D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
April
2009
Hiking Apacheria: Walls and Forts
Page: 2Many things were very uncertain when it came to the relationship between the American government and the Apache. One thing absolutely certain, though, was that there would never, ever, be a time when the Americans would provide Apaches with guns and ammo. Likewise, the Apache, who had roamed these lands freely for several centuries, were afraid to hunt as they once had, due to being indiscriminately and without warning shot at and even killed by emigrants pouring into the country by then. From the point of view of these Apaches, the most effective way they could make things happen on their time scale, on their agenda, was to raid, steal, plunder and return to Caada Alamosa to trade for what they needed, when they needed it. It's amazing to think that these fierce Apache needed protection from anyone, but at that point, they were willing to try to allow Americans to protect them.
In the days when Lt. Drew wrote about his needs and the reality of the problems with the Apache, the primary leaders were Cuchill Negro, Loco and Victorio. In the years following 1874, the Apaches were promised an agency could be established at Caada Alamosa, the homeland of their ancestors. Almost as soon as such promises were made, however, political interests, ranchers, miners, farmers and speculators crowded in around there, and wanted to set loose vast herds of cattle. Their interests came ahead of the promised reservation. The Apaches of Warm Springs were shunted back and forth from Fort Tularosa; the headquarters of this agency would be located near a cemetery in Catron County, east of Reserve, in the small town of Aragon. When the Chihenne said Fort Tularosa wasn't what they were promised, they were promised again they could return to Caada Alamosa. But when they tried, the word came to relocate or "concentrate" all the Apache — Eastern and Western Chiricahua, as well as Southern (Mexican N'de n'nai) Apaches — at San Carlos and Fort Apache, Ariz.
By 1878-1880, the Chihenne, numbering around 300 to 400 warriors and women and children, had had quite enough of the American government's lies and ineptitude. Whether apocryphal or not, Victorio was reported to have stated that he would rather die on the run, operating out of their homeland when possible, raiding and plundering as a coherent group, than be reduced to beggars of the American government's capricious attitudes and policies. Cheated so many times out of their homeland, and the fruits they were promised by white American men if they would only become civilized and live like the white man, the Chihenne longed for the land they spoke of as if it were the Christians' Garden of Eden — the lands of Caada Alamosa.
In the end, a specially compiled US Army report of the Victorio Campaigns of 1879 and 1880 reads like the hunt for Bin Laden. A superb collection of the Victorio Campaigns has been put together by the National Archives. It recounts the maneuvers made by Americans and Mexicans alike to corner, box in, kill or destroy the Chihenne as they dashed around the country between the San Francisco River in New Mexico, some parts of Arizona, and as far south as the Sierra del Candaleria, in Chihuahua, Mexico.
It was at a place called Tres Castillos, Chihuahua, that Mexican forces finally surrounded Victorio's people, and killed or captured several hundred. The survivors were treated and sold as slaves, particularly any men who had survived the battle of Tres Castillos, and the women and children were surely treated as slaves/servants by upper-middle-class Chihuahuan citizens. Some of this band are alleged to have also been as slaves to citizens of Spanish-controlled Cuba. At least one modern Apache who now resides in Florida claims his ancestors were among those sold to Cuban land owners.
Two other of the forts that figured prominently in the history of Grant County, and in many ways played a significant role in the history of the Mimbres Valley, were Forts Webster I and II. The first was the old Presidio at Santa Rita del Cobre; the second stood a few miles north of the intersection of Hwy. 35, 152 and 61. The former was triangular fort built by Spanish authorities to protect the mines at Santa Rita del Cobre. It served that function, although in a creaky kind of way, until the Americans won the Mexican-American War. A three-quarter-scale replica of Fort Webster I has been built in Pinos Altos, and can be seen on the main street there. (See "Tall Pines Tales" in this issue.)
Several years after the conclusion of the war with Mexico, in 1851, the Americans moved into Fort Webster, but they stayed less than a year. In the latter part of 1851, the Americans moved out and relocated to Fort Webster II in the Mimbres Valley, where Apache had established rancheria for centuries.
There were many points of commonality in the forts established in Southwestern New Mexico: bleak quarters; mundane or deficient diets, so far as fresh vegetables and fruit are concerned; lots of beans, salt pork, nasty hardtack; the torture that came from wearing hot, sweaty woolen clothes; shoddy equipment as "hand-me-downs" from the Civil War; disgust and disrespect from most citizens of the lands, be they Anglos or Mexicans; very little in the way of thanks from these various citizens; reputations as losers and pitiful examples of professional soldiering. For the "Buffalo Soldiers," who were at Forts Bayard and Cummings, add serious racial discrimination from a significant portion of the population.
In the hundred or more microfilm rolls I've examined at WNMU's Miller Library, I've not found many examples of soldiers shirking their duties when it came to running down Apaches after they'd committed depredations against American civilians. I've only found two or three instances where my own independent review of reports would show cowardice or lackluster performance of duties by these troops. I believe that had the populace been aware of the details of military operations, they'd have been more generous in their opinions of the troops in their midst.
For those who haven't hiked in some of the surrounding remote places, where most forts or camps were located, I have no doubt whatsoever that, in the terms of many a soldier, "this country is the roughest I've ever seen in my career." Whatever collective conclusions might be drawn on the campaigning skills of the average soldier fighting Apaches, white or black, citizen or immigrant, they gave their best in most instances.
My guess would be that at least some of those soldiers, at some of those forts, some of the time, reflected on where life had taken them. And just what the hell was it all about? Who were these Apaches, who lived, even thrived here, and were such incredible warriors? Most of those soldiers had never guessed people like the Apaches existed, until they came here and chased. . . their ghosts. And, of course, occasionally, those soldiers experienced a few moments of utter terror when the Apache did make themselves known.
While I haven't talked about it in this article, I've written about Fort Cummings before ("Canyon Conquerors," March 2006). If you have the time, drive down to Fort Cummings, off the Hatch Highway, to the Florida Station water tower. Turn left off the highway, and follow Cooke's Canyon Road. Take a jog onto a very rough jeep track, about three miles, to the fort. You'll need clearance of an extra foot or so, in most small cars. Don't go if your car is low-slung, because you could rip out the oil pan, and the tow will be serious money.
Even today, Fort Cummings is about as remote as most deserted forts go. Stay well past sunset. Watch as the stars — seemingly millions of them — come out and decide, if you had been an Apache, what all of this would have meant to your heart and soul and mind. The silence will answer, if you listen.
Jerry Eagan is always interested in visiting places connected to Apache history. He can be reached at skymindgraphics@zianet.com This is the 15th article in his "Hiking Apacheria" series; to read the complete series, see www.desertexposure.com/apacheria For greater detail on the forts and camps of New Mexico, consult "Forts of New Mexico" by Dale F. Giese, available at the Silver City Museum.