Editing Chiricahua (section)

===Hostilities===
Although they had lived peaceably with most Americans in the [[New Mexico Territory]] up to about 1860,<ref>Debo p. 42.</ref> the Chiricahua became increasingly hostile to American encroachment in the Southwest after a number of provocations had occurred between them.

In 1835, Mexico had placed a bounty on Apache scalps which further inflamed the situation. In 1837 [[Warm Springs Mimbreños]]' head chief and famed raider, [[Soldado Fiero]] also known as Fuerte was killed by Mexican soldiers of the garrison at [[Janos, Chihuahua|Janos]] (only two days' travel from Santa Rita del Cobre), and his son Cuchillo Negro succeeded him as head chief and went to war against Chihuahua for revenge. In the same 1837, the American John (also known as James) Johnson invited the [[Coppermine Mimbreños]] in the Pinos Altos area to trade with his party (near the mines at [[Santa Rita del Cobre]], New Mexico) and, when they gathered around a blanket on which ''pinole'' (a ground corn flour) had been placed for them, Johnson and his men opened fire on the Chihenne with rifles and a concealed cannon loaded with scrap iron, glass, and a length of chain. They killed about 20 Apache, including the chief [[Juan José Compá]].<ref>Roberts: p. 36.</ref> [[Mangas Coloradas]] is said to have witnessed this attack, which inflamed his and other Apache warriors' desires for vengeance for many years; he led the survivors to safety and subsequently, together with [[Cuchillo Negro]], took Mimbreño revenge. The historian Rex W. Strickland argued that the Apache had come to the meeting with their own intentions of attacking Johnson's party, but were taken by surprise.<ref>Strickland, Rex W. (Autumn 1976) "The Birth and Death of a Legend: The Johnson Massacre of 1837"], '' Arizona and the West'', Vol. 18, No. 3. pp. 257–86.</ref> In 1839 scalp-hunter [[James Kirker]] was employed by Robert McKnight to re-open the road to Santa Rita del Cobre.

After the conclusion of the US/Mexican War (1848) and the [[Gadsden Purchase]] (1853), Americans began to enter the territory in greater numbers. This increased the opportunities for incidents and misunderstandings. The Apaches, including Mangas Coloradas and Cuchillo Negro, were not at first hostile to the Americans, considering them enemies of their own Mexican enemies.

Cuchillo Negro, with Ponce, [[Delgadito (Apache chief)|Delgadito]], [[Victorio]] and other Mimbreño chiefs, signed a treaty at Fort Webster in April 1853, but, during the spring of 1857 the U.S. Army set out on a campaign, led by Col. Benjamin L.E. deBonneville, Col. Dixon S. Miles (3°Cavalry from Fort Thorn) and Col. William W. Loring (commanding a Mounted Rifles Regiment from Albuquerque), against Mogollon and Coyotero Apaches: Loring's Pueblo Indian scouts found and attacked an Apache rancheria in the Canyon de Los Muertos Carneros (May 25, 1857), where Cuchillo Negro and some Mimbreño Apache were resting after a raid against the Navahos. Some Apaches, including Cuchillo Negro himself, were killed.

In December 1860, after several bad incidents provoked by the miners led by James H. Tevis in the Pinos Altos area, ''[[Mangas Coloradas]]'' went to [[Pinos Altos, New Mexico]] to try to convince the miners to move away from the area he loved and to go to the Sierra Madre and seek gold there, but they tied him to a tree and whipped him badly.<ref>Roberts p. 37</ref> His Mimbreño and Ndendahe followers and related Chiricahua bands were incensed by the treatment of their respected chief. Mangas had been just as great a chief in his prime (during the 1830s and 1840s), along with Cuchillo Negro, as Cochise was then becoming.<ref>Roberts p. 35</ref>

In 1861, the US Army seized and killed some of Cochise's relatives near [[Apache Pass]], in what became known as the [[Bascom Affair]]. Remembering how Cochise had escaped, the Chiricahua called the incident "cut the tent."<ref>Roberts pp. 21–29</ref> In 1863, Gen. James H. Carleton set out leading a new campaign against the Mescalero Apache, and Capt. Edmund Shirland (10°California Cavalry) invited [[Mangas Coloradas]] for a "parley" but, after he entered the U.S. camp to negotiate a peace, the great Mimbreño chief was arrested and convicted in [[Fort McLane]], where, probably on Gen. Joseph R. West's orders, Mangas Coloradas was killed by American soldiers (Jan. 18, 1863). His body was mutilated by the soldiers, and his people were enraged by his murder. The Chiricahuas began to consider the Americans as "enemies we go against them." From that time, they waged almost constant war against US settlers and the Army for the next 23 years. [[Cochise]], his brother-in-law [[Nahilzay]] (war chief of Cochise's people), [[Chihuahua (chief)|Chihuahua]], [[Skinya]], [[Pionsenay]], [[Ulzana]] and other warring chiefs became a nightmare to settlers and military garrisons and patrols. In the meantime, the great [[Victorio]], [[Delgadito (Apache chief)|Delgadito]] (soon killed in 1864), [[Nana (Apache chief)|Nana]], [[Loco (Apache)|Loco]], young [[Mangus]] (last son of Mangas Coloradas) and other minor chiefs led on the warpath the Mimbreños, Chiricahuas' cousins and allies, and [[Juh]] led the Ndendahe (Nednhi and Bedonkohe together).

