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Apache Chiefs and Leaders
Geronimo (Spanish for Jerome, applied by the
Mexicans as a nickname; native name Goyathlay, `one who yawns'). A
medicine man and prophet of the Chiricahua Apache who, in the latter part
of the 19th century, acquired notoriety through his opposition to the
authorities and by systematic and sensational advertising; born about 1834
at the headwaters of Gila River, New Mexico, near old Ft Tulerosa. His
father was Taklishim, `The Gray One,' who was not a chief, although his
father (Geronimo's grandfather) assumed to be a chief without heredity or
election. Geronimo's mother was known as Juana. When it was decided, in
1876, in consequence of depredations committed in Sonora, of which the
Mexican government complained, to remove the Chiricahua from their
reservation on the south frontier to San Carlos, Ariz., Geronimo and
others of the younger chiefs fled into Mexico. He was arrested later when
he returned with his band to Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, and tilled the
ground in peace on San Carlos reservation until the Chiricahua became
discontented because the Government would not help them irrigate their
lands. In 1882 Geronimo led one of the hands that raided in Sonora and
surrendered when surrounded by Gen. George H. Crook's force in the Sierra
Madre. He had one of the best farms at San Carlos, when trouble arose in
1854 in consequence of the attempt of the authorities to stop the making
of tiswin, the native intoxicant. During 1884-85 he gathered a band of hostiles, who
terrorized the inhabitants of south Arizona and New Mexico, as well as of
Sonora and Chihuahua, in Mexico. Gen. Crook proceeded against them with
instructions to capture or destroy the chief and his followers. In Mar.
1886, a truce was made, followed by a conference, at which the terms of
surrender were agreed on; but Geronimo and his followers having again fled
to the Sierra Madre across the Mexican frontier, and Gen. Miles having
been placed in command, active operations were renewed and their surrender
was ultimately effected in the following August. The entire band,
numbering about 340, including Geronimo and Nachi, the hereditary chief,
were deported as prisoners of war, first to Florida and later to Alabama,
being finally settled at Ft Sill, Okla., where they now reside under
military supervision and in prosperous condition, being industrious
workers and careful spenders. (J. M. C. T. )
Cochise. A
Chiricahua Apache chief, son and successor of Nachi. Although constantly
at feud with the Mexicans, he gave no trouble to the Americans until after
he went, in 1861, under a flag of truce, to the camp of a party of
soldiers to deny that his tribe had abducted a white child. The commanding
officer was angered by this and ordered the visiting chiefs seized and
bound because they would not confess. One was killed and four were caught,
but Cochise, cutting through the side of a tent, made his escape with
three bullets in his body and immediately began hostilities to avenge his
companions, who were hanged by the Federal troops. The troops were forced
to retreat, and white settlements in Arizona were laid waste. Soon afterward the military posts were abandoned, the
troops being recalled to take part in the Civil war. This convinced the
Apache that they need only to fight to prevent Americans front settling in
their country. Cochise and Mangos Coloradas defended Apache pass in
southeast Arizona against the Californians, who marched under Gen.
Carleton to reopen communication between the Pacific coast and the east.
The howitzers of the California volunteers put the Apache to flight . When
United States troops returned to resume the occupancy of the country after
the close of the Civil war, a war of extermination was carried on against
the Apache. Cochise did not surrender till Sept., 1871. When orders
came to transfer his people from Canada Alamosa to the new Tularosa
reservation, in New Mexico, he escaped with a hand of 200 in the spring of
1872, and his example was followed by 600 others. After the Chiricahua
reservation was established Arizona, in the summer of 1872, he carne in,
and there died in peace June 8, 1874. He was succeeded as chief by his son
Taza. The southeastern most county of Arizona bears Cochise's name.
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Nahche
Nahche (Na-ai-che, `mischievous,' `meddlesome.'-George Wrattan).
