Continued.
By the early 1880s the only hostile Apaches were the 500 or so Chiricahuas and members of other bands who lived in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico and raided in Mexico and the USA. General Crook brought them back to Arizona in 1883 and 1884.
In 1885 some of the Chiricahuas, about 150 men, women, and children, left the reservation, returned to Mexico, and resumed raiding. The majority of Chriicahuas remained on the reservation and provided Indian scouts led by Chato to chase the hostiles in Mexico. In March 1886 the hostiles surrendered to General Crook and most of them stayed surrendered. But a group of them led by Naiche, Geronimo, and Mangus changed their minds and bolted. The 34 holdouts finally surrendered to General Miles in September 1886. President Cleveland ordered all of the Chiricahuas, including those who had remained on the reservation in 1885-1886, exiled.
They were first sent to Fort Marion, Florida, then to Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, and finally to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Many Chiricahua women, children, and old people died in the unaccustomed climates they were sent to. The Chiricahuas were released from prisoner status in 1912. 183 went to the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico and 78 remained in Oklahoma.
In the movie Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) Chato tells Geronimo that Geronimo was right while they are riding on the train to Florida. In real life the scouts and the hostiles blamed each other for the exile of the Chiricahuas. And certainly Chato and the Chiricahuas who served as scouts would have a lot of reason to blame the hostiles for the Chiricahua exile. Thousands of Apaches had made peace in the 1870s and stayed on the reservations and had not been exiled. Only the Chiricahuas who had still been hostile in the early 1880s had been exiled, and only because of Geronimo's outbreak in 1885.
Clearly keeping up the old Apache way of life and being unable and/or unwilling to support yourself without stealing and killing led only to disaster for the Chiricahuas.
To be continued.
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MAGolding (1098)
6 years ago
Continued.
So in 1886 the majority of Apaches lived in peace in reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Indian Territory, and the Chiricahuas who were the most repeatedly hostile Apaches were exiled. But General Nelson A. Miles had a problem: He had said General Crook was a failure despite pacifying thousands of Apaches because of the ever fewer Apaches who were still hostile. Now Miles, like Crook, had been partially successful with the surrender of Geronimo and Naiche's followers, with only a few still on the loose in the Sierra Madre Mountains. To avoid being called a failure as he had called Crook a failure, Miles declared total victory and ignored the few remaining hostiles.
The few lost Apaches in the Sierra Madre continued raiding in Mexico. In 1892 the Thompsons living in Cave Valley, Mexico were raided. 17-year-old Hiram was killed, 14-year-old Elmer played dead after being shot, and their mother was shot before Apache women beat her to death with stones. The wild Apaches sometimes raided into the USA, and sometimes abducted Apaches from the reservations. Generations of Apache parents told their kids to be good or the "wild ones" would take them away.
In 1895, Captain (later general) Hugh L. Scott proposed an expedition into the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico to return the remaining hostiles to the reservation. But the Mexican government forbid it, leading to hundreds of deaths.
The lost Apaches continued to raid Mexican ranches, and Mexican posses continued to chase Apaches, sometimes returning with Apache scalps and/or Apache children that would be raised as Mexicans.
In 1924 Apaches raided into New Mexico, killing cowboy Frank Fisher, and escaped back into Mexico. Their leader looked like a white man with blonde hair and beard. This "white chief" of the Apaches has often been supposed to be little Charley McComas, but could have been some less famous boy captive of the Apaches.
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MAGolding (1098)
6 years ago
Continued
The cycle of violence in the Sierra Madre neared its climax. In 1926 the ranch of Francisco Fimbres, a leader of anti Apache posses, was raided. His wife and son were killed.
In 1930 Fimbres made headlines trying to recruit American gunslingers to exterminate the wild Apaches. The Mexican government stopped it, but Fimbres led Mexican posses to slaughter Apaches. The Apache camps they found had few or no men - perhaps the men were already killed raiding Mexicans. The posses killed Apache women and captured children to be turned into Mexicans.
One captive Apache girl, Carmela Harris, was raised by Americans, became a nurse, and died decades later in Italy.
In July, 1933, an Apache girl about 12 or 13 wandering alone was captured and brought into the town of Nueves Casas Grandes. People came to gawk at "la nina bronca" (the wild girl) curled up in a ball in a jail cell, refusing to talk or eat. She soon starved to death.
Anthropologist Grenville Goodwin tried to make contact with the Apaches of the Sierra Madre in 1934, but failed. In 1937 Norwegian Helge Ingstad and two Apaches search the Sierra Madre for wild Apaches but Ingstad found none. In the 1980s Chiricahua Apaches from Oklahoma searched the Sierra Madre for wild Apaches without success.
A number of Apache children were captured and raised by Mexicans. Other Apaches may have decided to join more peaceful tribes or Mexican society, or sneak unrecorded onto American reservations. And there may be descendants of those members of the Lost Apaches of the Sierra Madre. But all the rest of those Apaches who chose war over peace in 1886, and all their descendants, are dead and gone. As far as the historical record goes, the last might have been "la nina bronca" in 1933.
There was much that was good in the 19th century Apache lifestyle, and modern Apaches continue much of that. But the Apache practice of robbing and killing was not only evil, but suicidal, leading to "la nina bronca".
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