gomez represented Mimbres Apaches, not Mescaleros. The latter signed a treaty some time before and were represented by chief Jose Maria Maria.

2) The Mimbres Apaches encompassed here all the Nde from  the area of Aguanueva. This area gave the name Agua Nueva/Aguas Nuevas to the group led by Gomez, Mateo, and Venancio/Verancia.

One could ask why Gomez did represent Mimbres Apaches, when he was a Mescalero? Two solutions are possible:

a) If we assume that Agua Nueva were the same as the "Blue Mountain People" and Eve Ball is right that the 'Blue Mountain Apache' were "a splinter group of the Warm Springs Apaches", one can conclude that they were not a group of the Mescaleros and Gomez was not a Mescalero nantan.

b) If we assume that Gomez was a indeed a Mescalero chieftain he was a leader who controlled a mixed group of Mescalero and Chihenne Apaches.

I am more and more sceptical that the Agua Nueva Apaches were a group of the Mescalero. It seems that, indeed, they were a disctinctive group having ties both to the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apaches (mainly the Chihenne).

Therefore I would delete the whole tread I created on Gomez, since its title "Mescalero Chief Gómez" can falsely attribute his group identity. But it contains much important infos, so let it is as it is.

In the coming days I will present a third argument.

[ouroboros]

The third argument is built on the info from the year 1834 that relates on a joint war-party of Mescalero and Chihenne led by Gómez:

El 31 de agosto, el gobernador de Chihuahua José Joaquín Calvo, emite una circular en la que dice que los apaches preparan varias incursiones ya que una partida de mescaleros y gileños, al mando de Gómez, viene para investigar si con los soldados está el hacendado Estanislao Porras, enemigo suyo, con el fin de matarle; en la sierra del Caballo se estaba reuniendo una banda al mando de Estrella, el Viejo, quien se encuentra dolido por el robo de caballos que le habían hecho varios vecinos del Vado y que tenían intenciones de incursionar por el territorio de Nuevo México y Chihuahua; los gileños entregan a un grupo de siete extranjeros, al mando del inglés Santiago Bosue, 200 mulas en el río Mimbres a cambio de pólvora; en Boca Nueva unos carreteros reconocieron a los apaches Gómez y Chepito quienes dejando sus armas se aproximaron para hablar diciéndoles que su partida se componía de unos 200 guerreros y que la recua de caballos que llevaban se la habían quitado a los comanches, lo cual es difícil de creer.

Gómez activity is closely related with that of a chief called Cigaritto ("Cigarette"), who was his close ally or even a subordinate chieftain. Cigaritto was identified in mexican sources as a member of the Chihenne, see e. g.:

Mientras tanto, unos 67 guerreros de las rancherías chihennes de Jasquedegá y Cristóbal, quizá también llamado Armijo e hijo del jefe chihenne Cigarrito de la Sierra del Cobre [?], se trasladaron al sur y atacaron El Carrizal [municipio de Ahumada, Chihuahua]. Fueron alcanzados por un contingente mexicano que logró recuperar unos 150 caballos, pidiendo los dos jefes una tregua.

William B. Griffen, and excellent scholar of the Apaches, is convinced that Cigaritto was a Mimbreno leader, see: Apaches at War and Peace: The Janos Presidio, 1750-1858, p. 148. 

Link: books.google.pl/books?id=lTLS_XZj-a0C&pg=PA286&dq=Cigarrito+Chihenne&hl=pl&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Cigarrito%20Chihenne&f=false

It is important to note that Gómez had a big influence on Eastern Chiricahuas who joined his forces during raids on Mexico, which would be very strange if he was a Mescalero chieftain. Usually, Mescaleros and Chiricahuas, although mostly on friendly terms, respected that Rio Grande is the border between their territories, and a joint war activities were of both tribes were uncommon (even the great Cochise had little contact with the Mescaleros east of the Rio Grande, according to Sweeney).

These informations indeed make the possibility that the Aguanuevas were either:

1) A offshot group of the Mimbres/Chihenne, as Eve Ball concluded.

