The fictional Date

What was the fictional date of Rin Tin Tin?

I sometimes read that The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin was set in the 1880s.

However, when I was a child I believed it took place in the 1870s. President Grant appeared in two episodes, and of course Grant was President from March 1869 to March 1877.

And there was a story which which the characters from Fort Apache go to Canada to observe the beginning of the Mounties. I looked up the Northwest Mounted Police in the encyclopedia and found that thy were established in 1873 -- much later I learned that they did not become operational until 1874.

Recently I read that Cochise was a character in one episode of Rin Tin Tin . Fans of the tv show Broken Arrow will be disappointed to know that there was not much time for the events in it to take place.

Cochise was born about 1805 and was at peace withe Americans after they acquired Southern Arizona in 1850 until the Bascomb affair in 1861, then was at war until making his famous treaty with General Howard on October 12, 1872, giving him a reservation in his own land. The fictional events of Broken Arrow would occur during the year and a half up to the death of Cochise in June 8, 1874. The movie Taza, son of Cochise , also says that Cochise died in 1874 (and uses an entirely different set for Fort Apache).

However, the movie Broken Arrow (1950) begins with narration saying it happened in 1870, giving a couple more years for the events of the tv series Broken Arrow to happen in.

So if Cochise was hostile in the episode he appeared in it should have been in or before 1872 (history) or 1870 (fiction), while if Cochise was at peace it should have been about 1872-1874.

The TV series The High Chaparel , also set in 1870s Arizona, had an episode in which Pima Indians hunted Geronimo's young grandchildren. Geronimo may have been old enough to have grandchildren in the 1870s, although his youngest children were not born until the 1890s.

When Rin Tin Tin was rerun in the 1970s I saw an episode with an Apache chief Mehco or Mahko. Nobody said it in the episode, but Mehco was Geronimo's grandfather, whose reign was remembered as a golden age of peace and prosperity by his descendants. So one tv show has Gernomio's grandfather alive in the 1870s or 1880s and another has Geronimo's grandchildren alive in the 1870s!

it would be impossible for Rin tin Tin to occur as early as Mechco's reign, which probably began when Arizona was still a Spanish possession. Of course we could always assume that the fictional Mehco in Rin Tin Tin was not the historical Mehco but named after hm (although the Apaches usually forget the names of the dead).