THE APACHE RAID.
BY GEN. C. H. HOWARD.
A private letter before me from a ranchman says: "Great excitement prevails all over this part of Arizona from the breaking out of the Chiricahua Apaches. We expected them here, as this is one of their old trails and watering places. We kept guard night and day. But they crossed into New Mexico, to the north of us."
The old roaming ground of the Chiricahuas was Southern Arizona. For many years they defied all attempts to subdue them. Their famous chief, Cochise, refused to make any treaty or even to parley with the representatives of the Government.
In 1873, under Grant's "peace policy," General O. O. Howard was sent to Arizona and New Mexico to make treaties with such of the Indians as could be reached. After he had visited many other tribes, including several of the Apache family, and located them peaceably, he determined to make one earnest effort to meet Cochise. The experience of twenty years proved that it would be vain to try to capture him. One white man was found, a scout and interpreter, known as Captain Jefferds, who spoke Apache and who was regarded by Cochise as a friend. He consented to try and bring about a parley with Cochise, but declared no troops must be near. General Howard took one aide-de-camp, and with Jefferds and two friendly Apaches, rode for two days until they came near the stronghold. Jefferds then sent forward the two Indians with a message. They went cautiously, kindling fires from point to point, and receiving answering signals. The next day one of them returned, bringing word that Cochise would see the General and his party, and that the messenger was to guide them to a designated place of meeting. Cochise was not there on the arrival of the party, but some of his head men appeared soon after, had a talk with Jefferds and were introduced to the General, all showing signs of a marked impression, from the fact that the General had lost his right arm and carried no weapons. His Apache name was ever afterwards the "The One-Armed Chief." Some of the Chiricahuas then mounted and rode away, and not long after a body of Indians came galloping up. A powerfully-built man, fully armed with rifle, revolvers and knife, dismounted and first took Jefferds by the hand, and then turned and frankly greeted the General. The details of that interview, of the stay of the treaty-party in the stronghold as Cochise's guests, for two days; their experience the first night, when they were awakened in the middle of the night and the entire camp was moved to a still more inaccessible natural fortification, far up in the mountains, owing to an apprehended attack from a militia company which had pursued some marauding Chiricahuas the day before—all would form an interesting and romantic chapter of Indian history.
The treaty stipulated that all raiding and marauding should cease; that the Chiricahuas should confine themselves to a certain defined tract of country; that Captain Jefferds, whom Cochise always called his brother, would be their agent, and that necessary food would be allowed them. A definite time was granted in which Cochise was to communicate the terms of the treaty to his absent chiefs, some of whom were in old Mexico or other distant places.
INDIAN SUMMER TENT.
The treaty was kept by Cochise and the Chiricahuas for nine years, as long as he lived. They were greatly incensed and felt that they were wronged when Capt. Jefferds was displaced, the reservation marked out in the treaty was taken away, and they were removed from their traditional home and herded upon the San Carlos reservation with other tribes, some of whom they greatly despised. This, however, they still bore patiently or without manifest resentment until October, 1881. At that time there was trouble with other San Carlos tribes. The army marched upon the reservation. The next night the Chiricahuas left. They started in the direction of their old haunts, met freighting teams, murdered the drivers and took the horses, killed cattle and stole other horses from ranchmen, had one or two slight skirmishes with the United States cavalry and escaped into Mexico.
Gen. Crook's campaign into Mexico in pursuit of them is familiar to all. He captured their women and children and old people, and in order, doubtless, to induce the leaders, who were hidden in the fastnesses of the Sierra Madre mountains, to surrender, promised terms that have been severely criticised. Those leaders, like Geronomo, whose hands were stained with murder, were allowed to come back unmolested upon the reservation, to retain their arms, and to feel that, instead of conquered foes of the government, and criminals justly and duly punished, they had outwitted their white enemy and dictated their own terms of a peace to be broken at will.
Should not these Chiricahua leaders, having deliberately broken their treaty, and known to be incorrigibly criminal, have been at least confined where they could neither incite nor lead more murderous raids? It was neither a dictate of humanity nor of true statesmanship to set them loose with arms in their hands. One of the essential steps in the civilization of any tribe is to demonstrate that crimes are to be promptly and adequately punished.
But the utter neglect of the government, and of all missionary bodies, to send to these Chiricahuas any teachers or to make any earnest attempt to civilize them, during the entire nine years of their peaceable stay on the reservation, should, no doubt, be duly weighed when considering the question of ultimate responsibility for this outbreak.—The Chicago Standard.