REINTERPRETING CHIRICAHUA APACHE ETHNOHISTORY THROUGH THE WORK
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Transcript of REINTERPRETING CHIRICAHUA APACHE ETHNOHISTORY THROUGH THE WORK
REINTERPRETING CHIRICAHUA APACHE
ETHNOHISTORY THROUGH THE WORK
OF KEITH H. BASSO
by
BRENDA L. HAES, B.A., M.A.
A THESIS
IN
ANTHROPOLOGY
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
Chairperson of the Committee
Accepted
Dean of the Graduate School
May, 2003
Copyright 2003, Brenda L. Haes
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A project of any magnitude is not accomplished by a lone individual, but through
the support and direction of others; this thesis is no exception. First, I extend sincere
appreciation and gratitude to my thesis chairman, Philip A. Dennis, for enthusiasm,
inspiration, motivation, support, and patience both in the classroom and during the course
of this work. When I had doubts as to where I was going with the thesis or whether I was
"up to" the task at hand, he was never far behind with a smile and a word of
encouragement. I appreciate his faith in my abilities and allowing me "space" to work,
yet all the while I knew that I had only but to ask if I needed guidance.
Next, I am extremely grateful to my second reader, James A. Goss, professor
emeritus. I had courses with Dr. Goss while I was working on my History master's and
hold him and his work in the highest regard. He worked with the Chiricahua Apaches in
the past, and as my own work is on the Chiricahua prisoners of war, I wanted to have the
opportunity to consult with him on the thesis. Dr. Goss retired in December 1999, but
graciously agreed to serve on my committee when I explained that I was pursuing a
second graduate degree in Cultural Anthropology.
Education is like progressive stair steps; therefore, it is only fitting that I thank my
previous mentors. I appreciate Paul H. Carlson, my History master's chairman at Texas
Tech University, for challenging me to become a better historian and writer. I am greatly
indebted to Frederick W. Rath] en, professor emeritus of History, West Texas State
University (West Texas A&M University), my undergraduate mentor, my colleague at
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum at Canyon, Texas, and most importantly, my
cherished friend/adopted family member. He inspired, motivated, and challenged me to
make the extra effort and to go that additional mile in all that I do; first, in his classes,
then professionally, personally, and now, as a graduate student. My thanks to him and
his wife, Betty, for all they do, and all that they are. I am blessed that they are a part of
my Hfe.
I bequeath heartfeh recognition to my dear friend and editor, Mary Ruth
Thurmond. I am tmly gratefiil for her extraordinary talent in editing and proofreading,
which she employed on my many assignments, papers, and final draft of this thesis. I am
blessed by her friendship. Wa do\
I am eternally grateful to my "adopted" sister and theses editor, Jo Aim Ross, for
her unfaltering belief in my abilities and enduring bitter temperatures at the Chiricahua
cemeteries at Fort Sill for hours on end. I sincerely appreciate the countless hours of
editing and the Honor she has bestowed upon me by being a part of my life. Wa do\ Che
ho la le lawa\!!!
I bequeath much heartfelt appreciation to my immediate family: my "adopted"
son, Ross Wilson; my parents, Lloyd and Shirley Scroggins, my brothers: Charlie, Brett,
and Brion; my nephews: Blake and Ethan; my niece: Alyssa; and my 'Tour-legged"
daughter and sidekick, Shelby, who puts up with me through thick and thin.
Most importantly, I dedicate this thesis in loving memory to my Grandmother. I
wrote my last thesis as she was dying; I was fortimate to have fulfilled her last wish-to
graduate with my master's in History in December 1997. She died one week to the day
after I passed my defense. I never realized the emotional barriers I would encounter
Ul
when I came to write this thesis, which is why I wanted to openly dedicate this work to
her and the loving influences she had and continues to have on my life. Che ho la le
lawa.
Finally, I thank Ussen, for making me grow, although often it is not painless, for
listening and guiding me through Life's rough waters all the while assuring me I am not
alone, and ft)r reminding me of a promise made long, long ago and for the strength,
character, and perseverance to meet its demands. This is not the begirming, it is the
continuation, and if I have my way, there v dll be much more to come.
IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTION 1
n. THE WESTERN APACHE 11
ffl. THE CHIRICAHUA APACHE 24
IV COMPARING AND CONTRASTING 48
V CONCLUSIONS 56
BIBLIOGRAPHY 60
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I have studied the Chiricahua Apaches' incarceration by the United States
government (1886-1914) for more than ten years. My studies included writing a master's
history thesis in 1997. I utilized archival materials, such as manuscripts, files,
biographical papers, reports, news clippings, interviews, and books on or by major
participants on both sides of the issue, as well as dissertations on the subject. Over time,
I sought a fresh sense of perspective of these same materials.
Dr. Philip A. Dennis assigned Keith H. Basso's Wisdom Sits in Places:
Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache in his social anthropology course.
I read the book three times to absorb the material for class. On previous occasions I had
read a few pages and found my mind wandering back to my early life in Arizona. I
remember myself as a young, gangly teenager living near Cibecue and visiting the White
Mountain Apache Reservation many times over the years. On one occasion, I watched
Apache cowboys cutting a freshly killed calf into strips and hanging them on ironwood
tree branches to dry in the sun for beef jerky (Haes 2002:3-4). Basso said, 'Tlaces
possess a marked capacity for triggering acts of self-reflection, inspiring thoughts about
who one presently is, or memories of who one used to be, or musings on who one might
become..." He continues with "place-based thoughts about the self lead commonly to
thoughts of other things-other places, other people, other times, whole networks of
associations that ramify unaccountably within the expanding spheres of awareness that
they themselves engender" (1996:107). As a graduate student, I noted comparisons that I
wanted to explore between the Chiricahua and Western Apaches.
Many factors were cmcial in the decision to write this thesis; both tribes spoke
mutually intelligible Athabaskan languages; during the reservation period, they resided
on adjacent lands in the Arizona Territory and relied on similar subsistence patterns;
several prominent ceremonies were shared by both cultures; and intermarriage had
occurred between the tribes. Most importantly, while the United States Army uprooted
the Chiricahua Apaches from their homeland, the Western Apache remain to this day in
their traditional environment. A primary research question is how Basso's work with the
Western Apache might help us understand the Chiricahua Apache experience of being
separated from their land and the meanings attached to it.
In order to address this question, one must gain a sense of who the Chiricahua
Apaches were and where they originated. The recorded creation story points to a great
flood that destroyed the previous world and inhabitants who were bad people. Ironically,
this written tale suggests Anglo contact and Biblical influences that may have replaced
earlier accounts in Chiricahua mythology (Opler 1994:1; Opler 1965:198). Creation
stories depicted the Chiricahua as being shaped in mud or fabricated from a cloud by
Child of the Water, son of White Painted Woman, who existed from time eternal. Other
tales state that Child of the Water was encompassed by a cloud and in his stead two
figures remained, and they were the beginnings of the human race (Hoijer 1938:13).
Some confusion exists about whether Killer of Enemies was the brother, son, or husband
of White Painted Woman. He is subordinate to both White Painted Woman and Child of
the Water in Chiricahua mythology. The immortals' roles were to safeguard the survival
of humankind by eliminating monsters, freeing game animals from their underground
confinement, and instructing the Apache in the sacred rites of the girl's puberty
ceremony. When all these tasks were accomplished, then the three supernatural beings
would return to their sky homes to watch over the human beings (Opler 1994:2-3; Opler
1965:197-198).
Specific facts about the origin and timeframe of Chiricahua migration are difficult
to ascertain. Anthropologist Richard Perry has outlined the migration of these
Athabaskan people from northwestern Canada to the southwestern United States. Perry's
research combines information from geology, linguistics, anthropology, and ethnohistory
to offer a concise reconstmction of the Apachean journey of the past from the northern
regions to their traditional pre-reservation home (1991:11, back cover).
The four Chiricahua bands: the Chokonen, Chihenne, Bedonkohe, and Nednhi,
were proficient at adapting to the environment of the area and its variety of climes,
ranging from deserts to mountains. They resided at lower altitudes in colder weather, and
they relocated to the cooler mountain regions when it was warmer. The Chiricahua
Apache were attuned to the geography and environment of their homeland and knew
where water was available in the heat of summer or when it was advisable to carry it.
They were aware of shortcuts and where to find other Apache camps. The rigors of
hardship and survival were second nature to the Chiricahua and a part of training, a way
of life since early youth. They were a matter of survival (Castetter 1936:5-6,10-11; Haes
1999:2).
The Chiricahua Apache were hunter/gatherers and knowledgeable about nature's
offerings and her harvest timetables. They knew how to utilize the land. Anthropologists
Edward Castetter and Opler studied and cataloged botanical forms available to the
Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches in their traditional homelands. They identified more
than 125 plants serving a subsistence or medicinal role in the cultures. This list was by
no means complete. The Apache prepared for emergencies such as sudden retreats from
enemies by having hidden pockets of foods, or caches, distributed throughout their
homeland. They utilized plant, animal, and geological materials for utilitarian objects in
food preparation, protection, and dwellings (Castetter 1936:8, 11, 15, 19, 28,41-48; Haes
1999:2-3).
The horse was introduced with the Spanish arrival in the Southwest during the
sixteenth century. When it became acclimated, its presence forever changed the lives of
not only the Chiricahua Apaches, but every culture with which it came into contact. The
horse served as a source of food, a beast of burden, and a source of status and weahh. It
allowed the Indians to travel vast distances in search of new supplies for food and goods.
The Apaches procured commodities by trading with other tribes and the Mexican
citizenry of select towns and by raiding (Opler 1965:332-335; Haes 1999:4).
The Chiricahua were a semi-nomadic population that utilized the land by
harvesting nature's bounty as it came into season. This philosophy was in direct
opposition to that of the sedentary Anglo populations that lay east of the southwest region
and who "worked" the land by planting agricultural crops. These cultural differences
would lead to many misunderstandings, not only with the Apache, but also with other
indigenous groups. The Anglo people did not believe that the Indians were "using" the
lands, as they were not in residence nor were there signs that the lands were "worked" in
the manner to which they were accustomed. Based on the ideologies of the time, Anglos
concluded that Indians were inferior and savage, and the land claims of the Chiricahuas
and other indigenous groups were dismissed in favor of the Anglos' claims.
