USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 33
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As a rule, the Apache appreciated a good fighting man. It was so in this case. The body had not been mutilated, but, in the brief time before the coming of the cowboys, had been laid out decently and in order, and over the face had been spread Knox's own handkerchief, its corners weighted down with pebbles.
The episode has been made the subject of a beautiful poem by Miss Sharlot Hall, entitled: "The Mercy of Nachis," from which the following verse is taken :
Knox the Gambler-Felix Knox; Trickster, short-card man, if you will; Rustler, brand-wrangler-all of that- But Knox the man and the hero still! For life at best is a hard-set game; The cards come stacked from the dealer 's hand;
And a man plays king of his luck just once --
When he faces death in the last grim stand.
CHASING HOSTILES INTO MEXICO
In the end, the military arm, reinforced by the Third Cavalry, Colonel Brackett, rushed from the Department of the Platte, and the First Infantry, Colonel Shafter, did good work.
Lieut .- Col. G. A. Forsyth, Fourth Cavalry, cut the path of the hostiles April 23, 1882, and killed at least seven of them. A part of the band raided the country around Galeyville, the site of Paradise camp in the Chiricahua Moun- tains, but the main body kept on southward chased by Forsyth and Capt. T. C. Tupper, Sixth Cavalry. About this time the hostiles did their best to turn the Indian scouts from their allegiance, but were unsuccessful and the scouts later were rewarded by a gift of a large number of horses that had been taken from the fleeing redskins.
Six men and six scouts, commanded by Lieutenant McDonald, were attacked by a band of twenty-four Apaches. Four of the scouts were killed, but one made his way through the hostile lines and found a squadron of the Fourth, under Forsyth, who galloped hard for sixteen miles and arrived in time to save MacDonald and his little force. The Indians, who were in their native fast- nesses, resisted desperately and took successive positions on high, rocky points, some of them over 1,000 feet in height, but the soldiers pursued until the Indians had dispersed in every direction, with a loss of thirteen killed. This same band five days later was surprised in the Animas Mountains by Captain Tupper with two troops of the Sixth Cavalry and a company of Indian scouts and lost six more of their number, as well as their horses.
Captain Tupper's force later was absorbed in that of the hard-riding Forsyth. Both officers had had orders under no circumstances to enter Mexico, but braved a court-martial in their eagerness in the chase. Far down in Mexico near the Janos River, Forsyth's command ran into the Sixth Mexican Infantry, com-
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manded by Col. Lorenzo Garcia, who courteously insisted that the Americans at once retrace their steps. Forsyth, admitting the illegality of his position, still insisted that he must keep on the trail of the Apaches, even at the risk of an encounter with the Mexican forces. Then Garcia divulged the not-unimpor- tant information that, the day before, he had ambushed the fleeing Indians and scattered them, with a loss of seventy-eight Apaches and twenty-one Mexicans killed. Then the two officers shook hands in amity, Forsyth lent his surgeon for the help of the Mexican wounded, divided his rations with Garcia and returned to his station. The Mexicans made no complaint of his action and the expected court martial did not materialize.
THE APACHE FLIGHT OF 1882
Captain Sterling's successor at San Carlos, J. L. Colvig, more generally known as "Cibicu Charlie," was a brave and efficient officer. In the course of his duty, in May, 1882, Colvig, accompanied by several Indian scouts, went to the sub-agency to arrest one of the outlaw Indians who had been responsible for the Cibicu outbreak. There was resistance, in which the outlaw scout and two women were killed. Thereafter Colvig was marked for slaughter on the Indians' acceptation of "an eye for an eye."
