USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. III > Part 19
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win, Arizona Territory, with his company, on a scout after Indians. On the fourth day out the company destroyed about seventy acres of corn, also several small fields of beans and pumpkins. On the sixth day came upon a party of Indians -wounded several and captured one, who was afterwards shot while attempting to escape. A Mexican captive was rescued from these In- dians. On the eighth day out attacked a party of Indians and killed six and wounded two."
"November 27 .- An Apache Indian, in at- tempting to escape from Captain Thompson's company, 1st cavalry New Mexico volunteers en route to Fort Whipple, was killed by the guard."
"December 15 .- Captain Allen L. Anderson, 5th United States infantry, with a small party of men, attacked an Indian rancheria near the Weaver Mines, Arizona, killed three and wounded three Apache Indians."
"December 15 .- Captain John Thompson, 1st cavalry New Mexico volunteers, with a party of twelve enlisted men, attacked an Apache rancheria near Weaver, Arizona, and killed eleven and wounded four."
"December 24 .- Lieutenant Paul Dowlin, 1st cavalry New Mexico volunteers, reports that on his return trip from Fort Whipple, Arizona, the Navajo Indians ran off fourteen of his mules."
The foregoing, which are contained in a re- port signed by Ben C. Cutler, Assistant Adju- tant-General, practically covers the operations of the military in Arizona during the year 1864. In concluding his report Mr. Cutler says :
"Then came the operations of the troops against the Apaches of Arizona. To those ac-
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quainted with the difficulties of campaigning in that distant country-formidable against the movement and supply of troops in every way in which a country can be formidable, whether con- sidered on account of its deserts, its rugged and sterile mountains, its frequent and often impass- able defiles, and, in widely extended regions, the scarcity of water and grass-the wonder will be that the troops were ever able to overtake the Indians at all. Although the results of opera- tions in that Territory were not so great as hoped for, yet they were creditable, and were won at an expense of toil and privation of which any description could give but a faint idea to one who had never traversed this very singular country. The marches of the troops were long, and sometimes repaid by but poor results. For example : on one expedition, under one of our most distinguished officers, the troops marched 1,200 miles, and actually killed but one Indian. Oftentimes long scouts would be made and not an Indian, or even the track of one, would be discovered; yet the movements of the troops in every direction through the country of the Ari- zona Apaches, and a few partial encounters with them, attended by great good fortune, gave us the morale over them, until now they are in- clined to flee at the sight of our armed parties, and scatter in all directions, and not to stand upon the hilltops and crags and jeer at our men by insulting cries and gestures, as they did when we first began war upon them. It is hoped that in a short time, they, too, will be sufficiently sub- dued to surrender and go upon a reservation.
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"Not only have the troops thus followed and punished the Indians, but they have opened new roads, repaired others which had become de- stroyed by floods, have built posts, guarded trains through the interior of Arizona and New Mexico, and conducted the thousands of Cap- tive Indians from the old Navajo country to the reservation, and not only guarded them there, but have directed their labors in opening up what will be one of the most magnificent farms in the United States.
"The general commanding the department takes great pleasure in being able to congratu- late the troops on such a record. The increased security of life and property throughout this widely extended department, attests the bene- ficial results which spring from these efforts. The prosperity of New Mexico and Arizona will be sure to follow. So it must ever be a source of gratification and pride to every officer and soldier engaged in this great labor to know that the people for whom he has toiled are getting to be more secure in their lives, and to be better off in their worldly condition.
"All this has been done quietly and without ostentation on the part of the troops. In the great events which have marked the struggle of our country to preserve intact the union of all the States, it was not expected that such labors would receive the attention of the general gov- ernment; but the fact that two great States will yet date their rise, progress, and the commence- ment of their prosperity from this subjugation of hostile Indians, will always be most gratify- ing to remember by those who so nobly did the work."
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CHAPTER XII. INDIAN TROUBLES (Continued).