An Apache warrior, a member of the Chiricahua band. He is the second
son of the celebrated Cochise, and as hereditary chief succeeded his
elder brother, Tazi, on the death of the latter. His mother was a
daughter of the notorious Mangas Coloradas. As a child Nahche was meddlesome and mischievous, hence
his name. He was the leading spirit in the many raids that almost desolated the smaller settlements of Arizona and New Mexico and of northern Chihuahua and Sonora between 1881 and 1886, for which Geronimo's, a Medicine-man and malcontent rather than a warrior, received the chief |
| credit. In the latter year Geronimo's band, so called, of which Nahche was actually the chief, was captured by General Miles and taken as prisoners of war successively to Florida, Alabama, and finally to Ft Sill, Okla., where Nahche still resides, respected by his own people as well as by the whites. He is now (1907) about 49 years of age. In
his prime as a warrior he was described as supple and graceful, with
long, flexible hands, and a rather handsome face. His present height
is 5 ft. 10˝ in. Col. H. L.
Scott (inf'n, 1907), for four years in charge of the Chiricahua
prisoners in Oklahoma, speaks of Nahche as a most forceful and
reliable man, faithfully performing the duties assigned to him as a
prisoner, whether watched or not. He was proud and self-respecting,
and was regarded by the Chiricahua at Ft Sill as their leader. In
recent years, however, he has lost his old-time influence as well as
some of his trustworthiness (inf'n from Geo. Wrattan, official
interpreter, 1907). |
Nakaidoklini (? 'freckled Mexican' Matthews) An Apache
medicine-man called Babbyduclone, Barbudeclenny, Bobby-dok-linny,
Nakydoklunni, Nock-ay-Delklinne, eic., by the whites, influential among
the White Mountain Indians in 1881, near Camp Apache, Ariz. He
taught them a new dance, claiming it would bring dead warriors to life.
In an attempt to arrest him, August 30, the Apache scouts with the troops
turned upon the soldiers, resulting in a fight in which several were
killed on each side, including the medicine-man himself. See Bourke
in 9th Rep. B. A. E. 505, 1892; Mooney in 14th Rep. B.A.E. 704, 1896.
Mangas Coloradas (Span:
`red sleeves') . A Mimbreno Apache chief. He pledged friendship to the
Americans when Gen. S. W. Kearny took possession of New Mexico in 1846.
The chief stronghold of the Mimbremo at that time was at the Santa Rita
copper mines, south west New Mexico, where they had killed the miners in
1837 to avenge a massacre committed by white trappers who invited a number
of Mimbrenos to a feast and murdered them to obtain the bounty of $100
offered by the state of Chihuahua for every Apache scalp. When the
boundary commission made its headquarters at Santa Rita trouble arose over
the taking from the Mimbreno Apache of some Mexican captives and over the
murder of an Indian by a Mexican whom the Americans refused to hang on the
spot: The Mimbrenos retaliated by stealing some horses and mules belonging
to the commission, and when the commissioners went on to survey another
section of the boundary the Indians conceived that they had driven them
away. In consequence of indignities received at the hands of miners at the
Pinos Altos gold mines, by whom he was bound and whipped,- Mangas
Coloradas collected a large band of Apache and became the scourge of the
white settlements for years. He formed an alliance with Cochise to resist
the Californian volunteers who reoccupied the country when it was
abandoned by troops at the beginning of the Civil war, and was wounded in
an engagement at Apache pass, south east Arizona, that grew out of a
misunderstanding regarding a theft of cattle. His men took him to Janos,
in Chihuahua, and left him in the care of a surgeon with a warning that
the town would be destroyed in case he were not cured: According to one
account, soon after his recovery he was taken prisoner in Jan., 1863, by
the Californians and was killed while attempting to escape, goaded, it is
said, with a red-hot bayonet (Dunn, Massacres of Mts., 365,
374, 382, 1886), while Bell (New Tracks, ii, 24,
1869) states that in 1862 he was induced to enter Ft McLane, New
Mexico, on the plea of making a treaty and receiving presents. The
soldiers imprisoned him in a hut, and at night a sentry shot him under the
pretext that he feared the Indian would escape. Consult also Bancroft,
Arizona and New Mexico, 1880.
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historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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