Page 213 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

have quarreled with the description of the canyon as “dead man’s arroya [sic]” or “hells delight,” and that more lives had been lost there to Indians than any other place in New Mexico.28 However, when the writer commented that there were “no settlements or helping hand there to stay the scalping knife of the murderous Apache” or that the area was “not sweetened by anything that has any humanitizing
29
men were left as caretakers of the facility. Fort
[sic] effect,” old Sam might have been
An uneasy quiet that had settled over the area was
long. On January 10, 1879, Apaches attacked two men cutting wood for Sam Lyons. The men had carelessly left their guns with the wagon, and the Indians got between them and their weapons. One man, identified only as Charlie, was hit in the chin by an arrow and before
soon disturbed. Part of the difficulties was due to the fact that the Mimbres Apaches had been sent to the dreaded San Carlos Reservation on the Gila River in Arizona in 1877. Conditions there were so bad that Victorio (Figure 48) led his people back to Ojo Caliente in Alamosa Canyon.
the four horses and cut the harness in pieces.
Lyons was still recovering from the tragedy when
Third Cavalry Second Lieutenant James Allen ar-
rived on his way to Santa Fe. Allen kept the
telegraph line open and reported the circumstances
to Captain Beyer at Fort Bayard. Beyer immediately
dispatched Second Lieutenant Charles Allen Bradly
and 12 Ninth Cavalry troopers to the scene. The
detachment rode all night through drenching rain to
get to Cooke’s Spring. Lyons indicated that the loss
was a severe one for him, because he had no wood
on hand for the winter nor any means of getting 35
any.
In April 1879 Victorio and some of his people
returned to Ojo Caliente, northwest of Fort Craig, and surrendered to the army. Later they moved to
On March 20, Indian Agent John Clum was sent to again remove them to San Carlos. He arrested Victorio and other leaders, and by May 20 the Apaches were back on the reservation. In September, however, Victorio again left San Carlos, this time with about 300 men,
women, and children and headed into Mexico.30 The mail riders- and stages continued to be harassed by various parties. An expressman arrived safely from the west at Mesilla on September 28, 1877, after surviving an attack by Indians west of unmanned Fort Cummings. They fired at him several times without effect, and after he killed one
of their horses, the Apaches broke off the attack.
Robert V. Newsham was not so fortunate. An N
Apache raiding party hit his ranch, on the Mimbres, killed one man and wounded another before burning
32
Newsham’s house.
Loco and his people also fled the reservation be-
causeofVictorio’surgingandthreats. However, Loco was aware that continued resistance would eventually eradicate the Apaches. He was con- vinced that, despite the conditions at San Carlos, his people had to return to the reservation. Conse- quently, in 1878 Loco decided to take his Apache band back to San Carlos. They were attacked by the Cavalry near the east end of Cooke’s Canyon, and several Apaches were killed before Loco could con- vince the military that the Indians were heading for
33 San Carlos voluntarily.
The Apaches did not create many serious problems in late 1877 or early 1878. As a result, in July 1878, military presence in the Southwest was further curtailed when the garrison of Fort Craig was withdrawn. Only a junior officer and seven enlisted
the Tularosa Agency.36 porarily.
Peace was achieved, tem-
upset.
managed to run about 500 yards
he fell, where the Indians finished him with rocks and a hatchet. The other man, David Sullen, suf- feredaworsefate. Evidenceatthesceneindicated thathehadbeentakenalive. TheApachesalsotook
Chapter 7
199
was receiving similar treatment at the time.
34
Selden
Unfortunately, peace and prosperity did not last
The “Last” Indian Wars and a Shift in Transportation and Routes
During 1879, continued Indian depredations cul- minated in the short vicious wars between the United States military and the Apaches, serially led by Victorio, Nana, Loco, and others. By November 1879, these conflicts created the necessity for stationing some troops on field duty at previously abandoned Fort Cummings, and the facility was for- mally reopened in the summer of 1880. From the time of Victorio’s breakout, in August 1879, until well after his death in Mexico, in October 1880, the Southwest was in constant and justifiable fear of the