THE INDIAN'S SIDE OF THE QUESTION-STORIES BY MIKE BURNS, MOHAVE-APACHE-HIS CAPTURE BY U. S. TROOPS-INDIAN METHOD OF CATCHING ANIMALS FOR FOOD - FIRST WHITE MEN SEEN BY INDIANS-ILL TREAT- MENT BY SOLDIERS AND NAVAJO INDIANS- KILLING OF COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AF- FAIRS LEIHY-MASSACRE IN SKULL VALLEY- MASSACRE OF YAVAPAIS.
So much has been written of the Indian by the white man, so many reports have been made by the military, and other authorities, of the raids and massacres by the red man, and so little is known of the Indian's side of the story, that the following stories of the Apache Indians, written by one of themselves, Mike Burns, will, without doubt, cast a new light upon the ques- tion, not only for Indian accounts of many battles with the white man, but also for descrip- tions of the methods of travel and customs and manner of living of the Indians. It is a pathetic narrative, elegant in its simplicity, and shows the deep feeling of an Indian brooding over the wrongs which he has received at the hands of the whites. It is an eloquent appeal for justice at the hands of those who took from him his lands, and robbed him of friends and relatives. It is given here without change of phraseology, and I think many parts of it will rank with the orations of Red Fox, Black Hawk and other Indians who have made their names a part of the history of this country.
MIKE BURNS.
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Mike Burns, the author, is an Apache-Mohave Indian, born in Arizona, about the year 1864, as nearly as he can tell. When a child of about seven years of age, he was captured by Captain James Burns, of the United States Army, then in command of company G 5th U. S. Cavalry. He was raised by Captain Burns, being a mem- ber of his family until about the year 1880, when Captain Burns was ordered East on ac- count of his health, but died at Fort Wingate, New Mexico, shortly after starting on his jour- ney. Mike Burns was left behind in Arizona, but through the influence of General Wesley R. Merritt, was sent to Carlisle, where he received a common-school education. He now resides on the McDowell Reservation in Arizona, but at- tends the terms of the Federal Courts in Ari- zona as the official Indian interpreter. Through good fortune the writer of this history was able to secure from Mr. Burns almost all the manu- script which he has been engaged in writing for several years, and the following a valuable contribution to the History of Arizona :
"I cannot state just how old I am now, be- cause Indians have no way of keeping records of births or deaths, and I have no parents or any near relatives to tell me when and where I was born. All of my people were killed by the sol- diers in what was known as the "Bloody Salt River Cave Massacre" (Battle of the Cave), in the year 1872. Lieut. E. D. Thomas, of the United States Army, told me that when I was captured, that I appeared to him to be about seven years old. I was captured by Captain James Burns and Lieut. E. D. Thomas com-
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manding Company G, 5th U. S. Cavalry. My Indian name is Ho-Mo-Thy-Ah, or 'Wet Nose,' a name given to me because at the time of my birth, or when I was a very young child, the bridge of my nose was covered with mois- ture. I must have been born in the summer time because I was often chosen to set fire to a mescal kiln. It is customary among the Apaches to have a man or woman, or boy or girl, born in the summer time, set fire to such things, as it is believed that if the fire is lighted by such a one, the mescal will cook to a juicy taste and be sweet. If a young man or woman, not born in the summer should set fire to a mescal cook- ing, it will not cook right; it will not be sweet and juicy, but, instead, will turn out white, just as it was put in, and will be green and hard to eat. "I was not so young a child when with my people but I could remember a good deal about their life. I used to lead my old grandfather around in the caves on the Salt River Box Can- yon to find woodrats' nests. My grandfather would use a figure 4 trap to catch woodrats, rab- bits, squirrels, and birds. We used to set the traps in the afternoon and next morning go around and take out the animals which were in them. Sometime the coyotes would steal some of the small animals, but if coyotes were around, we would put thistle around the traps, and the coyotes would not go near the traps then. We would take the skins off the animals and roast them by the fire or boil them, and eat the little meat and drink the water they were cooked in as soup. We used to live this way and were very well satisfied with our way of living.
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"The women would go to different places to gather herbs, or wild flowers which had seeds in them which were good to eat. The young men would go out hunting deer, and hardly ever came back to camp without having deer meat. Deer meat was our principal food. The white people have often wondered, and sometimes even say to-day, 'What did the Indians use to do for food ?' The Indians had more things to eat in those days than they have now. They did not have to buy everything in order to prepare a meal; those things grew in the midst of them, and the deer and other game was plenty every- where. They could go out any time and kill enough to fill their wants, but now, no Indian can kill deer.
