Page 80 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

sendingofsignals. TheIndiansusedsmokesignals,
fires, and reflected sunlight to communicate with
other groups or bands at surprisingly long 92
distances.
History has treated the Apaches no less cruelly
than they frequently treated their enemies. Stories abound of mutilations and use of fire, sun, or ants to inflict pain during a captive’s prolonged death. How extensive this was could be debated, and it was not all one-sided. Nevertheless, authors and Hollywood have nearly always depicted the Indian, especially the Apaches (of whatever band or tribe), as blood- thirsty and heartless, having few, if any, redeeming social traits.
An example of savage retaliation against the Apaches was recorded following an Indian ambush ofasmallAnglopartyontheSantaFeTrail. James M. White, a Santa Fe trader, had left Kansas City, Missouri, on September 15, 1849, in a large caravan organized by Francois Aubry. Despite Aubry’s warnings, White left the train on October 23 in two carriages with his family and six other people. Two
days later, near Point of Rocks, they were attacked by a band of about 100 Apaches. All were killed except Ann White, her eight-year-old daughter, Vir-
ginia, and a Black female servant who were carried
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pesos and fuel the Apaches’ already intense hatred for the Mexicans 96 During this period of transition from Mexican to Anglo control, the Apaches focused most of their attention to the south and on
subsistence raids.
One group of marauding Apaches was led by a
White renegade, “Apache Jack” Gordon, a Vir-
ginian whose real name was Peter Worthington.
Their persistant raids against settlements along the
Rio Grande and Gila River brought them into
repeated confrontation with Captain Enoch Steen
and his Second Dragoons who were stationed at
Dona Ana. One engagement, in September 1849,
took place near the copper mines. In face-to-face
combat, Gordon shot Steen through the side with his
rifle before he and his Apaches escaped into the 97
mountains.
Rarely did the American military attempt the res-
cue of a large party, because the Apaches usually took only the healthy children. Sometimes the women, if not wounded in the attack, would also be taken, especially if the tribe had suffered a recent decline. However, in October 1849 Captain Steen received a report at Dona Ana that an emigrant party enroute to California had been attacked with 30 being killed and an equal number carried off to the copper mine area. He reportedly assembled a force of 125 men, combining his First Dragoons and some “Mexican Dragoons,” and went after the
98
Apaches with unreported outcome.
On February 2, 1850, a band of Gila Apaches
attacked the town of Dona Ana, on the east bank of the Rio Grande, killing one man and wounding three. WhileSteen,nowaMajor,gavevigorous pursuit, another band relieved the winter hay and feeding problems of the community by making off with almost all the remaining stock. As a result of continuing Indian depredations, Steen recom- mended that a fort be established at the copper mines to “overawe” the hostiles. However, it was not until late the following year, after Steen shifted the emphasis of his request to indicate the substan- tial cost savings over rented quarters in Dona Ana, that Colonel Munroe ordered Fort Webster estab- lished there. It would serve the dual purpose of guarding the mines and shielding the Rio Grande
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communities from Indian attacks?
Neither purpose was well served in the end. The
establishment of a garrison within the Mimbres Apache homeland at Fort Webster added to the
rr
•
otr as captives.
The army, under command of Captain William Nicholson Grier and led by scouts Christopher “Kit” Carson and Antoine Leroux, soon caught up with the Indians. James A. Bennett, one of the soldiers, noted that in a dawn attack on the Apache camp, Mrs. White and eight Indians were killed; however, the child and servant were never found. That night, a noise near the camp was discovered to come from an Indian baby strapped to a board. One frontier- hardened old soldier picked up the child, tied a heavy stone to the board and threw it, child and all, into the river, commenting that he only wished he
could treat more the same way.
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It is little wonder
that the frontiersmen had a saying that there was “no
Sunday west of St. Louis and no God west of Fort
95
Smith.”
On May 25, 1849, the Mexican Government took a
step that would sever any chance of peace between Mexico and the Apaches. Chihuahua reinstituted the bounty for Indians, offering 250 pesos for each live warrior, 200 for adult male scalps, and 150 pesos for each female or child taken captive. In 1849 this action would cost the Mexican government 18,000
The Frontier Soldier and the Indians
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