July 6, 1882, while Colvig and two of his scouts were on their way up the San Carlos River to distribute ration tickets, he and his scouts were shot down by Apaches, who ambushed them from the brush. The Indians hurried away from the scene of the killing, for there was dust coming down the road. The dust was from two buggy teams, driven by Chas. T. Connell and Trader Rube Wood, who were returning from Globe after an Independence Day celebration. The Indians waited in the undergrowth for the two Americans to come up, but the dust cloud stopped and then turned back. Connell and Wood had been halted by a friendly Indian, who yelled to them in the Apache tongue, "Go back; everybody killed at San Carlos." Connell, thinking the man wild, was about to pass, when the man threatened him with his revolver and still insisted that he go back. With Connell was his wife. The two teams were turned and were galloped at full speed, with a band of yelling fiends behind and others trying to cut off the party at the turns of the road. It was about a seven-mile run to Gilson's Well, where there was a house that could be barricaded and where there were at the time a number of teamsters, one of whom, Al Rose, gave Connell a fine horse to ride the twelve miles into Globe to secure assistance. Connell made the journey in thirty-five minutes, but the horse never was used again. Whistles were blown and the church bells were rung and the men of Globe gathered at once for war. Couriers were dispatched to outlying ranches and Connell went back with twelve well-armed men. Sending the women and children into Globe, the posse continued from Gilson's down the cañon to a point just below where Connell had turned his horses. There it was found that a cottonwood log had been rolled beside the road as a bulwark, behind which had lain at least a dozen Indians. Near by lay the body of Colvig and the two scouts. These were picked up and taken to San Carlos, where Colvig was buried beside his predecessor.
The Indian who had warned Connell and Wood immediately disappeared
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to join the tribesmen and possibly escaped detection by the hostiles. For years thereafter the two Americans saw that he and his family needed nothing.
The Indians' outbreak was led by a chief named Nadiski, a Coyotero Indian, whose band included a number of Tontos. (Army records mention Nan-ti-a-tish and Arshay, Cibicu chiefs.) Nadiski lived on Cherry Creek near the Middleton ranch and had refused to go on the warpath with the Cibicus. But he was recog- nized as a bad Indian and was taken to San Carlos, where for a while he was held in the guard house. All of this made him sulky and when he started back for his own hunting grounds he took with him one of the largest bands that ever left the reservation, possibly embracing 150 bucks and squaws. He had made careful preparation, including the cutting of the telegraph line, 300 feet of the wire being taken a half mile back in the hills to insure against immediate repair.
SETTLERS SAVED BY GLOBE RANGERS
The Indians, trooping off from their reservation, like truant children, struck northeast of Globe, past the almost-deserted mining camp at McMillen, where a young man named Ross was wounded, and into the Cherry Creek Valley. Globe had called together and armed a large number of citizens and had estab- lished guard posts in the hills around. Always on call was a flexible sort of organ- ization, known as the Globe Rangers. A dozen of these Rangers forthwith saddled and struck northward, to warn the settlers of the Cherry Creek Valley and Tonto Basin. Among the members of the party were Capt. D. B. Lacey, W. F. Mid- dleton, Winthrop House, Newt. Clark, Fred Hatch, Lafayette Grime, "Black Bill" Beard and Lindsey Lewis. At the Middleton ranch, fifty miles from Globe, were found William Middleton, W. H. Henry, Eugene Middleton and one Knight, making a formidable force of frontiersmen. The Indians, on their way killing a lonely settler named Gleason, arrived a bit earlier than expected and forth- with proceeded to stampede the horses grazing near the cabin. Lacey and five others bravely tried to save the horses, but the half dozen were fortunate in get- ting back to the cabin with their lives.
Eugene and Henry Middleton and Grime had started early to warn the ranch- ers further up the valley. They returned during the afternoon and dropped into a situation that promised sudden death. Unable to escape northward on their tired horses, the trio dashed down a narrow mountain valley, the target of scores of rifles. The cabin was reached, with wounded horses, yet with only slight injury to one of the three, Eugene Middleton, whose right stirrup was shattered by a hullet.
The Indians, finding no profit in the attack on the Middleton ranch, stopped wasting their bullets about nightfall and moved on northward. The next place visited was the Sigsby horse ranch, on the headwaters on Tonto Creek, a few miles west of Pleasant Valley, reached about ten o'clock the following morning. One of the Sigsby brothers and a French employe, Louis Houdon, were found away from the house, trying to save their horses, and were killed, but not until at least half a dozen of the Indians had been started toward the happy hunting ground, as shown by the number of Indian shirts left behind. The men had sold their lives dearly. Then came one of the most gallant episodes of Indian warfare. The second Sigsby, though "creased" across the breast as he was entering the house with a supply of water, managed to barricade himself safely and through chinks
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in the cabin walls to hold off a continuous attack that lasted until into the night, killing at least one Indian who had crawled up in the dusk near the house trying to secure the saddle from Houdon's mule, which had returned to the cabin, there to be shot.
