USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. III > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
317
INDIAN TROUBLES.
many soldiers following behind, and also some in front of the wagons. There were no hills or large rocks that the Indians could get behind for protection and they were armed with bows and arrows only. Some of them, though, had spears. So the chief told them not to be scared, but to be men, to fight as men for vengeance for the wrongs done to them by the soldiers and others, and that they must hold their places to a man to show their enemies that they, too, could kill; that they must win their battle with the soldiers and take something home so that their few old people and their children could rejoice over the victory. Particularly must they take home with them the clothing of the soldiers whom they might kill. So they watched the wagon train closely and counted how many soldiers there were. Soon some runners came in and said that there were three wagons, six soldiers ahead of the train, and about six or eight soldiers back of it, making in all about fifteen soldiers and three other men on the wagons. The chief said to count them again and make sure there were no soldiers in the wagons. The runners went back and told the watchmen of the chief's instructions, and were assured that there were no soldiers in the wag- ons, that the wagons had no covers and there was only some stuff in them, and the men driv- ing them were riding the mules. The runners returned to the chief, and the watchmen too, as the wagons were within a mile of the party, and they told the chief to find them a hiding place quick. They saw a wide sandwash on the road, and much brush on each side of the road in which they could hide so that they would be
318
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
almost within reaching distance of the party passing along the road. The chief ordered them to hurry back to the big wash. Taking stock of their arms they found that there were only three guns in the party, and these were old fashioned flintlock guns. It was arranged that the men having these guns were to fire first. By this time they could hear the sound of the horses' hoofs, and the soldiers and the wagons were right on top of them. The sol- diers were riding by twos. The Indians having the guns, fired, and the others armed with bows and arrows commenced shooting at the horses, and also at the soldiers. Four of the soldiers dropped off their horses, and the others tried to escape, but several of them were shot with arrows in the back. The soldiers who were behind the wagons commenced shooting, but the Indians who were armed with the guns had reloaded and commenced firing at them. The escaping soldiers were pursued for some dis- tance over the desert, but, fearing that they would be met by a large body of soldiers, the Indians abandoned the pursuit and returned to the scene of the ambush, where they found four dead soldiers and two dead teamsters. One of the teamsters escaped with the rest of the soldiers. The Indians got all the mnules that were hitched to the wagons, stripped the sol- diers of everything they had on them, and got about twenty guns and some pistols. They threw away everything that was on the wagons; opened the sacks of flour, coffee, sugar and
beans, and dumped them on the ground. The only things they took besides the clothing and guns were tobacco and empty sacks. They
319
INDIAN TROUBLES.
found two sound horses, and most of the mules were sound, so there were nearly enough ani- mals for all to ride, riding double. They set fire to the wagons and returned to their camp, taking the road near what is called 'Gold Field,' towards the Needle Rocks, to their camp. When they reached their camp there was great re- joicing there that the warriors had returned safely and had been victorious. Next day the two horses and nearly twenty mules were killed for meat, and all the things that the warriors had brought back with them were taken from them. It is customary upon the return of young men from the warpath, and especially if it is their first experience and they are victori- ous, not to keep anything they got off their dead enemies. It is not considered good policy by the Indians. The old folks wondered why they had not taken the scalps of the dead men, but the warriors said that there was no hair on their heads, so that it was not worth the trouble to cut the scalps off.
