Apache Wars Totally Explained

Everything about The Apache Wars totally explained

The Apache Wars were fought during the nineteenth century between the U.S. military and many tribes in what is now the southwestern United States. Some historians group the Apaches and Navajos together because they've similar languages (Athapascan) and cultures.
The United States engaged the Navajos and Apaches (known by themselves as Inde, T`Inde, N`ne = "people") for their lands or because they effected commerce. Often the military and/or Native Americans were provoked by white settlers, speculators or a new federal policy. Apache leaders like Mangas Coloradas of the Bedonkohe; Cochise of the Chokonen (also known as Chiricahua); Victorio of the Chihenne band; Juh of the Nednhi band; Delshay of the Tonto; and Geronimo of the Bedonkohe led war or raiding parties against non-Apaches and resisted the military's attempts, by force and persuasion, to relocate their people to various reservations.

After the Mexican-American War

When the United States went to war against Mexico, many Apache bands promised U.S. soldiers safe passage through their lands. When the U.S. claimed former territories of Mexico in 1846, Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty, respecting them as conquerors of the Mexicans' land. An uneasy peace (a centuries old tradition) between the Apache and the now citizens of the United States held until the 1850s, when an influx of gold miners into the Santa Rita Mountains led to conflict. In 1851, near Pinos Altos mining camp, Mangas was personally attacked by a group of miners who tied him to a tree and severely beat him. Similar incidents continued in violation of the treaty, leading to Apache reprisals. In December 1860, thirty miners launched a surprise attack on an encampment of Bedonkohes Apaches on the west bank of the Mimbres River. According to historian Edwin R. Sweeney, the miners "...killed four Indians, wounded others, and captured thirteen women and children." Retaliation by the Apache again followed, with raids against U.S. citizens and property. This period is sometimes called the Apache Wars.
In early February 1861, Lieutenant George N. Bascom and U.S. troopers lured Cochise, principal chief of the Chokonen Apache, his family and several warriors into a trap at Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona. Cochise managed to escape but his family and warriors remained in captivity. Negotiations were unsuccessful and fighting erupted. The "Bascom Affair" ended with Cochise’s brother and five other warriors being hanged from trees. Later in 1861, Mangas Coloradas and Cochise, his son-in-law, struck an alliance, agreeing to drive all Anglo-Americans out of Apache territory. They were joined in their effort by the chief Juh and the famous warrior Geronimo. Although the goal was never achieved, the white population was greatly reduced for a few years during the American Civil War.
In the summer of 1862, after recovering from a bullet wound in the chest, Mangas Coloradas met with an intermediary to call for peace with the Americans. In January 1863, he decided to personally meet with U.S. military leaders at Fort McLane, near present-day Hurley in southwestern New Mexico. Mangas arrived under a white flag of truce to meet with Brigadier General Joseph Rodman West, an officer of the California militia and a future senator from Louisiana. Armed soldiers took him into custody, and West is reported to have given an execution order to the sentries. That night Mangas was tortured, shot and killed, as he was "trying to escape." The following day, U.S. soldiers cut off his head, boiled it and sent the skull to the Smithsonian Institution. The mutilation of Mangas' body only increased the hostility between the Apaches and the United States.

Post Civil War

The Civil War brought many soldiers to the Southwest, including General James Henry Carleton, who decided to remove the Navajos and Apaches to reservations. Initially the purpose was to make the Rio Grande valley safer for settlement and to stop raids on whites traveling through the area. In the late 1860s, Carleton began by forcing the various bands of Mescalero Apaches onto the reservation at Fort Sumner. Carleton enlisted the one-time friend of the Navajos, Kit Carson, to round them up by destroying crops and livestock and sending them on The Long Walk to Sumner. Soldiers and civilians, especially from Tucson, constantly pursued various Apache bands for a variety of reasons through the 1860s and 1880s.

Geronimo and the Chiricahua Band

Geronimo is probably the best known Apache warrior of that time period, but he certainly wasn't the only one. He belonged to a Chiricahua Apache band, and his story is typical of other bands and their leaders. After two decades of guerrilla warfare, Cochise, one of the leaders of the Chiricaua band, chose to make peace and agreed to relocate to a reservation in the Chiricahua Mountains. Not long afterward, Cochise died in 1874. In a change of policy, the U.S. government decided to move the Chiricahuas to the San Carlos reservation in 1876. Half of them complied and the other half, led by Geronimo, escaped to Mexico.
   In the spring of 1877, the U.S. captured Geronimo and brought him to the San Carlos reservation. He stayed there until September 1881, when a gathering of soldiers around the reservation caused him to fear that he'd be imprisoned for his past deeds. He fled to Mexico again, taking 700 Apaches with him. In April of the following year, Geronimo returned to San Carlos with horses and guns and liberated the rest of the Apaches, leading many of them back to Mexico. In the spring of 1883, General George Crook was put in charge of the Arizona and New Mexico reservations. With 200 Apaches, he journeyed to Mexico, found Geronimo’s camp, and persuaded him and his people to return to the San Carlos reservation. Crook instituted several reforms on the reservation, but local newspapers criticized him for being too lenient and demonized Geronimo. On 17 May 1885, Geronimo, drunk and intimidated by demands for his death printed in the papers, escaped once again to Mexico.
   Crook went after Geronimo in the spring of 1886 and caught up with him just over the Mexico border in March. Some reports say that while setting up a meeting for negotiations, many of the Apaches were given strong drinks and fed rumors by a local rancher. Geronimo and his group fled and Crook couldn't catch up with them. The War Department reprimanded Crook for the failure, and he resigned. He was replaced by Brigadier General Nelson Miles in April 1886. Miles deployed over 2 dozen heliograph points, coordinating 5,000 soldiers, 500 Apache scouts, 100 Navajo Scouts, and thousands of civilian militia against Geronimo and his twenty-four warriors. Geronimo was found in September 1886 by Lt. Gatewood and persuaded to surrender to General Miles. Geronimo and many other Apaches (including some of the the Apache Scouts) were sent to Fort Marion in Florida. Many died there. Apache children were taken to the Carlisle school in Pennsylvania, where fifty of them died. Eventually, after 26 years, the Apaches in Florida were allowed to return to the Southwest, but Geronimo was sent to Fort Sill Oklahoma.
   Similar stories to Geronimo's could be told about many other Apache groups.

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