The Indians kept traveling still northward toward the fastnesses of the Mo- gollon Mountains. A small part of the band, over at the edge of Pleasant Val- ley, was espied by the young wife of one of the Tewksburys on guard at daylight. The young woman distinguished herself by a shot at an Indian who peeped from a rock, and felt sure she hit him.
General Willcox early had been advised of the outbreak and forthwith he ordered out troops from Forts Thomas, Apache, McDowell and Whipple, all to concentrate on Wild Rye Creek, in northern Tonto Basin.
CHAFFEE'S FIGHT AT BIG DRY WASH
At the time, Capt. Adna R. Chaffee was in command of three troops of the Sixth at MeDowell, near the mouth of the Verde. On receipt of news of the out- break he joyously sounded "Boots and Saddles" and with half his garrison cut through the lofty Mazatzal range on the old Camp Reno road, through Tonto Creek Valley and over the upper Sierra Anchas. He arrived at Sigsby's only a few hours after the last Indian had departed and hurried on, leaving the rancher to bury his own dead. It was a hard ride at the pace he set and soon the trail was lined with worn-out horses. But Chaffee, shrewd campaigner that he was, had brought extra mounts. Indian videttes telegraphed ahead by smoke and fire and blanket of the coming of the galloping troopers.
The Indians, with their herds of stolen horses, were trailed by Al. Sieber into one of the great canons that indent the awful cliffs of the rim of the Mogollon Plateau, near the head of Chevalon's Fork. In the middle of this "Big Dry Wash" was a rocky hill, from which Chaffee's dismounted troopers soon drove the hostiles, who took refuge amid the rocks on the sides of the gorge. The Indians at first outnumbered the cavalry, but there were accessions very soon of troops from all directions, perfectly carrying out the General's orders. Close behind was Major A. W. Evans, Third Cavalry, who rode hard to the rescue with a troop commanded by Lieutenant Converse, but who generously left direction of the attack with Chaffee, whom he ranked. Chaffee struck the hostiles about 3 p. m. July 17. The Indians, well placed behind boulders in the cañon walls, fought desperately, and a number of redskins, getting out of the gorge, opened fire on the rear of the troops. Yet at dark the advantage was with the soldiery, for the Indians had been driven from their loot and horses into a position that could not long be maintained.
By next morning no less than twelve troops of cavalry were on the ground from four widely separated posts. Indian scouts wormed through the brush to find the Indians had fled into the Mogollons, leaving sixteen dead, two of them of the Cibieu scout company, and six wounded to be taken prisoner. The fugi- tives scattered, favored against trailing by a heavy hail storm. One trooper was killed and seven were wounded. Among the wounded also were Lieutenants Geo. L. Converse and Geo. H. Morgan. Evans and a number of other officers received high commendation in orders for their work in this affray.
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BAD AGENCY CONDITIONS
In the summer of 1882 Indian conditions in Arizona had become bad indeed. There was unrest in practically all the tribes. This was not due to the opera- tions of the military, but mainly to the system of the Interior Department of turning the Indian agencies over to political favorites, under the apparent as- sumption that graft was the expected thing. One of the most unpopular of these officials, from the standpoint both of the white settlers and of the Indians, was Indian Agent Tiffany, of San Carlos, who is said to have relinquished a large salary as pastor of an eastern church to accept half the apparent annual income, to assist in the "uplift" of the aboriginal wards of the government.
During his period of office, while only a few small patches were enltivated by the Indians under his jurisdiction, there accumulated at the agency veritable parks of farm machinery, including threshers and other expensive equipment that the Indians in all probability never could be able to use. It was claimed at the time that there were commissions in the purchase of this machinery. It was also claimed that certain officials around the agency held in their own names herds of beef cattle in the White Mountains, not only grazing without cost on agency lands, but, in origin, stolen from the beef issues that had been made for the benefit of the Indians.
There was another little tale, that later was investigated by the army, that told of collusion between agency employees and a contractor who delivered at San Carlos several thousand head of high-grade cattle for distribution among the Indians, to start them in the industry of cattle raising. The idea was an excellent one. The cattle were distributed as planned, much to the pleasure of the Indians. Not many months thereafter few of the cattle could be found on the reservation. At the agency it was charged that the Indians had killed and eaten them. A military investigation indicated, however, that the stock when delivered had been collusively "hair-branded." The ranch of the seller was not far from the reservation. When the cattle were turned loose they naturally drifted back to their former homes. Within three months there was no sign of the government brand, but the original brand stood out clearly.