The Chiricahua tried to halt the encroachment of Anglo miners and ranchers on
their traditional lands and to preserve their Hfeway. Instead, their actions incurred the
wrath of the United States government and the United States Army. In 1876, the
government closed the mountainous reservation at Fort Bowie in Arizona Territory in the
Chiricahuas' homeland. The government chose to operate a more efficient agency and to
relocate the majority of Apache peoples together at one location, 100 miles northwest, at
San Carlos Reservation. The San Carlos environment was hot, dry, barren, and malarial,
and it became difficult to keep Indian people on the new reservation. Geronimo, a
Bedonkohe Chiricahua, along with members of different Apache bands, departed and
reappeared at the location numerous times. Their raiding ventures led to a series of wars
with the U.S. Army between 1876 and 1885. In May 1885, Geronimo and his thirty-three
warriors, known as the Apache Resistance, left San Carlos for a final time. They
surrendered in late March 1886 to General George Crook and his contingent of Apache
scouts, many of whom were Western Apaches. With the help of the scouts, he was
successful in locating and securing the surrender of Geronimo's group. Unfortunately,
the group escaped that same night (PBS 1988; Goodwin 1994:304, Haes 1997:2).
Meanwhile, the federal government initiated a plan to relocate all Chiricahua
Apaches to Florida. Chihuahua, a Chokonen Chiricahua and a member of the Apache
Resistance, stayed behind after Geronimo's escape and surrendered to Crook. His group
of seventy-seven included several family members of the Resistance. They were the first
of five groups of Chiricahua that were sent via train to the Southeast (Ball et al.
1980:125). The fact that many of Geronimo's family had been sent to Florida would
prove instrumental in his final surrender to General Nelson A. Miles on 3 September
1886 (Kanseah 1955:43).
Between 13 April and 7 November 1886, the government sent a total of 515
Apaches to Florida. The number included seventeen warriors, ninety-nine men, and 399
women and children. All were transferred as prisoners of war (Congress, Senate 1890:9;
Haes 1997:6). Four himdred ninety-eight Apaches were sent to Fort Marion, St.
Augustine, Florida, while the remaining seventeen, Geronimo and his Apache Resistance
warriors, were sent to Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island, Florida.
Fort Marion was formerly known as Castillo de San Marcos, a seventeenth-
century Spanish post constmcted from coquina-stone, a sandy, porous material. The
army experienced some problems at the fort prior to the arrival of the Chiricahuas, such
as well contamination, lack of adequate drainage, and removal of refuse material
(Congress, Senate 1888:1-2). Combined with these existing problems were others, which
included inadequate food supplies, excessively crowded conditions, rampant disease, a
large rat population, and inadequate clothing allowance. There were only two bathing
tubs for the 498 Apache prisoners! The Chiricahuas were not acclimated to a humid
environment, and the whole experience proved disastrous (Haes 1997:11, 13,15).
At Fort Pickens, the men endured forced separation from their families, the lack
of fresh water, a foreign climate, insufficient and inappropriate army rations, rampant
disease, and forced acculturation. Work was based on Anglo-assigned gender roles
(Haes 1997:25, 29).
On 27 April 1887, the government moved the 352 Fort Marion residents to Mount
Vernon Barracks, Alabama, after the publication of the Indian Rights Association
booklet, The Apache Prisoners of War in Fort Marioa St. Augustine, Florida, which
publicized the plight of the Chiricahua Apache. Excluded from the removal were twenty
women and children who rejoined their husbands and fathers at Fort Pickens on Santa
Rosa Island (Debo 1978:337-338; Haes 1997:26).
The Mount Vernon Barracks period, 1887 to 1894, was characterized by efforts to
improve the Chiricahuas' condition, by unfulfilled promises and delayed actions, by
ignored reports, and by continued inadequate food rations. The Alabama internment was
marked by the continuation of the Apaches' assimilation and their forced acculturation.
There was one opportunity to restore some of their cultural traditions, wath the creation of
the Army's Company I, which provided a means for the men to channel their warrior
heritage. The occupation witnessed an increase in violent behavior among the Apaches,
due perhaps to the long duration of residency and growing frustration over their plight
(Haes 1997:36, 43, 46-47).
Previous recommendations had been to remove the Chiricahuas from a humid
environment and relocate them some place where they could establish a sense of
belonging and permanence. Finally, in 1891, the Army determined that the original
Mount Vernon Barracks location was unhealthy. An elevated location was chosen for the
new site and material provided for constmcting new houses. A January 1894 report
revealed the real reason for concern: only 165 babies bom, but 246 Chiricahua Apaches
dead since their initial incarceration in 1886 (Skinner 1987:367; Haes 1997:51-53).
In early October 1894, 296 Chiricahua men, women, and children boarded ten
passenger train cars and left for Fort Sill, Oklahoma (Congress, House 1895:34-35).
Authorities made valiant efforts to improve Apache life during the nineteen years that the
Chiricahuas resided at Fort Sill, which was at least an arid environment. They addressed
the Apaches' soaring mortality rates and sought means to stifle the flow of alcohol onto
the reservation. The officers considered cultural divisions when instituting family
villages and designating headmen. They allowed Indian women to gather traditional
foods and permitted mothers to travel to Anadarko to see their children at the boarding
schools. Since neither the military nor the prisoners had knowledge of farming and
ranching, some government soldiers became farmers and cowboys in order to teach the
Indians. Captain Hugh L. Scott and other Fort Sill authorities exerted great pains to help
the Chiricahuas acculturate, to adapt to new industries, and to address the causes of
mortality.
The officers encouraged the cultural reassertion of the Apaches, but they also
sought to disengage the people from the Fort Sill post, lands that had been promised by
the government to the Chiricahua Apaches for permanent residence (Haes 1997:84-85,
Haes 2000:28-43). In 1912, the War Department utilized now Colonel Hugh Scott to
convince them to move from the post because the army wanted to locate a field artillery
school at the fort. He succeeded; 70 percent of the group chose to relocate to the
Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico during April 1913 (Turcheneske 1978:262;
Turcheneske 1997:162; Haes 1997:95).
In contrast to the Chiricahua Apaches, the Western Apache still reside on their
traditional lands on the Fort Apache reservation in east-central Arizona. Noted
anthropologist Keith H. Basso has spent 43 years studying the Western Apaches, and has
developed an understanding of many cultural subtleties through interaction with members
of the tribe, as well as by his mastery of the language. Nearly thirty published works
report Basso's findings, beginning in 1966 when the Smithsonian Institution published
The Gift of Changing Woman, and continuing through the 1996 release of Wisdom Sits
In Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. His work is puMished
in books, articles, edited volumes, a special edition of Arizona Highways Magazine
dedicated exclusively to the Western Apache, and in a museum exhibition. In pemsing
Basso's body of work, I identified eleven general cultural characteristics in terms of
which to compare the Western and Chiricahua Apache. They are as follows: the puberty
ceremony, clans, pre-reservation subsistence, the meaning of silence, place-names or
stalking with stories, language as a local symboUc form, sense of place, witchcraft,
scouts, traditional religion, and the boarding school experience.
I will proceed as if I were utilizing a diptych or "a work made up of two matching
parts" (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 1996:328). In a medieval diptych, the
names of the living were inscribed on one side and those of the dead on the other. In this
instance, important aspects of Western Apache culture, as described by Keith Basso will
be discussed in Chapter H. Chapter in will consist of Chiricahua Apache ethnohistory.
Each chapter will be organized in terms of the same set of topics or subheadings. In
Chapter IV, I v^ll suggest ways in which Basso's explanations may help us understand
the Chiricahua Apache experience. This is a cross-disciplinary project, based on the
premise that ethnography and cultural analysis may help us imderstand the past as
recorded in documents. The general Apache cultural background described by Basso
must have framed and underlain the traumatic history of the Chiricahua Apaches. I hope
to find clues, necessarily sketchy but hopeflilly significant, that will help explain how
these people experienced their removal and incarceration.
10
CHAPTER II
THE WESTERN APACHE
Puberty Ceremony
Basso's The Gift of Changing Woman deals with the puberty ceremony or na ih
es. He describes the ritual paraphernalia utilized, the symbolic content, and the
ceremonial importance of the event in terms of the Western Apache society at large. He
states that the ceremony is decreasing in frequency due to the inroads being made on
traditional religion by missionaries. Furthermore, some Apaches no longer believe in the
assurances of long life and prosperity that the rite is felt to impart to the young woman. It
is quite costly, in financial terms and manual labor, to hold the puberty ceremony not
only for the family, but also for the extended family members (1966:124-125). "Apaches
attach a great deal of importance to ceremonial preparations, and negligence in carrying
them out is sternly rebuked... Anything which disturbs or alters this pattern is
inauspicious and feared; it is taken as a sign that something is out of order" (1966: 133-
134).
The ritual paraphernalia consists of a walking stick painted with yellow ocher that
represents longevity, orange oriole feathers that translate as a good disposition, eagle
feathers to protect against sickness, and turquoise beads that cause prayers to be heard.
Four ribbons are attached to a rawhide thong on the cane. They are placed in the four
cardinal directions. Two small sleigh bells are modem additions for their jingle soimd.
A scratching stick is painted with yellow ocher and is necessary for use during the four
days when the girl has power. A drinking tube made of a reed is painted with yellow
11
ocher and festooned with oriole feathers and is also utilized for the four days. A small
abalone shell pendant will dangle on the girl's forehead. An eagle breast feather and four
cardinal ribbons will be fastened to the girl's hair and hang down behind her. A fringed
and beaded buckskin serape painted with yellow ocher, and with eagle feathers attached
at the shoulder, should be made by the girl's mother or grandmother. A large buckskin,
partially painted yellow with an eagle feather tied to the front, make up the items
necessary to conduct the puberty ceremony (1966:143-145).
The event establishes a ceremonial bond of reciprocal obhgation between non-
relatives, e.g., the sponsor or na ihl esn, and the pubescent girl's family. There are eight
phases during the four-day event for the young girl. In Phase I, the girl dances with her
cane and becomes Changing Woman. In Phase II, the girl recreates the first menstruation
and impregnation of Changing Woman by the Sun. During Phase HI, the girl receives
ritualistic massage from her female mentor-sponsor to grow up strong and hard and to
never grow tired. The sponsor sets out the girl's cane during Phase IV and she mns
around it. During Phase V, the girl mns fast without feeling fatigued. She rims in the
four cardinal directions (1966:153-156). The giri receives blessings from the medicine
man during Phase VI. Candy, com, coins, etc., are blessed and become holy and are then
thrown to the spectators (1966:158). During Phase Vn, adult spectators take a pinch of
holy powder from the basket of the medicine man's assistant and ask for a blessing for
themselves from Changing Woman, i.e., the giri in her altered state. In the final phase of
na ih es, the girl throws off the buckskin and blankets to each of the cardinal directions.