In 1872, General [[Oliver O. Howard]], with the help of [[Thomas Jeffords]], succeeded in negotiating a peace with [[Cochise]]. On December 14, 1872, President [[Ulysses S. Grant|Ulysses Grant]] issued an [[Executive order|Executive Order]] establishing the Chiricahua Reservation in the southeast [[Arizona Territory]] encompassing the Chiricahua Mountains, [[Mexico–United States border]], and [[New Mexico Territory]] border.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924097621753/page/n15/ |title=Chiricahua Reservation ~ December 14, 1872 |last=Grant |first=Ulysses S. |date=1912 |trans-title=Executive Orders Relating to Indian Reserves, from May 14, 1855, to July 1, 1902 |website=Internet Archive |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |lccn=34008449 |pages=5–6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4330.np000068/ |title=Territory of Arizona Map, 1876 |website=United States Library of Congress |publisher=United States General Land Office |lccn=99446141}}</ref> Jeffords and [[John Clum]] were designated as the [[U.S. Indian Agent]]s for the Chiricahua Reservation residing near Apache Pass, Arizona and [[Fort Bowie]]. It remained open for about 4 years, during which the chief Cochise died (from natural causes).<ref>Thrapp p. 168</ref> In 1876, about two years after Cochise's death, the US moved the Chiricahua and some other Apache bands to the [[San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation]], still in Arizona.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924097621753/page/n17/ |title=Executive Order of December 14, 1872 ~ Chiricahua Reservation Lands Restored to Public Domain - October 30, 1876 |last=Grant |first=Ulysses S. |date=1912 |trans-title=Executive Orders Relating to Indian Reserves, from May 14, 1855, to July 1, 1902 |website=Internet Archive |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |lccn=34008449 |page=6}}</ref> This was in response to public outcry after the killings of [[Orizoba Spence]] and Nicholas Rogers at Sulpher Springs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://southernarizonaguide.com/tom-jeffords-chiricahua-apache-reservation/|title=Tom Jeffords|date=28 November 2016|website=SouthernArizonaGuide.com}}</ref> The [[mountain people]] hated the desert environment of San Carlos, and some frequently began to leave the reservation and sometimes raided neighboring settlers.

They surrendered to General [[Nelson Miles]] in 1886. The best-known warrior leader of the "renegades", although he was not considered a 'chief', was the forceful and influential [[Geronimo]]. He and ''[[Naiche]]'' (the son of Cochise and hereditary leader after Tahzay's death) together led many of the resisters during those last few years of freedom.

[[File:Taghdeem be doostam Pastoral.JPG|thumb|[[Chiricahua National Monument]] entrance roadway]]
They made a stronghold in the [[Chiricahua Mountains]], part of which is now inside [[Chiricahua National Monument]], and across the intervening [[Willcox Playa]] to the northeast, in the [[Dragoon Mountains]] (all in southeastern Arizona). In late frontier times, the Chiricahua ranged from San Carlos and the White Mountains of Arizona, to the adjacent mountains of southwestern New Mexico around what is now Silver City, and down into the mountain sanctuaries of the Sierra Madre (of northern Mexico). There they often joined with their ''Nednai'' Apache kin.

General [[George Crook]], then General Miles' troops, aided by Apache scouts from other groups, pursued the exiles until they gave up. Mexico and the United States had negotiated an agreement allowing their troops in pursuit of the Apache to continue into each other's territories.<ref>Roberts pp. 223–24.</ref> This prevented the Chiricahua groups from using the border as an escape route, and as they could gain little time to rest and consider their next move, the fatigue, attrition and demoralization of the constant hunt led to their surrender.

The final 34 hold-outs, including Geronimo and Naiche, surrendered to units of General Miles' forces in September 1886. From Bowie Station, Arizona, they were entrained, along with most of the other remaining Chiricahua (as well as the Army's Apache scouts), and exiled to [[Fort Marion]], [[Florida]]. At least two Apache warriors, [[Massai]] and Gray Lizard, escaped from their prison car and made their way back to San Carlos Arizona in a {{convert|1200|mi|km|adj=on}} journey to their ancestral lands.

After a number of Chiricahua deaths at the [[Castillo de San Marcos#Second United States period|Fort Marion]] prison near [[St. Augustine, Florida]], the survivors were moved, first to [[Alabama]], and later to [[Fort Sill, Oklahoma]]. Geronimo's surrender ended the Indian Wars in the United States.<ref>Thrapp pp. 366–67.</ref> However, another group of Chiricahua (also known as the ''Nameless Ones'' or ''Bronco Apache'') were not captured by U.S. forces and refused to surrender. They escaped over the border to Mexico, and settled in the remote [[Sierra Madre Occidental|Sierra Madre]] mountains. There they built hidden camps, raided homes for cattle and other food supplies, and engaged in periodic firefights with units of the Mexican Army and police. Most were eventually captured or killed by soldiers or by private ranchers armed and deputized by the Mexican government.<ref>Salopek, Paul, ''Mexicans Recall Last Apaches Living in Sierra Madre'', Chicago Tribune, 7 September 1997</ref>

Eventually, the surviving Chiricahua prisoners were moved to the [[Fort Sill]] military reservation in Oklahoma. In August 1912, by an act of the U.S. Congress, they were released from their prisoner of war status as they were thought to be no further threat. Although promised land at Fort Sill, they met resistance from local non-Apache. They were given the choice to remain at Fort Sill or to relocate to the Mescalero reservation near Ruidoso, New Mexico. Two-thirds of the group, 183 people, elected to go to New Mexico, while 78 remained in Oklahoma.<ref>Debo pp. 447–48</ref> Their descendants still reside in these places. At the time, they were not permitted to return to Arizona because of hostility from the long wars.
in 1912 many different Apache bands returned to San Carlos Apache lands after their release from Fort Sill Apache Reservation.