"Ha-lo, which means 'Rabbit,' who is a man about one hundred and five years old, told me that the first white people travelled through the northern part of Arizona in the year 1847. Many Indians used to sit on the southeast side of the Bradshaw Mountains; they had their camps all through those mountains, and saw parties of the white man's travelling wagons coming across the country, wagons that had from twenty to thirty horses, which hauled them through rough can- yons and over the hills. One day four young warriors decided to go into one of the white mens' camps to see if they could not trade some skins they had for something. They went to the camp in single file, and when they reached the camp all the white men got on their horses. The older people shook hands with the Indians, but the young men got on their horses and acted as if they were going to corral the young warriors. They rode close to them, holding their pistols and
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guns in readiness, and commenced shooting at the young Indians, only one of whom escaped.
"Ha-lo said that when he was a young healthy man he could run so fast that he could catch a young fawn, but that he never ran so fast as he did in trying to escape from these white men. A few days after this massacre, and after the white men had left the camp, some of the Indians went to the place and found two of the young Indians' bodies mutilated so badly that they could not tell who they were, and the bones of the third Indian were found nearby, having all the appear- ance of his having been boiled to death.
"Ha-lo also told me the following story: 'A band of us had taken a herd of mules and horses, and we were all armed with guns and pistols and were coming from Bill Williams' Mountain when we were overtaken by the soldiers. The soldiers overtook us because the animals made us travel slow, and one of the saddles came off of one of our party's horses, and I had to stay be- hind to help him fix it. Just as we had it fixed and were ready to start the soldiers came over a little hill just behind us. They were in close for- mation and came to within fifty yards of us, and I up with my gun and shot at them, and must have hit some of them because I never missed a mark when shooting with a gun. There were only twenty-five of us from our camp on Jock- Ha-We-Ha, which is the Indian name of Bill Williams' Mountain, and means "Covered with Cedar." Two of the old men had horses and were riding them, driving the mules on ahead. I am the only one now living to tell about that fight with the soldiers. We stood them off, and the way it was done was like this : Many Indians had
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come across the Colorado River, we called them the Chem-A-Wau-Wa-Worthy, and they gave us guns and pistols, and powder and bullets, so that most of us had guns or pistols, and were also armed with our bows and arrows. I commenced shooting at the soldiers with my gun and they scattered. I overtook the rest of my party, and we did not give any more attention to the horses or mules, but prepared to fight for our lives. When I reached my men we all got down in a little creek or gulch, and stood the soldiers off as they were coming over the hill. The soldiers got off their horses and fought us on foot, leav- ing their horses on the hills. We could not raise our heads to see much because the soldiers were shooting at us so fast. Some of our party got on the top of a high butte there was there and when the soldiers came too close they would give them a few shots and drive them back. The soldiers held us there nearly all day. Two of our men were shot nearly all to pieces, but they would not have been hurt at all if they had kept in the gulch. When we saw how things were, we all raised up together and all shot at once at the sol- diers on the top of the hill, and those of our men who were on top of the butte behind us fired a volley at the soldiers right after ours, and there were no more soldiers to be seen in the field. One of our party who was on the butte called out that the soldiers were going back the way they had come. Some of the soldiers were seen driving back a few of the horses and mules we took that morning. The fight lasted until about four o'clock in the afternoon. After the soldiers had gone back we found a few horses on the other side of the hill and drove them on with us, carry-
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ing the two Indians who had been wounded, and that night some of the Indians sang all night over the wounded men. The next morning we moved to our camp on Bill Williams' and two men were sent back to our old camp to tell the news of what had happened and to bring help to carry the two wounded men. This was done and the two men recovered and were able to go about just as well as they ever could. They were afterwards killed by the Navajos with whom they had always been on friendly terms, trading them all sorts of things for blankets and other things which were more valuable in those days. The Navajos had changed, however, and were very mean. They would often drive off herds of sheep and goats across the country where other Indians lived, and on that account the Indian scouts and the soldiers would often jump on innocent bands of Indians, and kill them all off under the supposition that they had done the raiding. The other Indians did not know anything about sheep or goats, but the Navajos did, and would steal them for their meat, and for their wool, which they made into blankets, rugs, etc., throwing the blame on other tribes of Indians who were entirely innocent. Much has been written and said by the white peo- ple in favor of the Navajos, but it is a fact that the Navajos were one of the worst tribes of In- dians, and were very skillful in throwing the blame for their misdeeds on to other tribes of Indians. The Navajos would come very close to Prescott and drive off stock, kill ranchers and teamsters and mail-carriers, and they would do this even after all the Yavapais and other In- dians were on the reservations at Campe Verde and Cottonwood.'