12
This act insures that she will always have blankets, that her camp will always be clean,
and that there will always be deer meat and good hunting for everyone (1966:160).
There are four symbolic objectives of the puberty ceremony for the Western
Apache in addition to the education of the pubescent girl in the ways of adulthood. First,
physical strength will be a necessary part of life. Second, a good disposition will lessen
the likelihood that someone will be jealous and try to "witch" the young woman. Third,
the ceremony will help assure that she has prosperity throughout her life, since the
blankets are a traditional symbol of wealth. Finally, the attainment of a soimd, healthy,
uncrippled old age is based on learning to observe taboos, a practice which will continue
throughout her Hfe (1966:163-166).
The puberty ceremony functions adaptively with regard to the Apache society at
large. It brings clan relatives together and provides them mth an opportunity to visit,
work together, and renew kin relationships. Na ih es requires reciprocal obligations from
involved clans, especially those associated with food, dance grovmds, and small suras of
money. The event establishes reciprocal obUgations between unrelated persons,
particularly the ceremonial practitioner and the girl's family. The ceremony relieves
anxieties about threats of disaster, such as sickness, drought, famine, and poverty. The
observance encourages moral values that are important in Western Apache society, as
well as promotes the psychological stability of the individual. Finally, the rite
symbolizes an ideal state of happiness that supposedly existed in mythological times.
"Changing Woman never died and she will always live" (1966; 170).
13
Clans
Western Apache social organization has become altered somewhat over time with
the formation of settlements and the disappearance of bands and local groups. The gota,
or family cluster, was stripped of its economic functions which were transferred to the
gowa, or individual nuclear household. A gowa generally consists of a married couple
and their unmarried children although composition varies. The gowa is not considered
independent, but linked with several other gowa that comprise a gota. As many as eight
gowa may comprise a gota. The core of the gota consists of women from whose lineage
and clan the gota derives its name. These women work together and help each other.
Basso states that the Western Apache liken these matriarchs to "the tmnk of a tree, their
children to its branches, and their husbands to its leaves." It is said that "the leaves can
drop off, but the tmnk never breaks" (1967:58-59).
Ties between clan members in widely separated communities lost much of their
earlier importance, but branches of the clan continue to function as unified social groups.
Restrictions that once prohibited marriage between individuals belonging to related clans
are beginning to break down and clan membership involves fewer multiple reciprocal
obligations (1967:57, 64).
When the Western Apaches relocated nearei the trading posts and govemment-
buih facilities, clan members found themselves in daily contact. Previously they had
been separated by immense distances. This connection made response as a group easier
than in the pre-reservation period. This interaction also brought clan differences to an
unprecedented forefront. In Cibecue, tiiere are twenty-one clan branches. Two of them
14
are represented by single individuals only, both old men. Members of the same clan seek
out one another in times of crisis and to exchange favors, especially in preparation for
major events, such as the puberty ceremony (1967:60, 61, 63).
Subsistence
The Western Apache engaged in hunting/gathering, as well as subsistence
farming in pre-reservation times. They were nomadic and followed nature's harvest
timetables like other indigenous peoples of the Arizona Territory region, with the
exception of planting in early spring and the eariy fall harvest. Mountain farm sites were
planted with com, beans, and squash. The very old, the very young, and the infirm were
left behind to tend the fields while ail others searched for such wild foods as saguaro
fi^it, prickly pear, and mescal. In the summer, acoms, mesquite beans, and yucca were
available and in early fall, pinon nuts and juniper berries would be picked. Hunting was
most successful in late fall. Raiding for the Western Apache was primarily directed into
southem Arizona and northern Mexico. Horses, burros, mules, oxen, and cattle were the
primary targets and were driven to mountain strongholds to prevent or lessen the chance
of recapture (Basso 1986:3-4).
The Meaning of Silence
Basso studied the role of silence in Western Apache culture and noted that "the
form of silence is always the same, the function of a specific act of silence-that is, its
interpretation by and effect upon other people-will vary according to the social context
15
in which it occurs" (1970:305). He stated that there are various contexts for silence.
They include people who are strangers to one another, a couple who is courting, or
people being reunited after a separation. In the instance of a couple, initially they are
generally shy and self-conscious, as they do not know each other very well. Often, they
can go without speaking for long periods of time. Basso offered a Westem Apache
analogy "between the ease and frequency with which a young couple talks and how well
they know each other." Early in a relationship, girls are discouraged by their mothers
from having long discussions as it might be misinterpreted as a sense of "worldliness"
about the girl versus allowing a natural progression in the relationship. As a couple gets
to know one another, the conversations should lengthen in direct correlation with the time
they have spent with one another (1970:308-309).
Another example is that of a child being sent off to boarding school who has
retumed home, but whose parents are unsure of the reception to give him or her. Other
situations that might invoke silence are an individual cursing another, individuals
attending a curing ceremonial, or being in the presence of someone who has recently
emerged from a mourning period. Such a person is sad and people are unsure of what to
say (1970:308-312, 317).
Basso offers three hypotheses to explain silence in We»tem Apache culture. First,
the absence of communication is associated vsdth social settings where the status of the
participants is unclear. Second, in such conditions expectations lose their applicability
and predictability, and social interaction is impossible. Finally, "keeping silent among
16
the Westem Apache is a response to uncertainty and unpredictability in social relations"
(1970:317).
Place-Names/Stalking with Stories
Place-names, or stalking with stories as it is known to the Western Apache, is a
unique phenomenon that serves an important moral function in their society. Agodzaahi
stories about historical events and their geographical locations also include the system of
mles and values with which Apaches expect others to organize and regulate their lives
(Basso 1996:52). The tales are simple and brief and move swiftly. The opening and
closing lines identify them with a specific geographic location where the situation
occurred. The story focuses on misfortune that happened as a consequence of someone's
unacceptable behavior. They are morality fables. Agodzaahi "tales are 'about' what it
means to be a Westem Apache, or, to make the point less dramatically, what it is that
being an Apache should normally and properly entail" (Basso 1986:105). If the message
is taken to heart, the individual will improve his/her behavior, and the goal of establishing
a lasting link between the individual and the geographic location in the story will have
taken place. That bond will remind the person to keep his/her behavior in check, and in
essence stalks that person with its story. It is not uncommon to hear phrases like "the
land is always stalking people" (Basso 1986:95) or "we shoot each other with them
[stories], like arrows" (Basso 1986; 102). "Geographical features have served the people
for centuries as indispensable mnemonic pegs on which to hang the moral teachings of
17
tiieir history" (Basso 1986:114). The following is an example of a Westem Apache
place-name/stalking with story:
It happened at T'iis Cho Naasikaade' (Big Cottonwood Trees Stand Here and There). Long ago, the Pimas [Indians] and Apaches were fighting. The Pimas were carrying long clubs made from mesquite wood; they were also heavy and hard. Before dawn the Pimas arrived at Cibecue and attacked the Apaches there. The Pimas attacked while the Apaches were still asleep. The Pimas killed the Apaches with their clubs. An old woman woke up. She heard the Apaches crying out. The old woman thought it was her son-in-law because he often picked on her daughter. The old woman cried out: "You pick on my child a lot. You should act pleasantly toward her." Because the old woman cried out, the Pimas learned where she was. The Pimas came mnning to the old woman's camp and killed her with their clubs. A young girl ran away from there and hid beneath some bushes. She alone survived. It happened at Big Cottonwood Trees Stand Here and There. (Basso 1996:52)
This agodzaahi story narrated by Annie Peaches outlines the consequences of
overstepping traditional boundaries. It is customary for newlywed Apache couples to
live in the camp of the bride's parents during the first year of marriage. During that time,
the bride's mother may inform and reproach her son-in-law as well as request tasks of
him. Once the pair establishes a new residence, however, this right ceases and the mother
may only interfere in her son-in-law's concerns at the appeal of her daughter. Mothers
who meddle and do not follow tradition cause their children embartassment, as well as
imply their son-in-law is immature and unreliable. Thus, the story points out, the woman
who failed to remember this was instantly killed (Basso 1996:52-53).
Language as a Local Symbolic Form
The Westem Apache have retained their native Athabaskan tongue. Basso writes
that "linguistic anthropology is a way of doing ethnography that seeks to interpret social
18
and cultural systems through the manifold lenses afforded by language and speech." He
continues with "fieldwork is centered on discerning the meanings of local symbolic
forms, that language is everywhere a symbolic form without parallel or peer, and that the
activity of speaking-of enacting and implementing language-is surely among the most
meaning-filled of all" (1990:xii).
The geographical landscape plays a major role in Westem Apache culture and
community and Basso notes it is important in at least three ways. First, people may
simply observe the landscape or its appearance. Second, people may use the landscape in
some manner that modifies the surface. Finally, the Apache may communicate with one
another socially, expressing their feelings about the landscape not only through words,
but also in art, music, etc. (1990:140).
There are a large number of place-names still in use today that were created by
the ancestors. They traveled vast distances in search of food and had to remember many
different locations; therefore, they invented a descriptive sort of place-name to depict the
various geographic sites in detail. When the ancestors looked at a specific place, they
had a particular, implicit vantage point in mind when they described that locale believed
to be "in front o f (1990:156) that site. That is why the Westem Apache "may imagine
that they are standing in their 'ancestors' tracks'" (1990:156) when they are at the
vantage point. "When placenames are used by Apache speakers in certain ways, mental
pictures of the ancestors come instantly and vividly alive" (1990: 157). Because of this
connection with the past, "ancestral wisdom is a powerful ally in times of adversity, and
19
that reflecting upon it, as countless generations of Apaches have learned, can produce
expanded awareness, feelings of relief and a fortified ability to cope" (1990:172).
Sense of Place
The concept of "sense of place" may seem lofty and esoteric; however, that is
actually not the case. It is a basic premise of the Westem Apache people, but it varies on
an individual basis (Basso 1996:xvi). Basso explains that "place-based thoughts about
the self lead commonly to thoughts of other things—other places, other people, other
times, whole networks of associations that ramify unaccountably within the expanding
spheres of awareness that they themselves engender" (1996; 107). Sense of place is
clarity of the heart and mind in one of its purest forms.