2) Or a distinctive group who has both ties to the Eastern Chiricahua and to the Mescalero.

I am inclined to see the second option as the more possilble.

I the future I will present an argument that the Agua Nueva were the same as the Zitachisene.

[ouroboros]

The argument presented here is not conclusive, but it can make a premise that the Aguanuevas were the same as the Zitachisene.

Lets quote one of the two existing descriptions of the leader of the Aguanuevas - Gómez. As Jose Policarpo Rodriguez, who was a scout of Whiting expedition in 1849 and encountered the Aguanueva Apaches, writes of Gómez's appearance:

Among those who came up with the party from before was one man mounted on a beautiful horse with a Mexican saddle and bridle. He wore a Mexican sombrero and a short jacket, and looked like a Mexican, except he was very dark. His only weapon was a long, slender lance which he rested on the ground. He stood apart from the rest, taking no part in the conversation. Those who were calling to us did not speak Spanish distinctly, and I, thinking the silent man could speak Spanish, called to them and asked that they get that man (pointing to him) to interpret for them. He spoke up sternly in good Spanish: "I am interpreter for' nobody."

One should note form this description that Gómez spoke good Spanish, wore Mexican clothes, and looked like a Mexican.

One should compare that with the above-quoted statement about the Zitachisene:

Zitachisene got rations from Mexicans at Chihuahua City. Although still Apache, they wore sombreros and trousers of white material; spoke some Spanish.

It is clear that Gómez's appearance fits perfectly into this description, and perhaps it should be counted among the premises that the Zitachisene and Aguanuevas were one and the same people.

[ouroboros]

Oct 29, 2021 2:36:44 GMT -5 ouroboros said:

It should be noted here that there was a great hostility between Venancio and all Mescalero Chiefs except Manco, who was Venancio's father in law (see Basehaert, Mescalero Apache Subsistence Patterns and Socio-political Organization, p. 136). So one can conclude that there were amicable relations between Agua Nueva and the Chihenne, whilst there was a great deal of hostility between the former and the Mescalero groups (except the one led by Manco).

There is an important info in Jason Betzinez's, I fought with Geronimo, p. 43:

“East of our Warm Springs reservation, across the Rio Grande, lay the reservation of our kinsfolk the Mescalero Apaches, Whenever these Indians had trouble among themselves or with the Mexicans or white people they would drift into our reservation for refuge”

One must note that Betzinez - a member of the Warm Springs group of the Chihenne band - recognized the Mescaleros as kinsfolk. I wonder whether under the term Mescalero Betzinez has the Agua Nuevas band in mind. If yes, there are two proofs that the recognition of kinship ties between Agua Nuevas and Chihennes was bilateral - Venancio claimed that Warm Springs were kinsmen of his, and Beztinez claimed that Mescaleros were his kinsfolk.

The second observation from Betzinez account is that the Mescaleros sought refuge in Chihenne land in times of trouble. This should support the account of Venancio. 

[ouroboros]

As it seems, the ethnic affiliation of the Tsebekinende/Augua Nueva Apache is more confused when we take Mexican sources into account. Sometimes the Aquanuevas were called Carrizaleño by the Mexican authorities. The latter term was usually used to decribe a group of Nednai Apaches who resided near Carrizal. But sometimes the Agua Nuevas were also labelled as Carrizaleño Apaches. It is explained by Griffen, Utmost Good Faith: Patterns of Apache-Mexican Hostilities in Northern Chihuahua Border Warfare, 1821-1848, p. 104

Venancio, together with two other Carrizaleño Apaches (legally the Agua Nuevans belonged to Carrizal, but Apaches did not like this place, and in May only a few were reported to be picking up their rations there)

[ouroboros]

Here is a link to the excellent thread on the distribution of Chiricahua gotas by coeurrouge: amertribes.proboards.com/thread/3501/evolution-chiricahua-local-groups-gota

There is a superb map where no.7 of the Chihenne marks the gota of Venancio (Verancio).