TUCSON JURY'S "ROAST" OF TIFFANY
On the same line, a document which, being official, can safely be copied, was the report of a federal grand jury of Arizona at Tucson in October, 1882. It follows :
The investigations of the grand jury have brought to light a course of procedure at the San Carlos Reservation, under the government of Agent Tiffany, which is a disgrace to the civilization of the age and a foul blot upon the national escutcheon. While many of the details connected with these matters are outside of our jurisdiction, we nevertheless feel it our duty, as honest American citizens, to express our utter abhorrence of the conduct of Agent Tiffany and that class of reverend peculators who have cursed Arizona as Indian officials, and who have caused more misery and loss of life than all other causes combined. We feel assured, however, that under the judicious and just management of General Crook, these evils will be abated, and we sincerely trust that he may be permitted to render the official existence of such men as Agent Tiffany, in the future, unnecessary.
The investigations of the grand jury also establish the fact that General Crook has the unbounded confidence of all the Indians. The Indian prisoners acknowledged this before the grand jury, and they expressed themselves as perfectly satisfied that he would deal justly
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with them all. We have made diligent inquiry into the various charges presented in regard to Indian goods and the traffic at San Carlos and elsewhere, and have acquired a vast amount of information which we think will be of benefit. For several years the people of this territory have been gradually arriving at the conclusion that the management of the Indian reservations in Arizona was a fraud upon the Government; that the constantly recurring out- breaks of the Indians and their consequent devastations were due to the criminal neglect or apathy of the Indian agent at San Carlos; but never until the present investigations of the grand jury have laid bare the infamy of Agent Tiffany could a proper idea be formed of the fraud and villainy which are constantly practiced in open violation of law and in defiance of publie justice. Fraud, peculation, conspiracy, larceny, plot and counterplots, seem to be the rule of action upon this reservation. The grand jury little thought when they began this investigation that they were about to open a Pandora's box of iniquities seldom surpassed in the annals of crime.
With the immense power wielded by the Indian agent almost any crime is possible. There seems to be no check upon his conduct. In collusion with the chief clerk and storekeeper, rations can be issued ad libitum for which the Government must pay, while the proceeds pass into the capacious pockets of the agent. Indians are sent to work on the coal fields, superin- tended by white men; all the workmen and superintendents are fed and frequently paid from the agency stores, and no return of the same is made. Government tools and wagons are used in transporting goods and working the coal mines, in the interest of this close corpora- tion and with the same result. All surplus supplies are used in the interest of the agent, and no return made thereof. Government contractors, in collusion with Agent Tiffany, get receipts for large amounts of supplies never furnished, and the profit is divided mutually, and a general spoliation of the United States treasury is thus effected. While 600 Indians are off on passes, their rations are counted and turned in to the mutual aid association, consisting of Tiffany and his associates. Every Indian child born receives rations from the moment of its advent into this vale of tears, and thus adds its mite to the Tiffany pile. In the meantime, the Indians are neglected, half-fed, discontented, and turbulent, until at last, with the vigilant eye peculiar to the savage, the Indians observe the manner in which the Government, through its agent, complies with its sacred obligations.
This was the united testimony of the grand jury, corroborated by white witnesses, and to these and kindred causes may be attributed the desolation and bloodshed which have dotted our plains with the graves of murdered victims.
The San Carlos Indians drew rations once a week, on the basis of a ticket for each individual, whether just born or too old to walk. Every Friday the ration was delivered through a window in the adobe commissary building to the heads of the families, who passed in their tickets and received the Nation's bounty more or less in bulk. The weekly ration per individual comprised 51/2 pounds of flour, 4 ounces of beans and 8 ounces of sugar, with four pounds of coffee and 1 pound of salt to each 100 rations and, lastly, a small individual cake of soap, however unnecessary. Beef was the principal feature of the ration, however, the cattle slanghtered by the Indians themselves and distributed more or less in common. Also there was an annual issue of blankets, shirts, calico, agricultural implements, knives and other goods valued by the tribesmen.