Basso elaborates on people's perceptions about what makes a specific location
special by offering;
As normally experienced, sense of place quite simply is.. until, as sometimes happens, we are deprived of these attachments and find ourselves adrift, literally dislocated, in unfamiliar surroundings we do not comprehend and care for even less. On these unnerving occasions, sense of place may assert itself in pressing and powerflil ways... it is then we come to see that attachments to places may be nothing less than profound, and that when these attachments are threatened we may feel threatened as well. (1996:xiii-xiv)
Witchcraft
Basso also studied witchcraft among the Western Apache, an area that had not
been explored previously. He noted that Apaches do not generally talk about such things
except in the event of sickness. Most presumed witches are adults who possess "power,"
20
and they are likely to be male, but not of the same clan division as the victim (1967:2-3,
47). He made three general assumptions about witchcraft based on his observations.
First, accusations are expressions of aggression. Second, the alleged witch and accuser
participate in a social relationship and this fosters the conflict. Finally, this relationship,
if not altered, will recur over time (1967; 143),
Witchcraft may be said to serve an adaptive function "as a fear-inducing
mechanism operative, .encouraging adherence to existing norms." It is a "very good
reason for being generous, helpful, and paying strict attention to the obligations one has
to others" (1967; 163).
Scouts
The Westem Apaches and the Chiricahua Apaches were on friendly terms until
approximately 1870. At that time. General George Crook enlisted the aid of Apache
scouts, many of whom were Westem Apaches, and with whom he was successful in
locating and securing the surrender of Geronimo and the Apache Resistance (Basso 1986:
3, Haes 1997).
Traditional Religion
One of the differences between ceremonials of the past and the present among the
Westem Apache is that, today, they are more costly to hold, It is necessary to feed all
who attend, which in pre-reservation times was done through raiding. Thereafter, people
were limited to the reservation and hunting was limited seasonally. Curtently they have
21
to buy and make the necessary goods. In the 1930s through 1940s, medicine men tended
to specialize in specific ceremonials, which Goodwin inteipreted as implying that some
rituals were destined for extinction (Basso 1986:93). Because of their dissimilarities, the
Westem Apache did not see the incompatibility in participating in both traditional
religion and Christianity simultaneously. If anything, they felt each religion
complemented the other one, picking up where the other left off. They were not at
opposite ends of the spectmm from one another (Basso 1986:95).
Basso notes that in the early 1950s, the majority of church-going Apaches in
Cibecue participated in traditional religion. This was primarily because Christianity did
not provide for healing as the Indians understood it (1986:95).
Prior to 1960, there was an increase in the number of Christian flmdamentalist
faith healers in Cibecue. Several of them were Westem Apache who preached to the
parishioners in Apache. They were able to turn people away from native ceremonials and
rituals, and encourage them to seek help from God and Jesus Christ, thus weakening the
traditional religious system (1986:95-96).
The Boarding School Experience
Boarding school information relates to modem day experiences for the Westem
Apache. In late May or early June each year, Westem Apache students retum home from
boarding schools. Their parents fear the influences that their children may have been
subjected to while they have been gone. They worry that "the children have come to
22
view their parents as ignorant, old-fashioned, and no longer deserving of respect" (Basso
1970:310). One of Basso's aduh informants shared the following;
You just can't tell about those children after they've been with White men for a long time. They get their minds tumed around sometimes.. they forget where they come from and get ashamed when they come home because their parents and relatives are poor. They forget how to act with these Apaches and get mad easy. They walk around all night and get into fights. They don't stay at home. At school, some of them leam to want to be White men, so they come back and try to act that way. But we are still Apaches! So we don't know them anymore, and it is like we never knew them. It is hard to talk to them when they are like that. (1970:310)
In Westem Apache society, it is "considered inappropriate to directly interrogate a
child after his arrival home." Instead, parents wait and hope that the child will share
information about what happened at school while they were away. This information will
help the parents determine if the child's morals and values have changed. 'This, the
Apache say, is why children do practically all the talking in the hours following a
reimion, and their parents remain unusually silent" (1970:310),
23
CHAPTER in
THE CHIRICAHUA APACHE
Puberty Ceremony
In The Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians. Opler records that all
of the tribes were called together at Hot Springs (Ojo Caliente), New Mexico, and it was
there that White Painted Woman (the Chiricahua Apache equivalent of the Westem
Apache's Changing Woman) first instmcted the Chiricahua in the puberty ceremony.
The people were told to hold a feast at the girls' first menstmation and songs were to be
sung on their behalf The Gahe or Mountain Spirit Dancers were instmcted to dance at
the ceremonial stmcture for the four evenings of the ceremony just after dusk prior to any
social dancing, specifically round dancing and face-to-face dancing.
A basket or coiled tray with ceremonial objects, such as pollen, paints, and
feathers, is placed to the east of the ceremonial stmcture on the first and fifth mornings.
The girl is told to make four mns around it in a clockwise manner, mnning closer each
time. The sponsor is told to take care of the girl and to make high-pitched calls of
applause during the process.
On the first moming, the sponsor massages and mbs the body of the initiate to
mold her and pray for her (Opler 1994; 14-15). The girl is advised that throughout the
ceremony she is to use a specially prepared stick to scratch herself, that hangs on the left
side of her dress. The sponsor informs the girl that she must not use her nails to scratch,
for if she does, it will leave scars. The female is then warned that she must drink water
24
through a carrizo tube, that is kept suspended on her right side. Water must not touch her
lips for eight days or it will rain (Opler 1965:93).
Eugene Chihuahua noted that at Mount Vemon Barracks, Alabama, the second
incarceration site, the Chiricahua Apaches resumed some of the customs they had
practiced when they had been free. They recounted the people's traditions and oral
histories to their children by the campfu-es at night. 'They trained the dancers and
performed the rites of the Puberty Ceremonials. They celebrated weddings according to
tribal custom. And they required the adolescent boys to make the four-day feast and
prayer ordeal in order to get the vision or instmction that would be their medicine
throughout their hves" (BaU et al, 1980:154-155),
Blossom Wratten Haozous was the daughter of the Apaches' interpreter George
Wratten. She was the v fe of Sam Haozous, an Apache warrior and Army scout. She
was a major influence in the lives of her five children; Ethelsu; renowned intemational
artist Allan Houser (deceased); Alfred; Fort Sill Apache tribal chairwoman Ruey
Haozous Darrow (deceased); and Peg. Mrs. Haozous recalled;
I saw my first dance there (at Fort Sill). The one where the young lady comes into womanhood [the puberty ceremony]. They gave a feast and dance. I was so little, I don't remember much about it. I was a little bit fiightened of the fire dancers when I first saw them. I never saw anything like that before. They never danced when we were in Alabama. Them dances they did in Arizona and New Mexico. When they (the Apaches) were prisoners of war in Florida and Alabama and those places, they didn't have those dances. Till they got settled in Fort Sill, Then they started them... (Stockel 1991:113)
Former Fort Sill Apache tribal chairwoman, Mildred Imach Cleghom (deceased),
stated, "'Here in Oklahoma, we never had them,' refeming to (the puberty rites), 'We
25
didn't have anyone here to do the ceremony.' She lowered her eyes. 'I defmitely feel I
lost something. Definitely. And I don't think it will ever come back. It's gone for
good'" (Stockel 1991:140-141).
As a result of the Chiricahuas' incarceration by the government they experienced
alienation from their native lands, from the traditional foods which did not grow in the
lands to which they were sent, from the lands promised them in Oklahoma, and from
some of the ancestral customs mentioned earlier. The Chiricahuas were divided in 1913,
when the majority of them went to live in New Mexico on the Mescalero Apache
Reservation. Urrfortunately, apparently none of those remaining in Oklahoma had the
knowledge to conduct the puberty ceremony for the young women, so that they could not
undergo na ih es and all it represented, not only for the women involved, and their
families, but for the people as a whole (Basso 1966; 169-170).
Clans
Eve Ball, a retired 20* century educator, neighbor, and fiiend to many Chiricahua
prisoners of war at the Mescalero Reservation, conducted interviews with the Indians and
published several works about and in conjunction with the Chiricahua Apaches. She
asked Eugene Chihuahua, son of the Chokonen Chiricahua chief. Chihuahua, about the
existence of clans in the Chiricahua Apache culture. He stated simply, "We had no
clans...If those books [in reference to those other than Eve Ball's] say so they are
mistaken" (Ball et al. 1980:43).
26
I was unable to locate information pertaining to the existence of clans among the
Chiricahua Apaches. As noted previously, clans are present among the Westem Apache,
which makes one ask the question, were they in place prior to the Apache wars? Did
living-on-the-mn from the United States Army destroy this cultural feature in some way?
If so, how did this process occur?
Subsistence
The Chiricahua Apache were hunter/gatherers with extensive knowledge of local
plant resources. Castetter and Opler did extensive research on the botanical resources
available to the Chiricahua in their traditional homelands. Various cacti, berries, grasses,
flowers, shmbs, grains, nuts, vegetables, seeds, fiuits, barks, roots, weeds, and leaves
were part of the Chiricahuas' diet in addition to the yield of the hunt. The Chiricahuas
used organic components, such as grasses, reeds, and split bark in making baskets, gourds
for dippers and spoons, sheep horn for ladles, stone metates and manos for grinding
grains into flour, and stone axes hafted to wood handles (Castetter et al. 1936; 11,15,28,
41-48).
While many southwestern tribes utilized bison or other hides for building their
residences and as sources of food, the Chiricahua lived too far west from the
southwestem plains to take advantage of the vast bison herds. With the exception of
infrequent use by the eastem-most band, the Chihenne or Warm Springs Apache, the
Chiricahua did not reside in tipis (Haes 1999:2).
27
Following incarceration, subsistence changed drastically. Initially, the
Chiricahuas were reliant on Army rations, but as they became more familiar with their
new surroundings this altered with time. At St. Augustine, Florida, food allotments
consisted of beef, bread, sugar, coffee, and beans, with occasional supplements of
potatoes and onions.
The older boys and men of Chihuahua's group were sent to a neighboring island
to work at a lighthouse for the U.S. Army, They received similar rations, except no meat.
Instead, fishing gear was left with the males and they received instmctions on how to
utilize the tackle (Haes 1997:14). "The Apaches informed the soldier that they did not
eat fish or 'anything that grows under water' (Ball et al. 1980; 127).. .Despite notification
of the restriction against eating fish, the Army did not supply other meat rations, and the
Indians resorted to eating whatever they caught, including fish" (Haes 1997; 14).
At Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island, Florida, the men of the Apache Resistance
consumed rations of pork, fresh beef, flour, beans, sah, and coffee, not imlike Fort
Marion's fare (Goodman 1968; 107). Pork, however, was not consumed by several
Chiricahua bands because they reasoned pigs ate snakes, and to them snakes were evil
(Opler 1965:326, 328, 331).
