General Crook and the Fighting Apaches: Treating Also of the Part Borne by Jimmie Dunn in the days, 1871-1886, When With Soldiers and Pack-trains and Indian Scouts, but Employing the Stronger Weapons of Kindness, Firmness and Honesty, the Gray Fox Worked Hard to the End That the White Men and the Red Men in the Southwest as in the Northwest Might Better Understand One Another — John Shaqi
General Crook and the Fighting Apaches: Treating Also of the Part Borne by Jimmie Dunn in the days, 1871-1886, When With Soldiers and Pack-trains and Indian Scouts, but Employing the Stronger Weapons of Kindness, Firmness and Honesty, the Gray Fox Worked Hard to the End That the White Men and the Red Men in the Southwest as in the Northwest Might Better Understand One AnotherSabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
General
General Crook and the Fighting Apaches: Treating Also of the Part Borne by Jimmie Dunn in the days, 1871-1886, When With Soldiers and Pack-trains and Indian Scouts, but Employing the Stronger Weapons of Kindness, Firmness and Honesty, the Gray Fox Worked Hard to the End That the White Men and the Red Men in the Southwest as in the Northwest Might Better Understand One Another
“When they first came into our country we were friendly to them. We
saw that they were different from the Mexicans, and they had been at
war with the Mexicans, too. They shot one of us, and offered to pay
a little something, which was not punishment enough. Still we did
not stay at war with them. Cochise made a camp near the American
wagon-road at Apache Pass, where Camp Bowie is now, and traded, and
sold wood. One time a Mexican woman and her baby were stolen by some
bad Indians from an American, and the Chiricahua were asked to return
them. We did not have them, or know anything about them, but Cochise
and Mangas Coloradas of the Mimbreño Apaches and some other chiefs went
with a white flag to meet a young American war chief at Apache Pass,
and talk.
“When they got there the American chief surrounded them with his
soldiers and told them that they would be kept shut in a tent until
they sent and got the baby and woman. They decided they would rather be
killed than be kept prisoners. So they drew their knives, and Cochise
cut a hole through the back of the tent, and there was a fight. Several
were killed. But Cochise and Mangas Coloradas escaped. Cochise was
wounded in the knee by a gun knife (bayonet). The Americans hung his
brother and five others, by the neck, and Cochise hung an American by
the neck; and he and Mangas Coloradas called all their warriors and
nearly captured the Americans. The young American captain had acted
very foolish.
“After two or three years Mangas Coloradas (this was Spanish for ‘Red
Sleeves’) grew tired of fighting. He was badly wounded, and he sent
word that he would like to treat for peace. The Americans told him to
come in with his people. Cochise had married his sister, and we and the
Mimbreños often helped each other, and now Cochise advised him not
to trust the word of the Americans. But Mangas Coloradas went to an
American fort in New Mexico.
“Then they seized him and put him into a little house with only one
window, high up. The soldiers scowled at him; so that when he was put
into the little house he said to himself: ‘This is my end. I shall
never again hunt through the valleys and mountains of my people.’ And
that was so. This night while he was asleep somebody from outside threw
a big rock down on his chest――or else a soldier guard punched him with
a hot knife on the end of a gun. We do not know. Anyway, he was much
frightened. He ran about, trying to climb out and fight with his hands
and then the soldiers shot him many times, and he died.
“Now you see that the Chiricahua cannot be friends with the Americans
any more than with the Mexicans, and it is so with other Tinneh. The
Warm Springs are friendly, because Chief Victorio thinks that is wise;
and the Sierra Blanca (White Mountains) have agreed not to fight. But
they have not lost chiefs and brothers like we have.”
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