CHAPTER XIX THE FIRST SONORAN CAMPAIGN
Surrender of the Geronimo Band and Its Escape-Murder of the McComas Family- Zulich's Warning Against Violence-Crawford Killed by Mexicans-Crook Resigns.
Very exceptional indeed it was in the history of Indian administration when vengeance really overtook three of the Cibicu murderers. Dandy Jim, Skippy and Dead Shot, three of the mutinous scouts, were tried by courtmartial, as was proper considering the fact that they had been enlisted in the government service, were found guilty and were hanged at Fort Grant, March 3, 1882. Two others were sent to the Alcatraz prison. There was fear among the military that these executions would lead to immediate reprisals on the part of the Apache tribes, but nothing of the sort happened. There seemed always the keenest ap- prehension among the Indians that the military would turn its Indian captives over to the civil authorities, for they would have had prompt justice if taken before any jury in southern Arizona. It is probable that the military authori- ties would have been more than pleased to lay the burden of prosecution upon the several counties, but any such action would have meant the loss of an officer's commission at the instance of offended Indian sympathizers back East.
The Cibicu outbreak was the cause of much internal trouble within the Department of Arizona. Colonel Carr, rather outspoken in laying the blame on other shoulders, was ordered under arrest, but soon after was released by President Arthur. While pioneers generally are disposed to give little credit to General Willcox, in command at the time, it is probable that like the fiddler in the frontier dance hall he should not have been so vigorously damned, for "he was doing the best he could." It was a hard thing to be a responsible mili- tary commander in the days when savage foes were in front and when, from behind, the soldiers' arms were held by mawkish sentimentalists.
CROOK RETURNED TO ARIZONA COMMAND
When General Crook returned to Arizona in July, 1882, he seemed to have in mind some such plan of campaign as had been so successful ten years before. He went almost at once to Fort Apache, with the idea of gathering up a con- siderable force of White Mountain scouts. But it happened that among these Indians were many who had been implicated in the Cibicu outbreak, including Alchisay, who, however, agreed to assist the General in a campaign against the Chiricahuas. At San Carlos was held a big "talk" where Crook met about all the prominent Indians, upon whom he placed much more responsibility than ever before, demanding of them that they keep the peace of the agency and that
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they themselves punish offenders. IIe re-established the system of metal tags and placed Capt. Emmett Crawford, one of the ablest of his officers, in charge of a company of scouts at the agency.
July 19, 1882, led by Dutchy, was a small outbreak from San Carlos of four of the old Cibicu outlaws who had been held under guard. They entered a camp of six teamsters where, Apache-like, they acknowledged hospitable treatment by trying to shoot down their unsuspecting hosts, whose guns they had seized. A Safford teamster named Ferrin was killed and Kit Reynolds of Globe was wounded, the others escaping.
Agent Tiffany resigned in the summer of 1882 and was succeeded by P. P. Wilcox, who at once appointed a son-in-law sole trader on the reservation and who soon was in active opposition to many of the military plans. All of this tended toward bad reservation conditions, for the Indians were sharp enough to make use for their own benefit of the internal dissensions around the agency.
It is possible that Crook was right in his assumption that Indian had to be fought by Indian, but one very bad feature attended the employment of Indian scouts, in that rifles and ammunition soon were possessed by every brave upon the reservation. All suggestions of disarmament were met by the argu- ment that firearms were needed for hunting purposes. Allowances of cartridges were made to the Indian scouts for use in hunting, but generally were saved up against a day of possible outbreak in the future. Fifty-caliber Springfield cartridges for years passed from hand to hand around the agency in the way of currency, with a value of 5 cents each, a cartridge belt often taking the place of a purse. At one time it was told in Globe that Mexicans were selling cart- ridges to the Indians at 25 cents apiece. Reloading outfits had been secured from the paternal government and were in use and every cartridge shell care- fully was saved. Two features of Indian warfare always gave advantage to the whites; one was that the Apache usually was saving of ammunition and rarely shot unless he was at close range and practically sure of his prey, and further, rarely expended ammunition in target practice. The other was that, generally speaking, the Indian was a poor shot, his keen eyes seeming rarely to take full value of the presence of the rear sight. There is suggestion also that this poor shooting may have been the result of the natural carelessness of the Indian with his weapon, which probably rarely was cleaned and which soon became undependable.
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