At Mount Vemon Barracks, they purchased cattle and sheep by selling their
personal possessions. "The Apaches once again simply refiised to eat [pork]" (Stockel
1993; 144). As they had yet to acquire a market for their crafts shortiy after their arrival
in 1887, the post surgeon requested that 100 pounds of potatoes and twenty-five pounds
of onions per 100 rations supplement the regular allotment of coffee, sugar, pepper, salt.
28
beans, and hominy. It was thought that the potatoes and onions might help prevent
scuivy (Stockel 1993; 144; Haes 1997:42). Local farmers sold beef to the Chiricahuas.
Some unscmpulous individuals were reputed to have sold rotten meat to the Indians. The
post also allowed the Chiricahuas to police the railroad tracks to search for livestock
stmck by fi-ains. If the Apaches found a dead cow, the soldiers permitted the Indians to
drag the remains back to the post for food (Stockel 1993:143-144; Haes 1997:43),
By 1891, a government report recorded that a garden at Mount Vemon Barracks
included tomatoes, melons, and Mexican beans among its yield (Stockel 1993:166), A
prisoner of war recalled that women gathered blueberries, blackberries, red berries,
persimmons, and hickory nuts near the fort during their occupation at the Alabama
location (Guydelkon undated; 2,4, Native American Files/Apaches/Prisoner of War
Stahis, Ft. Sill Archives; Haes 1997:43).
Rations at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, consisted of beef, flour, sugar, coffee, and
occasionally potatoes and onions. The Army bought hogs, turkeys, and chickens.
Turkeys, however, were considered a forbidden food as they ate worms and insects, with
the former's connotation to snakes, which were considered evil. Also taboo, fish were
available in many of the streams on the post. During the Fort Sill period, however, some
members of the younger generation ate fish without reprimand from the elders, perhaps a
practice acquired in Florida (Opler 1965:326, 328, 331).
At Fort Sill, the Chiricahuas were able to reexperience foodstuffs similar to those
they had procured in their homelands. Shortly after their arrival in 1894, the Apaches
learned that thickets of mesquite beans were in season. They obtained permission to
29
harvest the produce and retiiraed with over three hundred bushels (Debo 1989:365-366;
Haes 1997:72). Mesquite beans were important traditional fare. The Chiricahuas boiled
them, pounded them into a mixture, and worked them by hand until the beans formed a
doughy consistency. In the past, women had utilized metates, flat grinding surfaces made
of rock, but later meat grinders were substituted. The flour was used to make a flat bread
like tortillas. Often the women cooked the beans and meat together and, when the people
ate the beans, they spit the seedcoats out. Mesquite bean pods also made a pudding-like
dish (Castetter et al. 1936:41).
The Apaches practiced subsistence agriculture and received ten-acre family plots.
They planted artichokes, which might seem somewhat curious at first (Boyer 1992; 117;
Scott 1928; 198-199). Mildred Cleghom stated that artichokes tasted similar to agave, a
traditional Apachean food. The shoots were roasted and the crown was baked in an
underground oven (McClung 1986;2A, Indian Files-Biography/Cleghom,
Mildred/Apache, Fort Sill Archives). The Indians sun-dried and stored the baked agave
or mescal, which provided a nutritious sweet food source for months (Opler 1983:413).
The artichokes were probably processed in the same manner. Thus, when opportunities
presented themselves to obtain traditional foods, the Chiricahuas welcomed the chance to
reconnect with a past that had been denied them for eight long years. Sugar (sweet) com,
sweet potatoes, onions, peas, beans, and pumpkins numbered among the other crops
produced. They also grew watermelons and cantaloupes. The Chiricahuas sold the
surplus at the post.
30
The Meaning of Silence
Silence for the Chiricahua Apache took on two forms in an incarcerative
environment; forced acculturation and courtship. The male prisoners interned at Fort
Pickens dug freshwater wells, washed clothes, cooked, and wore outdated Army
uniforms. They cleared large areas of overgrowth at the post, planted grass on the parade
ground, pulled weeds, and painted cannonballs. These duties, assigned by the soldiers,
were based on Anglo divisions of labor, but, in all likelihood fell within the parameters of
Apachean feminine cultural roles. The warriors maintained their silence, according to
Colonel Loomis Langdon in 1887. He stated that, "it might be thought natural if now and
then an Indian would object" (I angdon to Division of Atlantic 28 June 1887 and 9
August 1887, Apache File, Fort Pickens, quoted in Kalesnik 1992:243-244). This seems
to indicate they did not object. For six months they had lived at the post without their
wives and children, with bleak prospects, and little sense of hope for the fiiture. That
finally changed when the commander successftilly lobbied on their behalf and had them
reunited with their families (Haes 1997:27-28).
Silence and respect were illustrated through a courtship between Asa Daklugie,
son of Nednhi Chiricahua chief Juh and Geronimo's sister Ishton, and Ramona
Chihuahua, daughter of Chokonen Chiricahua chief. Chihuahua. The courtship/marriage
was arranged between the two families. His father set the stage for the relationship by
warning Daklugie that once the arrangement was in place that "from now on you are not
to see each other except when her parents or I am with you. Even then, if you talk, it
must be with something between you, a bush perhaps, and you must speak back to back.
31
You must respect Chihuahua's daughter and defend her with your life if necessary..."
(Ball et al. 1980:74). This comment underiines the importance of silence in a new and as
yet unsure relationship. Juh's coimsel to his son also reflected the respect and honor in
which he held his fnend, Chihuahua, and his family, and the economic value that a
daughter of marriageable age represented to her family. If she were chaste and dutifijl,
the yoimg woman would attract valuable gifts upon marriage (Opler 1965; 161).
Both Ramona and Daklugie were selected to attend CarUsle Indian School after
the Chiricahua Apaches were incarcerated. They were on the same train that took the
children from Forts Marion and Pickens to the school. It was late in the fall and snow
had fallen and delayed the train from reaching the school. The two were some of the
older children on the train but the following conversation indicated the uncertainty of
what the future held in store for them and to what lengths they were willing to go if
necessary;
During that trying ordeal of the trip by train there was littie conversation. Once, when the guard had a message for the girls, Ramona, without once glancing up, asked me if I had a knife and if I would kill her if she were attacked. I answered "Ow," and she understood. Beautiful and strong she was, and no man had greater coiffage. Though we might be going to our death, or into slavery and degradation, my heart sang. I might have to kill Ramona, but while she lived it would be my privilege to defend her and, if it came to an attack, to send her beautiful body to the Happy Place. From that time I had a glimmer of hope. (Ball et al. 1980; 140)
The "trying ordeal" is in reference to a ti-ain trip that was in its second day, with the third
night approaching when it became snowbound enroute north to Carlisle Indian School, in
1886. On board were children of the Chiricahua Apache prisoners of war. The girls were
huddled at one end of the raitoad car witii a wife of one of the two guards as a chaperon.
32
the boys were at the other end, and the guards located in the middle between the two
groups. Apparemly, Ramona and Daklugie, when they were younger, had heard a story
of Anglo pioneers who were frapped during a blizzard, attacked one another, and resorted
to cannibalism (Ball et al. 1980:140-141). It is in reference to tiiis episode that Ramona
broke protocol and spoke to Daklugie asking him to kill her if she were attacked. As for
Dakiugie's closing comment, the marriage between the two families was akeady
arranged. Ramona had sought him out as her protector, and this was potentially the first
acknowledgement of that arrangement. This may be what Daklugie refers to as a
"glimmer of hope" and a chance to win her heart.
At Carlisle, Daklugie recalled standing on the steps so "that when Ramona passed
we could exchange a silent greeting" (Ball et al. 1980; 147). Silence, as Basso's article
(1970) reminds us, can also carry meaning. This form of shyness was in fact considered
proper by Chiricahua standards during courting, as the sexes were not "openly to show a
lot of feeling for one of the other sex" (Opler 1965:78).
The couple remained at Carlisle for eight years. Once Daklugie rejoined the
prisoners of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he specialized in animal husbandry and helped
start a cattle herd for the tribe. After he established himself with enough money to buy a
house and support a family, he asked for Ramona's hand in marriage. They had two
weddings, as Ramona wanted their union to be recognized in both worlds. She wore a
beaded buckskin dress for the Indian ceremony and a silk one for the Anglo wedding
(Balletal. 1980:164).
33
Place-Names or Stalking with Stories
"Speaking with names is possible only among persons who share knowledge of
the same traditional narratives; otherwise, place-names would evoke stories for hearers
that were different from those intended by speakers" (Basso 1996; 157, n.9). There was
some intermarriage between the Western and Chiricahua Apaches; however, the
phenomenon of stalking with stories or using names with associated moral lessons is not
reported for the Chiricahua. Of course, it is unlikely any Anglo observers would have
been aware of this cultural feature before Basso's seminal work.
Instead, there are intriguing place accounts of a different nature. In the
Guadalupe Mountains, there is a unique rock formation, which resembles a face,
Guadalupe Peak. "It keeps perpetual watch for enemies from the east. In our language it
is called Say-a-chee." The mountain was considered sacred. 'Trom a cave beneath that
great face come sounds of singing and dancing such as occur in our sacred rites. Many
Apaches had heard those sounds and were curious about them, but nobody had had the
courage to enter that place" (Kaywaykla 1994:38). Opler's informant told him that the
Moimtain People, those that guarded the Chiricahua territory and protected them against
enemies and disease, resided in the Guadalupe Mountains. They are said to reside within
a series of caves inside a cliff. The Mountain People are responsible for handing down
sacred dances and songs to the shamans and others who have apprenticed with the Sacred
Ones. The masked dancers, sometimes known as the Gahe, or Crown Dancers or Gaan,
in Westem Apache culture, impersonate the Mountain People, for their power is too
dangerous to deliver directly to the Apache (Opler 1965:268-272).
34
Dahteste, a female wan-ior, described a set of peaks which were probably Dos
Cabezas, near Deming, New Mexico, that she said Cochise used as a landmark to know
where to turn right or left. When the Chiricahuas saw it, they knew they were close to
where they wanted to go (Ove et al. 1997:106). Authors Rev. Robert Ove and H.
Henrietta Stockel believed that "the Chiricahuas of old did not assign place names but
rather remembered geographical locations and their specific meanings." This phrase may
allude to meanings of which Anglos were unaware. Ove, a teacher at the Mescalero
Apache Reservation, asked "contemporary descendants if they knew the names of the
peaks. None did, but all knew where they were. In former times, the sight of these two
peaks probably indicated to Cochise's band that they were nearing the safety of his
stronghold" (Ove et al. 1997; 141, n. 2).