"They were told to be on the watch because the soldiers would be coming after them, and sure enough, about three days after their return, some runners came in and said that there was a lot of soldiers coming about twenty miles away. There was a tableland above the camp, and the old folks and children were taken up there so as to be out of the way if the camp was attacked by the soldiers. Most all of the Indians moved up there as there was a rough cliff projecting over the camp, and those who had guns and pistols were to stay and wait for the soldiers to get to the camp. There was a deep and rocky gulch with a creek running through it, and the
320
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
soldiers had to cross that before they could get to the camp, and the Indians were ready to fire on anybody they might see. The soldiers could not see the Indians, and while they were dis- mounting their horses and preparing to set fire to the camp, the Indian boys opened fire on them and the soldiers were scattered in all directions. Some fell dead, and some ran away, leaving their horses. The Indians kept firing on the soldiers, and the soldiers fired several volleys in the direc- tion where the shots were coming from, but could not see any Indians to shoot. Further up on the bluffs, however, on the tops of the hills, could be seen groups of Indians waving red blankets at the soldiers and daring them to come up, but the soldiers only made haste to go back the way they came. The next day the Indians went back to the camp and found much blood and two dead horses. Some of the Indians said that they had seen two of the soldiers drop on the ground, and others tried to make them get up, but they had to leave them there because the Indians were shoot- ing at them, but afterwards the dead must have been picked up and carried away.
"While some of the Indians were looking around the old camp to see what the soldiers had left, there was great rejoicing to find two guns and a pistol which the soldiers had left behind. I was only a small lad then but can remember that place and the happening. I was with the old men, the women, and the children, and we were told to go away up to another high hill, and we were up on the rim of the rocks like moun- tain sheep or an eagle, looking down over the rocks, and when the sounds of shots were heard, the old folks would tell us children to get back over the rocks because the bullets would go a
321
INDIAN TROUBLES.
long way and would kill people. But all the shots we heard were shots fired at the soldiers by our own people. The old folks, however, did not know who was doing this shooting.
"Shortly after this affair some Tonto Apaches visited us, and after a few days the whole camp was separated, one party going to the Salt River country, another going towards the Pinal Moun- tains, and another large party moved over to the upper range of the Superstition Mountains. This was done so that if the soldiers should come back in force there would be no Indians there.
"From that time on it was shown that the soldiers were not very good fighters; they could kill Indians when they came within gun reach and had no weapons to protect themselves. If the Indians were armed to the teeth like the soldiers were, with breech loading guns, pistols and sabres, with plenty of ammunition and a pack train, the soldiers would not stand up to them. But where the Indians only had bows and arrows, and if the bows were broken or the arrows all shot, they would be without weapons, the soldiers could probably have gotten the best of them. If the Indians had all had firearms when the hostilities broke out, it would have been a different proposition, and the settlements in this country would not have been made so fast, neither would the Indians have been taken prisoners of war and placed on reservations against their wishes and without making a fair deal with them. For several years afterwards, on the upper ranges of the country, beyond the Matazal Mountains, many Indians came together and agreed to keep up the war against the whites in the western country. They planned to go on
21
322
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
the south side of the Bradshaw mountains, pass- ing the Hot Springs, just above the site of the town of Wickenburg. This was done by a party who saw four men in the creek, and they agreed to kill them when they returned to their camp, and to take their belongings. One of the Mohave-Apaches, named Waw-a-quattia, found a small sized Navajo blanket which he had left behind him at the time of the massacre some years before, which he was wearing when he went to the council with the soldiers and the Pimas and Maricopas. He was one of the party who escaped, but he had to leave his blanket in order that he might run fast. The next day other parties were out scouring the country and brought in some spoils too, and said that they had killed two Mexicans. They intended to go over to Date Creek to make a raid on the Indians who were camping around that post, and those Indians had given aid to the soldiers by leading them through the country, and they were es- pecially aiding the Pimas and Maricopas. They all claimed, however, that they had never done any killing.
"Some of the party by this time were pretty hungry and ragged, some of them being almost barefoot, and it was decided to turn north and follow the Hassayampa until they struck the road going to Prescott. On this road thev met six white men, mounted on horses. They at- tacked them and killed four of them, and the other two escaped toward Prescott. They found that two of the dead men were dressed in the buckskin suits and moccasins worn by the two Tonto-Apaches who had been killed in the mas- sacre some years previous, and they then found that they had come across the very parties who
323
INDIAN TROUBLES.
had assisted in that massacre. This goes to show that all the outrages on the Indians were not done by the soldiers, but by the first white men who came into the country, some of them being the volunteers from California.