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"About the year 1865 the Colorado Indians, who were called by other Indians Mo-cav-va, or Mohava, lived on the banks of the great Colorado River. They were the first Indians who met with the whites, and were the advisers or agents of the soldiers stationed at Fort Mohave. Some of them used to visit the mountain Indians, who were known to them as Talle-ca-by-ya, or
Apache-Yumas, as they are now known. Their ranges were all along the west of the Bradshaw Mountains, to the south as far as the Harqua- Hala, and to the west as far as the Colorado River. They were on friendly terms with the In- dians all along the Colorado River, the Yuma or Cachons, and also with the Mo-cav-vas, or Mo- haves. They could understand one another's languages, and also the language of the Yava- pais. It is said that these tribes of Indians, the Yumas, Mohaves, Walapais, Talle-ca-by-yas and Yavapais, used to be one family, but they got to quarrelling and separated, going in different directions. The ones that went west became separated again, one party going south and they were called the Cajones, or the Yumas. Another party went above the Colorado River, and they were called the Mo-cav-vas or Mohaves. Other Indians call them Havel-by-ya (the People in the Waters). At one time some of the Mohaves sent their runners over to these Talle-ca-by-yas to invite their headmen or chiefs to come to Fort Mohave to have a peace meeting. Many of them, about thirty-five, came to learn what they were to talk about. When they reached Fort Mohave they were told to go into a large house and they were kept there and killed, none went back. Some of their tribe afterwards went to a friendly
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Indian camp near Fort Mohave to try and learn what had become of the chiefs who came there to hold a council, and were told that their chiefs had been killed by the soldiers.
"After a while the very same white men who ordered these deeds committed, went out to bring these Indians from their homes on the Colorado River bottoms. The Indians learned of this, and held a meeting, and it was agreed to ambush the party of whites coming out to make a treaty and a watch was set for the party, which included Commissioner of Indian Affairs Leihy. One day a runner came in and said that Leihy and others were on the road between Date Creek and Kirkland. The Indians gathered on the road- side, hidden by the bushes. The approaching party consisted of Leihy, a driver, and an inter- preter in a buggy, and one white man on a horse. The Indians in the bushes heard Leihy call out: 'Do not harm me or my party because we are out among you Yavapais for the purpose of making peace with you, and all you mountain people.' The Indians were glad to learn that they were going to meet the right party, the men they had long been looking for. The party came close on to the ambushing Indians, who were concealed on both sides of the wagon road, and all at once they attacked, shot the horses and all rushed in to get the first shot at Leihy. One big Indian proposed, and it was agreed, that no one Indian should claim that he was the man who had killed the great chief who was a white man, and who was the man who had made all the false treaties in order to bring all the Indians in to close range in order to kill them quicker and easier than fight- ing them at a distance.
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"At least three parties of Indians had been in- duced to go to Fort Mohave and never returned. They were told that the white man had sent out word to all the Indians throughout the country inviting the Yavapais to come in to Fort Mohave to make peace and receive rations, clothing, and all kinds of presents.
"The Indians killed Leihy, the two white men with him, and one Indian who was from Fort Mohave and who accompanied Leihy as inter- preter. There was another Indian with the party but he was found to be one of their own people. Most of the Indians wanted to kill him, too, but others did not, and finally his life was spared. He was found to be one of the parties who had gone in previously to Fort Mohave and he had been forced to guide the party of white men over the country. So this lone Indian was taken back to his people.