Language as a Local Symbolic Form
The Chiricahua Apaches were encouraged to acculturate, adapt, and assimilate to
an Anglo lifestyle. Geronimo informed his nephew, prior to leaving for CarUsle Indian
School, that he would accompany some of the other children to that institute. Daklugie
balked. Geronimo explained to him that not all men were descended from chiefs and
designated to be Chiricahua leaders as was he. Daklugie said that Geronimo told him that
'Svithout this training in the ways of the White Eyes our people could never compete with
them. So it was necessary that those destined for leadership prepare themselves to cope
with the enemy. I was to be trained to become the leader" (Ball et al. 1980; 136),
35
The children who were sent to Pennsylvania at this time were expected to speak
only English at Carlisle and not to speak Apache, tiiat they might obtain language fluency
in English, In 1890, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs notified boarding schools that
"pupils must be compelled to converse with each other in English, and should be property
rebuked or punished for persistent violation of this mle." Fortunately, CarUsle's Captain
Richard Pratt believed in positive reinforcement and rewarded those students who
refrained from speaking their native tongues for long periods of time (Adams 1995:140).
Youths that continued to live with their families and attended public schools were also
expected to speak the English language.
Daklugie said it was necessary to try to memorize everything to learn English, as
the Chiricahuas could neither read nor write. He was fortunate to have a kind, patient
teacher who sensed that he desperately wanted to learn to read and helped him. He was
well along in the process before the winter of 1886 was over. One day, the teacher
showed Daklugie the mountains and rivers of his homeland in a geography book. It was
the first time that he had seen a map. He was smitten. Daklugie told her their names in
Chiricahua, and then in Spanish, and recalled for her what few names he knew in English.
Knowing what the book represented to him, she let him take it back to his dorm room.
Daklugie related, "I almost wore it out" (Ball et al. 1980:144-145). One can imagine that
seeing a visual representation of the Chiricahua lands, whose features may have held a
wealth of meaning, must have been exciting for the youth.
The men, women, and children living near U.S. Anny personnel were forced to
speak English and there were advantages to communicating with the Anglo population on
36
a daily basis. It protected the indigenous people against being cheated when trading for
goods or being issued rations as there were undoubtedly many unsavory characters
interested in taking advantage of the prisoners of war.
Sense of Place
Through ethnohistorical documentation, we may witness the Chiricahua
experience through archival photographs and oral accounts. Men, women, and children
in unfamiliar surroimdings are shown peering out the windows of a Florida-bound train,
somewhere in Arizona during the summer of 1886. The windows were closed as the heat
sweltered, many of the men were shackled, and armed soldiers were everywhere. The
indigenous eyes seem to register the fear of the unknown. It was hard to breathe between
the heat and the coal smoke. All the while, the land where they were bom, hunted,
played, learned, gathered, raided, danced, washed, cooked, birthed, loved, and died,
passed before their eyes. They moumed as if someone had expired. The experience
shook them collectively to the very core of their existence and would, until they reached a
more familiar environment some eight years later in 1894 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Territory. They too, were literally dislocated; their worid and all the meanings it
contained destroyed (Haes 1997:3-4).
Witchcraft
There were many people who were mmored to be witches among the Chiricahua
Apache. Individuals were feared for their "power," and tiie lack of understanding by
37
others contributed to this fear. This held tme for Geronimo who was recognized as a war
shaman or military leader. Daklugie said, "He could foretell the fijttire. That is what his
name means: he sees ahead" (Ball et al. 1980:61). For example, Geronimo told his
nephew that Daklugie was going to be separated from his two older brothers, who were
attached to Mangus' band during the wars with the U.S. Army. "He assured me that he
was pleased with my behavior, that he was sure that I would make a good wanior, and
that he believed that some day I would be a chief I think that even that long ago
Geronimo may have known that I was to lose my brothers and wished to prevent the
family's extinction. He had the Power of foresight, even as my father had" (Ball et al.
1980:87).
Ball noted during an interview with Daklugie with his family present that the
children played so quietly that she almost forgot they were there. She remarked on their
good behavior and asked Daklugie how he managed it. "I just tell them what to do and
they do it," he explained. She continued, "I was to leam that almost all of the Apaches
followed suit when he spoke. I did not know at that time that part of their subservience
was owing to their firm conviction that Daklugie was a witch (they applied the term to
men as well as women)" (Ball et al. 1980:xvii-xviii). Ball further elaborated:
Although Daklugie had been photographed repeatedly and with his consent, he refused to look into a mirror. There was a large one in my living room, but he always sat with his back to it. A fellow Apache who worked for me occasionally gave the following explanation; "That man's a witch. He can witch people just by looking at them. No witch will see himself in a mirror." Daklugie had no hesitancy in saying that he possessed Power; but he was carefiil to explain that, when used beneficially for either an individual or the tribe. Power is not witchcraft. If employed for sinister purposes it is. (Ball et al. 1980:87, n. 2)
38
Daklugie stated that his uncle's power related to fiiture predictions but did not
elaborate on his own. Power might be used in diagnosis, to bring success, to halt
fligitives, or to influence enemies such as the Americans or Mexicans. Victorio's sister,
Lozen, was a woman warrior specialized in locating adversaries. It is said that if she had
been with her brother at Tres Castillos, she would have been able to wam him that there
were enemy forces surrounding Victorio and he might have found a way to survive.
Instead he was ovemm. Power may be used to locate missing objects, to prophesize
future events, to protect against attacks, to use in treatments against diseases, or to
weaken an enemy (Opler 1965:494-495),
Scouts
There were actually two types of scouts among the Chiricahua Apaches, The first
dated to the reservation period (1870) and helped the agent maintain order. These
individuals were often the natural leaders of the Chiricahua, such as Chihuahua, who was
a Chokonen chief In May 1885, Chihuahua quit being a scout for Lt. Britton Davis,
when he tired of the Ues that Chato, another Chiricahua, spread throughout the San Carlos
Reservation (Ball et al. 1980:98). Chato was charismatic and convinced Davis of the
tmth of his stories, Davis, in turn, shared the information with his superiors. For
example, Chato claimed that he had successftilly conducted a raid that had in artuality
been led by Chihuahua. Events such as this contributed to the rifts between the two
camps of scouts that existed at San Carlos (Ball et al. 1980:83,84).
39
The second type of scouts were individuals who helped the U.S. Army locate
Geronimo and the Apache Resistance in the final years of the Apache Wars. This
particular group were considered to be ti-aitors by many of their own people. Westem
Apache individuals numbered among this assemblage.
Martine and Kayitah were scouts of the second type. General Nelson A Miles
made promises to them if they helped find Geronimo, but these were promises he had no
intention of keeping:
If you come back alive and Geronimo surrenders I will have the government give you a good home at Turkey Creek and there you will have plenty of good water, grass, and game. Everything you need will be fumished you. And the government will give you seventy thousand dollars if you are successfiil; you wall get the mon^ as soon as Geronimo surrenders and you get back. (Ball et al, 1980; 109)
Ball interviewed George Martine, son of Martine, m New Mexico and learned of Martine
and Kayitah's exploits. She commented, "They had no use for money but they wanted a
home at Turkey Creek where they could live peacefully. They had not asked for money;
but because Miles promised it, they looked for it until they died. Of course they did not
get it" (Ball et al. 1980:109),
The two scouts' primary motivation in tracking down Geronimo and the Apache
Resistance, even though they both knew that they would be "forfeit[ing] the respect of
[their] people by going on this mission," was to put an end to the Apache Wars, Martine
and Kayitah were afraid that if the fighting continued that it might lead to the
"extermination of the Apaches." George Wratten, who worked at the ti-ading post at the
San Carlos Reservation and spoke fluent Apache, witnessed General Miles's monetary
offer to the two Chiricahua scouts. Wratten explained that the general was promising
40
each of them large sums of money when they successftilly retumed from their venUire
(Balletal. 1980:111),
Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood was the officer who actually led the soldiers and
scouts on the mission to locate and secure Geronimo's surrender, but Miles, as in so
many previous and subsequent instances, took credit. In their later years, it would be
Gatewood that would come to Martine and Kayitah's rescue and assist the scouts in
obtaining recognition, as well as a small pension as a reward (Ball et al. 1980:111).
Traditional Religion
The Chiricahua Apaches resorted to their traditional ways even in incarceration.
The Gahe or Mountain Spirit dancers were called upon to heal a sick baby shortly after
the tribe's arrival in Florida in 1886 (Stockel 1993:90). Eugene Chihuahua noted that,
after the Chiricahua were sent to Florida, "we thought that even Ussen [the Creator] was
taken away from us. We had long known that we were Indeh, the Dead, but even so,
back in our own country we could go to the mountains to pray, and Ussen would answer
us" (Ball et al. 1980:64). By the time the Chiricahuas arrived at Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Territory, eight years had transpired and Eugene had had a change of heart as shovwi by
his words;
We could see the mountains. They weren't tall like ours but they were mountains. There were trees, and we didn't have to climb one to see the sun. There was water in the creek-clear sparkling mountain water. There were mesquite beans, and we began gathering and shelling them. We hadn't seen one since we were taken to Florida. We gathered several hundred bags of them. And there were deer-not so many as at Turkey Creek, but a good many. You'll laugh at this, but I don't mind. The
41
best of all was to hear the coyotes sing, and the cry of the quail too. We hadn't heard them since we left Fort Bowie. And the smell of sage was good to us. (Ball et al. 1980; 160)
Mountains played a cmcial role in the lives of the Chiricahua Apaches. They
were a mountain people and knew how to survive in them, draw sustenance from them,
and find emotional well being and inspiration. They resided in areas of Florida and
Alabama for eight years without mountains, so they rejoiced at seeing another range of
mountains in Oklahoma, at Fort Sill. By climbing a mountain, one could see the sky,
communicate freer spiritually, and see the sun-which symbolized Ussen. In Phase n of
the puberty ceremony the young woman is impregnated by the sun [Ussen\ (Basso 1966;
153-156).
Daklugie stated that the "ceremonials for the Maidens are the most sacred of all
our religious rites" (Ball et al. 1980:58). In an undated Ball interview manuscript,
Amelia Naiche, daughter of Naiche and, granddaughter of Cochise, noted that the
missionaries "thought that the Puberty Ceremonial for the maidens is a pagan rite and that
it should not be observed. One minister ordered the members of the Reformed Church
not to attend nor to permit their daughters to participate. Did we obey? Certainly not"
(Robinson 2000:185).