"None of the Indians had been wounded or killed in these last fights, and they decided to return to their homes. Near Pine Flat they found a few head of cattle and drove them across the Agua Fria, and killed them. Packing the meat on their backs they went to the Bloody Basin country, and crossed the Verde River, and in a couple of days they were at home again.
"This little sketch of history about what was done to the Indians by the soldiers, and the first killing of the Apaches by the Pimas and Mari- copas, shows the way the Apaches were subdued. The Pimas and Maricopas were the Indians who lived in the valley of the Gila and the valley of the Salt River, and they were the first Indians in Arizona to meet the white man, and it was supposed that they were friendly to everybody, but they certainly were not to the Apaches. The Pimas and Maricopas massacred the Apaches many times, killing them in the night; then they would always run, even if there were three or four hundred of them. Apaches always called the Pimas crows, because they would dance around and dodge from one place to another un- til they were out of sight. But they were very brave when three or four hundred of them came across a few old men and women and children. They would attack them and beat their heads to a jelly and not let one escape alive. For my part I think the Pima and Maricopa Indians are the most cowardly of the Indians of the south- west. But credit should be given to the
324
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
Apache. He has stood his ground and pre- served his home and his family for a long period of years, creeping from one mountain to another in the night, hiding from his enemies, until he could creep up on some sleeping soldiers, killing some and driving off a few head of horses. Then he was denounced as a 'Bloodthirsty Apache.' There is always a time in the history of man when the duty of protecting himself and his family is imposed upon him; a time when there has been so much wrong done to him that he would not be a man if he did not make an effort to protect himself, his family and his home from his enemies.
"I am an Apache Indian, and I take the stand now and always have, that the Apache is a brave man. They were not a very numerous people, but they preferred to be exterminated rather than submit to injustices or to be taken captives, and they would hold out until the last arrow was shot, or their bows broken, then they would have nothing left to fight with but their hands, and they would rather have them cut off than live to see their country taken away from them. The soldiers were not their only enemies; there were many Indian aliens who fought with the sol- diers, such as the Pimas, the Maricopas, the Yuma-Apaches, the Mohaves on the Colorado, the Wallapais and the Navajos. In addition to these there were the Mexicans and the volun- teers from California. The regular soldiers who were stationed at Fort McDowell, Camp Date Creek, Camp Wickenburg, Camp Del Rio, Fort Whipple, Camp Verde, Fort Reno, Fort Thomas, Fort Grant, and, right in the center of the White Mountain Apaches, Fort Apache; Fort Bowie, Fort Lowell near Tucson, Fort Huachucha, Fort
325
INDIAN TROUBLES.
Yuma and Fort Mohave, also were the enemies of the Indians, and came to fight the friend- less Apache. There were thousands of white men to fight the Apaches, but they had to hire many thousands of Indians to show the soldiers through the Apache country and help track the Apaches, and also to show the soldiers the paths and waterholes. If the soldiers had not had the assistance of the other Indians to fight the Apaches, they would have had a very hard time fighting them. The only way they could get the best of them was to get them to come in on the pretense that the Government wanted to make peace with them, and that they must come in and make a treaty and meet the soldiers without arms, and when the soldiers got them into the camp, they would make good Indians of them by dropping them when they were sitting around on the ground. The soldiers did not like to go out and hunt them in the woods and stand the hard times; sometimes they could not find water for themselves or their animals; sometimes they would be out in the hills and get into some rough country where they could not go any farther and would have to go back the same way they came. The soldiers did very little harm to the Indians. Once in the winter of 1872, the soldiers passed right by a camp of Indians on a thick flat of cedar; it was snowing and the wind was blowing right into the soldiers' faces. They never looked down on the ground to see if there were any tracks of the Indians, and went right on by. They always had to have Indians to guide them and to fight the Apaches in their style, and also to find them waterholes. Only for the aid of the Indians the soldiers were worth nothing.
326
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
CHAPTER XIV. INDIAN TROUBLES (Continued).
