#warmspringsapache

Chiricahua Apache

#trueamericans

Circa 1880

Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl, more commonly known as Apache Kid, was a White Mountain Apache who was captured by the Yuma people as a child, who was later freed by the U.S. Army where he became a street orphan within the Army camps. In the mid-1870s when he was a teenager, Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl met Al Sieber and was essentially adopted by him, the Chief of the Army Scouts. A few years later, in 1881, Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl enlisted with the U.S. Cavalry as an Indian scout, in a program designed by General George Crook to help quell raids by hostile bands of Apache. By July 1882, owing to his remarkable abilities in the job, he was promoted to sergeant. Shortly thereafter he accompanied Crook on an expedition into the Sierra Madre Occidental. He worked on assignment both in Arizona and northern Mexico over the next couple of years, but in 1885 he was involved in a riot while intoxicated, and to prevent him being hanged by Mexican authorities, Sieber sent him back north.

Circa 1885

Circa 1886

Bidu-ya, more commonly known as Victorio, was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chiricahua, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Victorio was born in the Black Range of New Mexico in 1825. Victorio was raised as a member of the Eastern Chihenne Apache, also known as the Warm Springs and Mimbreno Apache. There is speculation that he or his band had Navajo kinship ties and was known among the Navajo as "he who checks his horse". Victorio's sister was the famous woman warrior Lozen; "Dextrous Horse Thief". In 1853 he was considered a chief or sub-chief by the United States Army and signed a document. In his twenties, he rode with Mangas Coloradas, leader of the Coppermine band of the Tchihendeh people and principal leader of the whole Tchihendeh Apache division (who took him as his son-in-law), and Cuchillo Negro, leader of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh people and second principal leader of the whole Tchihendeh Apache division, as well as did Nana, Delgadito, Cochise, Juh, Geronimo and other Apache leaders. Mangas Coloradas taught Victorio how to create an ambush and to wait for enemies to enter the killing zone.[1] As was the custom, he became the leader of a large mixed band of Mimbreños and Mescaleros (led by his friend – and probably brother-in-law as husband of another daughter of Mangas Coloradas, as well Cochise) and fought against the United States Army. From 1870 to 1880, Victorio, chief of the Coppermine Mimbreños and principal leader of all the Tchihende, along with Loco, chief of the Warm Spring Mimbreños and second-ranking among the Tchihende, were moved to and left at least three different reservations, some more than once, despite their bands' request to live on traditional lands. Victorio, Loco and the Mimbreños were moved to San Carlos Reservation in Arizona Territory in 1877. Victorio and his followers (including old Nana) left the reservation twice, seeking and temporarily obtaining hospitality in Fort Stanton Reservation among their Sierra Blanca and Sacramento Mescalero allies and relatives (Caballero was probably Victorio's brother-in-law and Mangus' uncle, San Juan was too an old friend and Nana's wife was a Mescalero woman), before they came back to Ojo Caliente only to leave permanently in late August 1879, which started Victorio's War. Despite Nautzili's efforts, many Northern Mescalero warriors, led by Caballero and Muchacho Negro, joined him with their families, and San Juan and other Mescaleros also left their reservation; many Guadalupe and Limpia Mescalero too (Carnoviste and Alsate were close allies to Victorio after 1874) joined Victorio's people. Victorio was successful at raiding and evading capture by the military, and won a significant engagement at Las Animas Canyon in what is now the Aldo Leopold Wilderness on September 18 1879. In Victorio's War from September 1879 to October 1880, Victorio led a band of Apaches, never numbering more than 200 men, in a running battle with the U.S. and Mexican armies and the civilian population of New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico, fighting two dozen skirmishes and battles. In October 1880, in north-eastern Chihuahua (a land well-known to the Guadalupe and Limpia Southern Mescaleros), having sent Nana and Mangus to raid for food and ammunition, Victorio, with only a few warriors and even less ammunition, his band were surrounded and sadly, were murdered by soldiers of the Mexican Army under Colonel Joaquin.

Circa 1898