Chapter 19

THE APACHE WARS IN THE SOUTHWEST

1870 – 1892

The post-1870 period through the end of the 400 year period in 1892 can be generally termed as "The Apache Wars in the Southwest" period. It can be argued that the Apache wars stretched all the way from the 1840s to the 1920s but the main conflict is in the shorter timeframe.

The origins of the Apache Wars are rooted in the dispute between the United States and the Mexican government about the status of Texas and other territories claimed by both countries. The impact of the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848) and the defeat of the Mexican forces by the United States Army led to unintended consequences as the lands transferred from informal control of Mexico to the settlers of the American west. The Apaches had no axe to grind in the Mexican-American War but they did see the result robbing them of their sacred lands of their ancestors and they resented the encroachment of the European settlers.

During the initial period of the Apache Wars from 1849 until the start of the American Civil War in 1860, the confrontation was tense with some flare-ups resulting in killings and destruction of property. Some small expeditions were made against the Apache but with little success. Of course, during the American Civil War from 1860 to 1865, the United States Army was more concerned with the battle against the Army of the Confederacy rather than small Indian raiding parties in the barren Southwest Territory.

It was after the Civil War that the Army was able to employ significant elements of the U.S. Cavalry in the field against the Indian uprisings.

In this final phase of the conflict between the American Indian Tribes and the European settlers, the casualty numbers are slender but the emotions ran high. Unfortunately, the Native Americans came out on the short end of the stick in regard to public relations. The bad press related to the uprisings and small massacres vividly described in the press and pulp fiction firmly planted the picture of untrustworthy Indian hostiles. It was a picture that confirmed the Indians needed to be contained on reservations for the protection of the honest, hardworking settlers. The settlers were seen as the pioneer families that generously sacrificed their lives and fortunes for the concept of "Manifest Destiny" moving further and further west until they could go no further.

THE TEXAS INDIAN WARS

The first Battle of Adobe Walls took place in 1864 as the American Civil War was drawing to a close. The plains Indians were in no mood to come to a peaceful agreement with the military forces out west and were well aware that the Europeans settlers were in a bloody battle back east that drew the military's full attention. The numerous raiding parties caused Kit Carson to enter into the Texas panhandle with a force of almost 400 with the expectation of putting the Indians back on the reservation. He met up with an Indian camp of almost 2,000 warriors that presented him with a challenge that was totally unexpected. Eventually, he was able to affect a wise retreat from the battlefield at Adobe Walls and the plains Indians were in firm control of the entire Texas panhandle for the next decade.

The second Battle of Adobe Walls was a definite victory for the European settlers because they so disheartened the Indian attackers that they never were able to conduct a vigorous attack in force again in the American southwest. The small raids by Geronimo and other hotheads continued for decades but the spirit of resistance was eliminated by the combination of the U.S. Cavalry and the frontiersmen who saw the Indians as "fair game" if they were off the reservation.

The gradual build-up of U.S. Army military presence was slow and steady until it reached a point when the string of forts and stockades stretched all the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific Coastline. The logistics of supplying the forts spurred the construction of the railroad and the railroad insured that the never-ending trail of newly arrived settlers continued to wind their way westward to settle the land.

THE SECOND BATTLE OF ADOBE WALLS

1874

The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was fought on a much smaller scale than the first battle back in 1864 but the result was much more significant in terms of outcome of the 400 year conflict. The defenders of the isolated high point this time were a group of buffalo hunters and frontiersmen heavily armed and with plenty of ammunition for a long siege. There were approximately two score of them and they were opposed by a force of some 500 to 700 Comanche's on the warpath.

The location was famous for the battle fought there a decade earlier when famed scout Kit Carson commanded a force of 400 fighters against an Indian fighting force of close to two thousand warriors. It ended in a stalemate and Carson withdrew without Indian pursuit. It was a much better outcome than the ill-fated "Custer's Last Stand".

The "Buffalo Hunters" had been slaughtering the bison for several years and the herds were beginning to thin out to the point that the Indians began to find it difficult to find enough food to see them through a harsh winter. In order to kill more buffalo, the hunters moved south into hostile Indian Territory to lay waste to the herds of buffalo. The central location of Adobe Walls served a widespread community of about two hundred buffalo hunters and traders who sold the buffalo hides for use back east and in Europe.

The Plains Indians saw the post at Adobe Walls as a danger to their way of life because the hunters were eliminating the buffalo herds which were their main source of food to feed their families.

The exact size of the Indian attack is speculation but a good estimate is the 500 to 700 range reported by many witnesses to the attack.

Most of the defenders at the post were expert riflemen with the ability to make sure shots at long distances. They seldom expended more than one single shot to kill a buffalo at great distances. A young Bat Masterson of law enforcement fame was one of the defenders at the post.

Strangely, it was a single long distance shot by a buffalo hunter called Billy Dixon that ended the siege with the Indians losing heart and returning to their camps with stories of their bravery. The shot made by young Mister Dixon was with a Sharps .50 caliber rifle at a distance of a mile and killed a Chief's son with a bullet through the head at the unusual distance. When the distance was verified at a later date it came up only a hundred feet shy of the one mile mark.

The Indians came close to overrunning the post at the very outset but the hunters were able to fight them off with their Henry repeating rifles for close-in work and when they got them back out to a distance, they used their buffalo guns, the .50 Caliber Sharps Rifles to pick them off one by one. The Indians were outgunned and dispirited at the turn of events and were upset because the medicine man had told them they would be protected from the settler's firearms by the Great Spirit.

The large Indian force pulled back out of range or at least what they thought was out of range about a mile distant and considered attacking the post another time. Young Billy Dixon drew a bead on the far away Indians and brought down the lead rider with a single shot from his Sharps rifle. The Indians started to pull out from the fray and the hunters continued to filter in from the surrounding area until there were close to one hundred and fifty hunters defending the post.

Adobe Walls was ultimately a crushing defeat for the Indians and it was the main reason why the U.S. Cavalry decided to drive the Plains Indians back to the reservation once and for all. With the exception of "holdouts" the Indian wars on the Plains had ended.

GERONIMO'S WAR

Prior to the emergence of Geronimo on the scene in the last stages of the 400 year conflict; the U.S. Cavalry led many expeditions to put down the Apache Indian uprisings that plagued the southwest territory.

Geronimo is the most famous Apache leader of this final chapter of conflict but there were other notable Apache Chiefs such as Cochise who commanded more respect and loyalty from the Chiricahua Apache Tribe. Cochise decided to make peace with the U.S. government and relocate to the Chiricahua Mountains. Shortly afterward Cochise died and the U.S. reneged on its promises and ordered that the remaining Apaches be transferred to the San Carlos Reservation. Most of the Apaches complied because they were sorely in need of supplies and assistance for the women and children in their camps.

A number of the young warriors led by Geronimo jumped the reservation and escaped across the border into Mexico. He was re-captured in 1877 and returned in chains to the San Carlos reservation. He stayed there under constant guard until 1881. The Army was considering executing him for previous actions and he escaped again with almost 1,000 Apache Tribe members into Mexico.