MIKE BURNS' STORY OF HOW THE INDIANS STOLE THE SOLDIERS' HORSES-FIGHT WITH NEW MEXICAN VOLUNTEERS-KILLING OF MIKE BURNS' MOTHER-BREAKING UP OF CIBICU APACHES-MIKE BURNS' FIRST SCOUT- YAVAPAIS AND NAVAJOS AT WAR-COMING OF THE WHITE MEN DISGUISED AS INDIANS- COMMIT OUTRAGES-BREAKING UP OF CAMP -FUNERAL CUSTOMS-WIDOWS AND WIDOW- ERS-DELA-CHA'S FIGHT WITH PIMAS AND MARICOPAS-ATTACK ON SOLDIERS.
"In the year 1869 several hundred Indians came to Fort McDowell to make a treaty with the soldiers. They were mostly from the ranges of the Four Peaks and the Matazal Mountains, and also from the Tonto Basin, the country of the Tontos. The Tontos always went with the Mo- have-Apaches, being always willing to risk their lives with them. I remember one incident in connection with this. My grandfather was so old that he could hardly see the way to walk, and I had to go with him to lead him. We had one big dog which would always kill little game and even catch young deer or fawn. On our way to the camp where there was a great council to be held, we had nothing to eat, and my grandfather killed my poor old dog which always caught rab- bits and young deer for our sustenance. He said that it couldn't be helped, that we had to live on something. So he told me to get wood while he was digging a hole after he had skinned the dog, and after I got the wood I had to get
327
INDIAN TROUBLES.
some stones and grass, some green grass and green brush, and he made a fire and put some stones on it. Then he waited until the fire burned down to the level of the hole, and then put my dog on the hot stones and covered him all up with the grass and brush so that no steam could escape. We then went to sleep and towards morning we woke up and uncovered the little mound where the dog was, and found it well cooked. My grandfather gave me all I wanted, and we could not tell the difference between the dog's flesh and that of any other animal. We had all we wanted to eat that morning, and plenty to take along for that day until we reached the camp, which we did towards morn- ing. That night there was a great crowd at the camp, and they danced almost all night, and a few days afterwards they all moved off towards Fort McDowell, I was among them, but I was so young that I can hardly remember anything about it. I can remember, however, that some Indians, men and women, brought in some gramma grass on their backs and took it to the soldiers' stables, and the soldiers gave the In- dians a cup of corn for each bunch of gramma grass. The hay must have been worth but very little at that time, for each bundle of green gramma hay must have weighed from seventy- five to eighty-five pounds, and the Indians only got a cup of corn for each bundle of hay. A cup full would not weigh more than a couple of pounds, it being measured with a soldiers' tin quart cup.
"Everything seemed very friendly at this place, the Indians having dances every night. The camp was across the Verde River, and some
328
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
of the soldiers used to come over and look on at the dances. The Indians, however, broke away to the hills again, and this was the way it came about: There was a Tonto woman at the post who had been captured some years previous, and married to a packer by the name of Archie Mc- Intosh. She told the Apaches that the soldiers had sent for the Pimas and Maricopas to come to the fort and kill off the Apaches in the same man- ner it had been done at Fort Grant on the San Pedro River some years previous. That after- noon the chiefs got together and agreed to leave the camp and go back to the hills. The old peo- ple and the children were to go first before the sun went down, leaving only the warriors and young men, who were to keep singing and beating the drums so that the soldiers would not notice that anybody had left the camp or intended to leave, and, in the evening, Bar-gin-gah, with about six young men, would creep up around the stables after dark, take what horses they could get, and light out with them to the hills. By that time nearly all the rest of the Indians would be near the hills. About midnight Bar-gin-gah, with his young men, went to the stables, creeping on their hands and knees, watching the soldier who was walking around the stable. They no- ticed that there was only one soldier on guard, and when he turned to go the other way, they crept up and untied the horses in the stables, and each one came out with a horse and got away unnoticed by the soldiers until they crossed the river, when the horses made so much noise that they alarmed the camp and the sentinel fired some shots at them, which, however, did no harm. The men who had been left in the camp singing
329
INDIAN TROUBLES.
and beating the drum, had already gone to the hills. The young men drove the horses over the hills and mountains, and next morning when they were near the top of a mountain, they looked back and saw soldiers coming across the valley. Many more Indians joined them and it was decided to kill the horses, which was done, and the meat was held up to the view of the sol- diers, and they were invited by signs to come and have some of it. They did not do this, however, but stayed in the foothills and fired a few shots, some of which struck the dead horses, but none of the Indians were struck. We did not mind the shooting, being more interested in getting our shares of the horse meat. So the soldiers went back to Fort McDowell, nobody was hurt, and we Indians got our fill of horse meat.