"The foregoing occurred near Skull Valley, near where so many of the Yavapais were slaughtered, and it was not so very long after that killing was done. Afterwards, when the white people came to that valley, they saw many bones and skulls of human beings, and so they named it Skull Valley. The bones and skulls were thick all along the valley, but where they were to have had the meeting they were thickest. At this massacre some ran for their lives because they had nothing to protect themselves with. They had been told that when they went to meet the white men they must not have any arms or weap- ons; that they must leave their bows and arrows in the hills in order to show that they came in to meet the newcomers in a friendly spirit, and it was promised that the white man would not hurt
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them. So they left their bows and arrows be- hind, but some of them had knives and spears. They were led by their chief, who had a written note which was given to him by a man by the name of Weaver, who used to live up on the head- waters of the Hassayampa. He was the first white man who went among the Indians and he never was troubled by the Indians and he never troubled them. When a party of Indians wanted to travel through parts of the country where there were white people, Weaver would write out a note and give it to the Indians to take along with them, and he always advised them to be sure and hold out the paper towards the parties they were approaching so that the white people would know that the Indians had a paper to show to them; that the paper would assure the whites that the Indians were peaceable and that it was written by a white man who was a friend of the Indians.
"When the different parties of Indians saw a camp of white men, they all came together and it was agreed by the chiefs that they should go down to the camp. This was the season when the acorns and the walnuts were ripe, and many Indians came there, near to those small springs and valleys, only a few miles from or west of the present town of Prescott and Iron Springs. There were men and women in the bands of In- dians, and they decided to go down to the sol- diers' camp where they expected that some presents would be given to them. Some of them were suspicious, however, and would not go down, saying that they would wait this time and find out from those who did go if the white sol- diers received them peaceably and gave them
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presents, and if the soldiers were really out in the country to make peace with the Indians, they would all go down. Many Indians, men, women and children, were seated on the high hills, pretty close to where the Mineral Spring is now, what is called the 'Iron Spring,' but some women and children went along to the soldiers' camp, too. The chief, whose name was E-cha-waw-cha-com- ma, which means 'Hitting an Enemy,' talked to all the Indians gathered there, and told them that he had a written paper which he was told to have with him wherever he might go, and should he happen to meet strangers, white men, parties of soldiers, and so on, he must show this writing to them as it would tell them that he was friendly and that he and his party must not be molested by white men or soldiers as he and his party were not on the warpath, but were just out hunting or travelling over the country. A por- tion of the Indians, led by this chief, went down to the soldiers' camp. When they got to within a few yards of the first tent, which they supposed was occupied by the commanding officer, the chief pulled out the paper and held it towards a man who was standing near the tent, who turned and went into the tent. The officer came out of the tent, and the chief saw that he had a gun, and the officer called out some words of command to his soldiers, and they all came out of their tents carrying their guns. The officer, instead of tak- ing the paper which the chief was holding out to him, pushed his hat back on his head so as to have a clear view, and aimed his gun at the chief. Even at that the chief did not halt or retreat but continued holding out the paper to the officer, when the officer shot him, and the shot was at
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such close range that the burning powder set the chief's clothing on fire. At the same time the soldiers shot at all the Indians in sight and al- most all of the Indians were shot down. A few ran right in front of the soldiers, hoping by running fast to escape the bullets. Many, how- ever, rushed on the soldiers hoping to be able to take the guns and pistols away from the sol- diers and defend themselves. The soldiers kept on firing and must have killed some of their own men by shooting at the Indians who were among them. Many of the Indians escaped alive, al- though many of them were wounded. One of the most surprising things about this affair was the escape of the chief. All the Indians had seen him fall with his clothing on fire, but two days afterwards he came into camp almost dead. The bullet went through his shoulder and he fell over as if dead and later escaped. Many of the In- dians tried to escape by hiding under wagons, and while the other Indians were fighting with the soldiers they got out and ran away. Two of this party who escaped this way got slight flesh wounds on the legs. One soldier was sitting down shooting with his rifle, and had a long re- volver hanging in a holster from his belt. One of the Indians crept up behind him and got the revolver from behind and shot the soldier through the head and then made his escape to the hills.
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