Ball wrote that "seldom did a Protestant minister stay more than a year or two,"
Fewer still had experience with Indians and none spoke the language. Ministers quickly
learned that to be successful in making converts, they should focus their efforts on the
man of the household. If the man became a member, his wife and children would follow.
Herein lay the problem: almost all the Apache men had more than one wife. Before he
42
could be baptized, he had to decide which wife and children he could keep; the others had
to be renounced and left to shift for themselves, "The Apaches strictly observed tiieir
unwritten law regarding a man's obUgation to support his families; failure to do so would
mean loss of face in his tribe. Many warriors weighed the decision in the balance and
decided in favor of their families. This was very discouraging to the ministers and
probably was a primary reason for their short terms of service" (Ball et al. 1980:237).
The Boarding School Experience
On 23 October 1886, 100 incarcerated Chiricahua Apache children were selected
by military overseers to be sent to Carlisle Indian Industrial School, in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, They were taken from their families at Fort Marion, St, Augustine, and
Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island, Florida. In April 1887, an additional sixty-two
Chiricahua children traveled to Carlisle, this time by sea from Florida to New York and
then overland to Pennsylvania (Ove et al, 1997:xxix),
Richard Imach, father of Mildred Imach Cleghom, former Chairperson of the Fort
Sill ChiricahuaAVarm Springs Apache Tribe in Oklahoma, related much about the
selection process. He said that the boys were lined up in sand on the beach below the
fort. The selection process was based on height, as the children's ages were unknown.
Richard and the boy next to him were identical in height, but the other boy dug his feet in
the sand to appear shorter. He was bypassed temporarily while Richard was sent to
Carlisle. Upon arrival at Carlisle, the boys and giris were separated (Ove et al. 1997;
xxix). Officials cut the sttidents' hair the day after they anived. There were two reasons
43
for the short-hair policy; first, it was easier to control head lice, which was not a
widespread problem among new recmits, but would make it easier to control if there was
an outbreak. Second, and the primary reason for the program, was that long hair
symbolized "savagism." The removal 'Vas central to the new identification with
civilization" (Adams 1995; 101), For Daklugie, this was a devastating part of the
acculttiration process. The question he remembered asking himself at the time was,
"How would Ussen recognize me when I went to the Happy Place?" (Ball et al, 1980;
144).
Next, the children were bathed. While they were washing, their traditional
clothing was taken (Daklugie found out later that the clothing was sent back to their
parents) and pants or dresses left in their stead, depending on the gender. Daklugie
commented, "We'd lost our hair and we'd lost our clothes; with the two we'd lost our
identity as Indians. Greater punishment could hardly have been devised" (Ball et al.
1980:144).
Then, the youths were lined up along a wall according to height and issued
Christian names, with the tallest receiving names beginning at the first of the alphabet,
hence Daklugie receiving the first name of "Asa." "I went to the head of the line because
that's where a chief belongs. Then a man went down it.., I've always hated that name. It
was forced on me as though I had been an animal" (Ball et al. 1980:144). Imach
remarked that "many descendants of those children still carry the names today; quite a
few contemporary Chiricahuas have no idea what their ancestors' real Apache names
were" (Ove et al. 1997:xxix).
44
Lessons in English began at meals where children learned how to pronounce the
names of utensils and food. Older Apache children were expected to assist the smaller
ones. James Kaywaykla, the youngest Apache at Carlisle, sat next to Daklugie, one of
the oldest children there. Daklugie told about one Sunday moming breakfast when he
was passing hotcakes from left to right. Kaywaykla was seated to his right and was the
last served, but there was still plenty of pancakes on the plate. That was not the case
when the maple symp reached him; the jar was virtually empty. Only a few drops ran
out. He began to cry because the symp was gone, a most unusual reaction for an Apache
of any age. 'Tt was the first time that I'd seen one of the Apache children (cry),"
Daklugie said. "I felt sorry for him... .It was against the mle, but I got more of that maple
symp" (Ove et al. 1997:xxix).
The student waiter who brought the symp asked Daklugie if he knew that
Kanseah was in the hospital? 'That was terrible news, for nearly every Apache taken
there had died," Jasper Kanseah was the orphaned nephew of Geronimo, and had been
only thirteen when his uncle's band surrendered, Kanseah was one of the lucky few who
did not die from tuberculosis (Ove et al, 1997;xxix-xxx).
English lessons continued in the classroom where memorization and flashcards
were introduced. The cards had the word and picttire of the object to introduce the idea
and word. The student would write on a blackboard or slate, repeat the word verbally,
and thus begin a mdimentary vocabulary. Objects, wall charts, and instmctive walks
were aU part of the curriculum (Adams 1995:137).
45
Kanseah insisted that his children and grandchildren obtain a proper education so
that they could compete in the white world. This was consistent with Carlisle's course of
sttidy as described in its catalogue; "It is the aim of the Carlisle school to ti-ain the Indian
youth of both sexes to take upon themselves the duties of citizenship. Indian young men
and young women are given thorough academic and industrial training, which prepares
them to eam a living, either among their own people or away from the reservation in
competition with whites" (Ove et al. 1997:xxx).
In addition to the basic academic curriculum, Carlisle offered agriculture,
business, and industries, such as wagonmaking, blacksmithing, printer, shoemaker,
carpenter, painter, and tailoring for the boys (Pratt 1964:280, 322-323). The household
arts included cooking, laundering, sewing, canning, ironing, child care, cleaning,
stenography, typing, and bookkeeping for girls (Adams 1995; 150).
Carlisle also promoted a program called the "outing system," underwritten by
Superintendent Pratt. Each student spent at least one year at a nearby farm home
practicing what he or she had learned in the classroom environment at Carlisle by
working for the family. To illustrate, an Apache girl would be expected to assist in
household chores, such as cooking, washing, and helping with the sewing. The pupils
were paid one dollar to fifteen dollars per month, in direct relation to the kind of work
they performed and the ability and skill they showed in doing it. The earnings were
deposited in individual bank accounts and were accessible for purchasing necessities.
Many of the farming families kept in touch with the sttidents long after they had rettimed
to their natural parents. To show respect and gratitude, a few Apache children even
46
adopted the first or last names of these families. The outing system received
Congressional support and similar programs were started in other Indian schools from
Oregon to the Indian Territory (Ove et al. 1997:xxx).
Tuberculosis indiscriminately infected its victims at that time. Healthy and
unhealthy students alike were sent out to local homes, regardless of the danger to them
and their host families. In some instances, the farm family had members who were sick,
and the deadly bacteria flourished. When a heahhy pupil entered a home where others
were sick, usually that student fell ill. When the initial education period for the
Chiricahuas at CarUsle was over, at least thirty-seven Apache children had died from
contagious diseases acquired at school (Ove et al. 1997;xxxi).
47
CHAPTER IV
COMPARING AND CONTRASTING
Puberty Ceremony
In The Gift of Changing Woman Basso did an astounding job of presenting an
ethnographic description of the ceremony itself, the ritualistic paraphernalia, and the
symbolic content. He ties the meaning of the ceremonial fiinction, not only to the
individual, but also to the Westem Apache society as a whole. Unfortimately, the same
amoimt of detail for the Chiricahua's puberty ceremony was not available. The two
ceremonies are similar in many respects. The girls run around a cane (Westem Apache)
versus a basket (Chiricahua) in Phase I and V (1966:153-156). The cane is used as a
walking stick in the woman's elder years. The basket merely held the ritual ceremonial
items, but both items symbolized longevity. There may be additional differences, but this
one seems to be the most significant.
As for the Chiricahua Apache eyewitness accounts, Eugene Chihuahua recounts
that the puberty ceremony was practiced at Mount Vemon Barracks during the
incarcerative years. He was a prisoner of war and a highly reliable source. As an older
boy when the Chiricahuas were initially incarcerated, his recall of early events at Fort
Marion, Mount Vemon Barracks, and Fort Sill have proven accurate. He was much older
than Blossom Wratten Haozous and saw more of that early internment period.
As for Cleghom's comments that the puberty ceremony was never held in
Oklahoma, that can not be the case. The likelihood is that Mrs. Haozous was referring to
the incarcerative period at Fort Sill when the puberty ceremony was held; however, by
48
the time of Cleghom's early childhood, emancipation from Fort Sill, and individual
allotments, the ceremony may have become an event of the past. With the majority of
Chiricahuas moving to the Mescalero Apache reservation in 1913, perhaps no one in the
region was knowledgeable about how to conduct the puberty ceremony and this may be
the period to which Cleghom refers.
Clans
The Western Apache have a rich social organization system that was ahered over
time by relocation of people, formation of settlements, disappearance of bands and local
groups, economic changes that took place between the gota and gowa, and loss of
connection between clan members in widely separated communities. Finally, earlier
restrictions on marriage between individuals are beginning to break down (Basso 1967;
64).
Still to be detennined is whether such an elaborate system of social organization
existed among the Chiricahua. Was it destroyed by the incarceration experience, and if
so how? From the literature about this period, there is no mention of a clan system in
place. Eugene Chihuahua emphatically denied the existence of clans (Ball et al, 1980;
43). Did anyone else besides Eugene Chihuahua remember an earlier clan system?
Grenville Goodwin conducted fieldwork with the Western Apache and recorded
that the Westem Apache "read clans into the three Chiricahua bands, asserting that these
are clans like their own" (1942; 105). The quote refers to the intermarriage that took
place between the two groups. For example, Westem Apache women married into the
49
Chiricahua, thus bringing their clans and descendants to the Chiricahua Apaches.
Goodwin also stated that marital exchange took place in the opposite direction, witii
Chiricahua women marrying Westem Apache men. He elaborated "that they and their
offspring, regardless of the Westem Apache father, are termed 'Chiricahua,' just as if this
were a clan name." He continued, "ahhough the three Chiricahua band names are
thought of as clans (by Western Apaches), in actual practice only the one term is used,
covering all Chiricahua" (1942; 106). These observations do not shed light on whether
clans did or did not actually exist among the Chiricahua Apaches, but intermarriage
between the two tribes and the introduction of clans into the lives of the intermarrying
individuals and their offspring remains an interesting adaptation.
Subsistence
The Chiricahua and Westem Apaches shared pre-reservation subsistence pattems
as they Uved on adjacent lands in the Arizona Territory, with the exception that the
Chiricahuas were not farmers. The Westem Apache lived and still reside in east-central
Arizona, The Chiricahua lived on their traditional lands to the east. When Westem
Apaches enlisted as scouts in the U.S. Army and assisted in efforts to locate renegade
Chiricahuas and other Indians that fled from the reservations, a previously amicable
status between the two tribes was severed (Basso 1986:3).
