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

by Edwin L. Sabin

The council was held at the mouth of the Arivaipa Canyon, exactly as General Howard had planned.

From their agency one hundred miles west, on the Gila River, the Pimas came on time—twenty of them, with their teacher, the Reverend Mr. Cook, and their interpreter, named Louis.

From their agency at Camp Verde, fifty miles west, some Tontos came; and some Apache-Mohaves, from their agency at Date Creek, southwest of Prescott; and a company of Papagos, from their homes south of Tucson.

From Tucson itself there came a large delegation of Americans and Mexicans, headed by Governor A. P. K. Safford and the district attorney. Many of the Mexicans were women, bringing the Arivaipa and Pinal children whom they had adopted after the massacre.

The Pimas and the Papagos had long been enemies of the Apaches, so they stayed together. The Tontos and the Apache-Mohaves had been enemies of everybody, so they stayed together. The Mexicans had been enemies of the Tontos and the Apache-Mohaves and the Arivaipas and Pinals, so they stayed together. The Americans—the Tucson citizens and the scouts and ranchers—were ready to back up the guard of soldiers, in case of trouble. But General Howard’s purpose was to make peace between all the peoples of the Southwest.

“Will there be a fight, you think, Jeem?” inquired little Francisco. He and Jimmie had ridden over early on one of the ranch mules, to see and hear whatever might happen. “The Arivaipa will fight to get their children, and the Pima will fight the Tonto, and the soldiers will shoot; won’t they, Jeem?”

“Who knows?” replied Jimmie. “No, they won’t!” he quickly added. “It is all right, chico. Here comes General Howard. And see who is with him! That is General Crook! Hooray!”

“Hooray!” echoed Francisco, who always tried to do what Jimmie did.

For with its six mules at a gallop, and with General Howard upon the seat beside “Dismal Jeems,” the army ambulance had swung into the pretty green valley along the Arivaipa Creek. Behind the ambulance followed, in the road, a cavalcade of officers on horses and mules. The first two were Colonel Crittenden of Camp Grant, and a sinewy, powerful man, in a brown canvas suit, on a mule. General Crook himself!

He had come over with General Howard from Fort Whipple. So had Lieutenant Bourke, and Lieutenant Ross, and Lieutenant George Bacon of the First Cavalry, and others of Jimmie’s old-time officer friends.