"In 1867 some New Mexican volunteers, under Lieutenant Abeyta, had a fight at a point of rocks about twenty-five miles north of Prescott with some of the Apaches. The Indians whipped the soldiers, and drove them out over the rocks. A white man, named Willard Rice, who was a guide and scout for the soldiers, and several soldiers were killed and wounded. It was never known how many were killed and wounded, but the In- dians whipped the soldiers and drove away the stock into the hills towards Bill Williams' Mountain. The story of these fights, when told by the white man, all have the same beginning, which is that the Indians steal stock, as, at Skull Valley some parties of Indians stole some stock from some freighters who were on their way to Fort Whipple, and a few days afterwards a great many more Indians came to the very spot where the animals had been stolen. The soldiers who
330
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
were out scouting for the parties who took away the stock attacked the astonished Indians with- out any warning. The Indians were unarmed, as they were on their way to the Post to make a treaty and had a letter to show the soldiers and to the whites, but they were shot down without mercy.
"The raids of the Indians against the whites were all for the purpose of securing vengeance. No history of Arizona can truthfully state that the Apaches have committed the crimes which have been charged to them. All that they have done was to steal stock, which they did to secure vengeance for the wrong done them.
"My mother was killed by the soldiers. We had been camping at the top of the Superstition Mountains, gathering the cactus fruit, and were returning to our home. My father said that he would go ahead of us to be on the lookout in case the enemy should ambush us. The country we were travelling over had been raided many times by the soldiers and the Pima and Maricopa In- dians, and we were afraid of being ambushed. We were deathly afraid of the Pimas, Maricopas and Papagoes of the Gila Valley. I remember that day as well as if it happened a few years ago, and I was then only a very small lad. We came down from a high mountain trail to a creek. Each side of the creek was covered with cactus, mesquite, and every other kind of a tree, and the cactus and mesquite trees were loaded to the full of their bearing. My mother saw the fruits and the mesquite beans so she wanted us to stop, and left us children, (I was the oldest of three, there being a baby sister and a little brother who could just walk, but not very much). My mother hur-
331
INDIAN TROUBLES.
ried off, taking her large basket which she car- ried on her back. My aunt and uncle (who had five children with them) were getting ready to follow my mother's trail, she having been gone about a half hour, when all at once we heard someone give a loud yell, and in a few minutes there were some gun shots, and we heard my poor mother's death cry. My aunt and uncle told me to take the baby, and lead the little boy, and hurry over to a thick brushy canyon, and my grandmother followed me, but after going a few yards I looked back and could not see my grand- mother any more, but I kept on my way, carrying the baby on my back and keeping hold of my little brother by the arm. I was walking up a thick brushy gulch, and so was not seen by the soldiers or any of our enemies who might be following me. I was walking on the side of a hill when I heard my uncle calling me, and he came to assist me with the children. They had already reached the top of the mountain and when I reached them I could hear my father fighting the soldiers. He only had a bow and arrows to fight the soldiers with, and they had guns. My father was always on the lookout for dangers when we were on our journeys, and the reason that he could not see the ambush this time was that the soldiers travelled in a deep narrow canyon, in between two ranges of rocky hills. My father was looking farther away in the direc- tion of the roads, and could not see a soul, and was sure there was no danger. He came back over the hill, saw us in the valley, and rested for the noon. After the soldiers had killed my mother, they saw my father on the hills, so they chased after him, but he had climbed a high rocky
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.