Chiricahua Apaches as “Bloodthirsty Savages”

At San Carlos, the Chiricahuas had two choices. They could suffer and die on the reservation, or they could leave. When Apaches escaped the reservation and fought to survive, the United States labeled them “bloodthirsty savages.” Soldiers went after the “Wild Indians” with orders to subdue or annihilate them.

“… (T)he kind of war needed for the Chiricahua Apaches, is steady unrelenting, hopeless, and undiscriminating war, slaying every man, woman and child until every fastness should send to high heaven the grateful incense of festering and rotting Chiricahuas.” (Arizona Citizen, April 15, 1876. )

“So far as the threats by the people of Tombstone are concerned I am in full sympathy with them and should be glad to learn that the last of the Chiricahuas was under ground. They are an incorrigible lot…. They are the worst band of Indians in America.” (General George Crook, Commander, Department of Arizona, telegram to Secretary of the Interior Henry Teller, March 26, 1883. Hayes Collection. Quoted in Thrapp, The Conquest of Apacheria, 1967:270-271).

“…(T)he objective point of every man’s hatred should be the San Carlos reservation. This is the breeding pen and fattening fold of the blood-thirsty savages who prey upon honest industry and civilization.” (Tombstone Republican, March 29, 1883. )

“The Apaches must go out of or under Arizona.” (Tucson Star, April 12, 1883. )

General George Crook, Commander of the Department of Arizona, controlled Apaches through unremitting violence. He slaughtered men, women, and children found off reservations. To terrorize Apaches, he beheaded “troublemakers” and hideously displayed his trophies.

“Recent telegram from (Lieutenant) Babcock says that … (Chan-de-i-si’s) head was bought into Camp Apache the other day, which leaves now Inchon’s head on his shoulders…. Start your killers as soon as possible after the head of Del Che & Co. The more prompt these heads are brought in, the less liable other Indians, in the future, will be to jeopardize their heads.” (General George Crook, Commander, Department of Arizona, to Lieutenant Walter S. Schuyler, Fifth Calvary, June 23, 1874. Quoted in Thrapp 1967:160 and Robinson 2001:139. )

Hooligans became vigilantes. Drunk on whiskey and mob manliness, they harassed and attacked the Apaches.

“We are glad to know that our Yavapai Rangers do not think it worth their trouble to make prisoners of the murderous red skins. The custom heretofore adopted, even by our regular army, of making prisoners of women and children, and in many cases of the full grown bucks, seems to be dying out.” (The Arizona Miner, January 12, 1867. )

“…(S)erious delays and serious complications (to Crook’s 1883 expedition) were threatened by the intemperate behavior of an organization calling itself the “Tombstone Rangers,” which marched in the direction of the San Carlos Agency with the avowed purpose of “cleaning out” all the Indians there congregated…. The whiskey taken along by the “Rangers” was exhausted in less than ten days, when the organization expired of thirst….” (Captain John Gregory Bourke, Third U. S. Calvary, Staff Member, General George Crook, Commander, Department of Arizona, In An Apache Campaign in the Sierra Madre, 1886:13-14. )

“The company of Rangers put in the field by the Pima County Board of Supervisors … less than two months ago … report having killed about thirty-five squaws and children in Sonora….” (Army and Navy Journal July 15, 1882:165. Quoted in Thrapp 1967:252-253. )

Ironically, when Apaches left San Carlos, territorial business people profited.

“…(O)utbreaks brought money into the country, or rather into the hands of certain classes. (It was) very probable that the Apaches might have been made peaceable, not to say self-supporting, by a strong, just, & honest administration of their affairs. But the more devilment (Apaches) … could be made to kick up, the more money there was in it for all hands. Every outbreak required unusual expenditures by the War Department in moving troops & purchasing supplies, & furnished reasons for calling for more from the Interior Department. The greater the number of soldiers in the territory, the more money to be gotten out of the U. S….. ” (Lieutenant Charles Gatewood, Sixth U. S. Calvary, Commander of Indian Scouts, Fort Apache, Journal, In Kraft 2005: 28-34. )

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Apaches Before 1886