Foraging during incarceration initially was to supplement governmental rations, to
escape starvation, and to avoid taboo foods. By 1891, at Mount Vemon Barracks, the
Chiricahuas were gathering such wild foods as nuts and berries to complement their diets
50
(Guydelkon undated;2,4, Native American Files/Apaches/Prisoner of War Stattis, Ft. Sill
Archives; Haes 1997:43). In 1894 at Fort Sill, with the reintroduction of some foods
native or similar to the Chiricahuas' traditional diet, such as mesquite beans and
artichokes, subsistence was approaching fiill circle, as were the lives of the Apache in
some respects (Debo 1989:365-366; Boyer 1992:117; Scott 1928:198-199, McClung
1986:2A, Indian Files-Biography/Cleghom, Mildred/Apache, Fort Sill Archives; Opler
1983:413).
The Meaning of Silence
Basso shows how silence is a culturally appropriate response to social uncertainty
among the Westem Apache (1970:317). There is some indication of this pattern in the
Chiricahua experience. Tasks assigned by soldiers at Fort Pickens, Florida, to the
Apache prisoners of war were based on divisions of labor foreign to the males. Initially,
the Chiricahuas did not protest because to do so would have been labeled acts of defiance
and resistance. The cultural prescription of silence in uncertain situations thus stood
them in good stead (Basso 1970:317). Later, when the Indians were reunited with their
families, the men didn't want to appear to be ungratefiil for the kindnesses that the
soldiers extended toward them, even though most tasks would have traditionally been
performed by women within their culture (Haes 1997:25-28).
51
Place-Names or Stalking with Stories
Stalking with stories or speaking with names, the unique phenomenon known to
the Westem Apache, serve an important moral fiinction in their society. Agodzaahi
stories about historical events and tiieir geographical locations include the system of mles
and values with which Apaches expect each other to organize and regulate their lives
(Basso 1996:52). As Basso stated it was "possible only among persons who share
knowledge of the same traditional narratives; otherwise, place-names would evoke stories
for hearers that were different from those intended by speakers" (1996:157, n. 9).
We know that the Chiricahua told stories about adventures inside sacred
mountains that resulted in obtaining sacred dances and songs for posterity. Apache
leaders also used landmarks to make their way through the countryside and were
extremely familiar with their local territory. Ove's comment that the Chiricahua did not
use place names, but rather remembered the "specific meanings" of particular places,
seems to indicate the same weahh of meaning attached to particular places described by
Basso. Being separated from their lands and their sacred mountains must have been a
devastating loss. The joy expressed at seeing mountains again in Oklahoma may indicate
Chiricahua hopefulness about being in a new mountain land whose stories could be
learned.
Language as a Local Symbolic Form
The Westem Apache retained tiieir native Athabaskan tongue, whereas, in many
respects, the Chiricahua have been alienated from their language over time. Obviously,
52
there were drawbacks in learning the English language at the expense of their mother
tongue, especially when that native usage was discouraged or forbidden. People would
forget the complex system of place-names and associated communication about
geographic locations. Loss of art, music, and other expressive forms would occur, as
well as changes in cultm-al morals and values. Destmction of a language would have
many cultural ramifications (Basso 1990; 140). According to linguists Isidore Dyen and
David F. Aberle (1974; 14), the Apachean subgrouping of Athabaskan languages are all
closely related. They state that such languages as Navajo, San Carlos, Chiricahua,
Mescalero, Jicarilla, and Lipan all share 95 percent or more cognate words.
Sense of Place
Although the cuhural characteristic of sense of place is a basic premise in the
Western Apache collective whole, it is actually the property of individuals and is
experienced to varying degrees by them (Basso 1996;xv-xvi). A wealth of meaning must
have been destroyed in the Chiricahua diaspora, but perhaps new meanings were
discovered, once they reached Oklahoma,
Scouts
The Westem and Chiricahua Apaches had been like cousins until the Army
employed the Westem Apaches to locate Chiricahua renegades who had escaped from the
various reservations. Among the Chiricahua, there were two fections of scouts, those
from the reservation period and the individuals who assisted the Westem Apache scouts
53
in the location and surrender of Geronimo, It is to this second Chiricahua group that
Daklugie directed tiie following conunent; "There was just one good thing in the whole
procedure; the scouts who had betrayed their people were doomed to captivity like the
rest of us. I didn't have to be there to know that the loyal Apaches made it miserable for
the cowardly traitors" (Ball et al, 1980; 136), Were such traitors punished in some way,
or regarded as evil-doers and ostracized?
Traditional Religion
Stmggles between Christianity and traditional religion have been waged in
modem-day Western Apache society, although traditional rituals continue to be practiced.
The Chiricahua also practiced their ttaditional rituals during their incarcerative years, as
the people clung to their lifeways. The puberty ceremony continues to be held yearly
around the July 4* holiday on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico, where
most of the Chiricahua survivors immigrated, so tradition is still very much evident
today.
The Boarding School Experience
While the Western Apache experience with boarding schools is a modem one and
the Chiricahuas' was that of the reservation period, it would seem that the students'
parents might have shared many of the same fears. They would have been concemed
about the foreign influences on their children's lives, then- morals and values and, of
course, traditions. The most important fact for either generation of elders would have
54
been that they were anxious about whether the youth would treat them differently when
they retumed, as if they were "ignorant, old-fashioned, and no longer deserving of
respect" (Basso 1970:310).
55
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS
The Chiricahua Apache Indians persevered from 1886 to 1894 in the face of
many hardships, first at Forts Marion and Pickens in Florida and then Mount Vemon
Barracks in Alabama. Due to excessive mortality rates, the government responded to
public outcry on the Indians' behalf and transferred them to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in
October 1894. This became the turning point in the Chiricahuas' incarceration, as better
heahh and acculturation became obvious objectives. Officers, such as Captain Scott, in
charge of the prisoners of war at the post, cut trade in illegal alcohol, taught ranching and
farming techniques, and allowed the Chiricahuas to once again practice traditional
lifeways. The fort overlooked War Department mles and allowed returning graduates of
Carlisle Indian Industrial School to stay with the prisoners of war. These actions and
others created an environment in which the Indians thrived and developed a sense of
permanence at the post (Haes 1997:94).
The Chiricahuas had endured a devastating dislocation that shook them to the core
of their existence with their removal from their traditional homelands in 1886. In 1897,
the government had procured 27,000 acres of land from the Kiowas, Comanches, and
Kiowa-Apaches (modem-day Apache Tribe of Oklahoma) for the special use of the
Chiricahuas. Special Agent Frank C. Armstrong with the War Department's Inspector
General's Office wrote, "These Indians have been given to understand tiiat this is their
fiittire home..." (War Department, Inspector General's Office, Report of Inspection 1903;
5-6, Fort Sill, O.T., Native American Files/Apache/Prisoner of War Stattis, Ft. Sill
56
Archives). So what efforts did tiie Chiricahuas themselves make to develop pennanent
residency at Fort Sill? Twelve Apache headmen accepted a Dutch Reformed Church
proposal to build a mission and day school for young children at Fort Sill, including an
orphanage and home for the mission workers (Interview, Rev, Dr, Robert Chaat with
John A. Turcheneske, Jr. 1976, quoted in Turcheneske 1997:71-72).
In Oklahoma, the Chiricahuas practiced subsistence agricukure and also worked
on the post at tasks such as cutting grass, driving teams, policing the post, and laboring
on the roads or at the sawmills (Scott Collection 1894; Boyer et al. 1992:118; Haes
2000:34). The Chiricahuas learned how to farm and ranch. They buih storehouses, sank
wells, and fenced more than 50,000 acres of reservation lands for livestock (Scott 1928;
191-192; Haes 2000:34). They began ranching with a herd of 580 Hereford cattle and
joined the Texas Cattle Association to keep abreast of the latest technological advances
and to receive information on cross-breeding, as well as to help protect the livestock from
cattle mstlers (Captain H. M. Reeve, Acting Inspector General, Department of the
Missouri 1902:4, Native American Files/Apache/Prisoners of War Status, Ft, Sill
Archives). Forty-three Chiricahuas participated in a government experiment in
acculturation by enlisting in the Army. They rode escort for payrolls, assisted with soil
conservation projects such as digging ponds, constmcted roads, and made other range
improvements (Coppersmith 1996:172, n. 21; Spivey/Haes, 1997; Haes 2000:35).
In 1902, after the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the Army began to
consider the location of a field artillery school at Fort Sill (Spivey/Haes, 1997; Haes
2000:33). By 1910, the United States government had noted advancements by the
57
Gennan Army in the mobilization and training of artillery units, training that far
exceeded its American counterpart. Three things sealed the Apaches' and the post's fate:
America's fear of European military supremacy. Fort Sill artillery school commandant
Dan T. Moore's training at the German Army artUlery school, and the lure of Fort Sill's
varied topography (Spivey/Haes, 1997; Haes 2000:38). The Army used Colonel Scott to
persuade the Chiricahuas that the government had provided lands at Fort Sill just for use
and occupancy rather than for their permanent settlement.
In April 1913, 183 of the 261-member Chiricahua tribe, siuvivors and
descendants of the original 515 internees, chose freedom and relocated to the Mescalero
Reservation in New Mexico, The remaining seventy-eight Apaches continued as
prisoners of war at Fort Sill until the government allotted them lands off-post from
deceased members of other neighboring tribes in 1914. Mildred Cleghom, who was bom
a prisoner of war, explained that many of the people who went to Mescalero "hated to
leave Fort Sill... There was not so much the satisfaction of receiving one's freedom as
there was the sadness of being denied the homes permanently promised them"
(Turcheneske 1978:262). Yet again, the Chiricahuas were collectively denied a sense of
place by the govemment. In Basso's terms (1996;xiii-xiv), they were adrift, dislocated in
unfamiliar surroundings that they did not care for or comprehend, unnerved, tiireatened
and, worst of all, without one another for solace.
The Westem Apache maintained their culture and traditional homelands from the
pre-reservation period to the present. For that reason, they provide valuable comparisons
into the Chiricahua Apache, a previously adjacent people. For over forty years. Basso
58
has worked with the Westem Apache people. By learning and describing their culture
through mastery of the language. Basso's research provides interesting insights into how
the Chiricahua experienced their incarceration and forced relocation to new lands.
59
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60
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73
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Videocassette
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74
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