|
This article is devoted entirely to the Indians of Arizona. Before 1866
and 1867, many of the Apache tribes were unknown and a large part of
their country was a terra incognita. At the time of which we write,
1869-1870, through constant warfare, all the tribes of the Colorado
River, and their habitats, had become known, and much progress had been
made in the exploration of what was called Apacheria in Arizona. Many
of the hostile tribes had been located and their numbers computed. The
military commanders up to General Crook did a great work in this
direction. They built roads through the Apache country, kept up a
constant fight with the Indians, and paved the way to a great extent,
as we shall see, for the subjugation of these tribes by General Crook.
The following pages will give, as far as possible, the. locations of
the Indians, their habits, customs and what can be gathered of their
folklore and traditions. The latter, in fifty years -
from now, will be lost entirely; in fact,
there are few Indians now living who have any knowledge whatever of the
superstitions or customs of their ancestors.
Of the Indian tribes in Arizona, the Navaho was the largest and, with
the exception of occasional thefts and marauding expeditions, was at
peace with the whites.
The Maricopas, the Pimas and the Papagos have always been friendly, and
the Yumas, after they were conquered by General Heintzelman, in 1853,
were also friendly.
Many of the Mohaves and other Yuma tribes along the Colorado river
were, at this time, gathered on the reservation, but they were all
practically at war with the whites, it being said
that they were fed on the reservation, and
employed their spare time in robbing and killing the settlers, and the
same may be said of the Wallapais, Apache Yumas, and Apache
Mohaves or Yavapais. The Apache Mohaves, a portion of the Mohave tribe,
but affiliated with the Tonto Apaches, were among the most bloody and
warlike of the Apache tribes.
The Tontos, Coyoteros, or White Mountain Apaches, the Pinalenos, what
remained of the Aravaipas, the Pinals, the Chiricahuas, were all on the
warpath. The Hopis and the
Havasupais were always peaceable.
I give the following, compiled from Bulletin 30 of the Bureau of
Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution, and the works of Captain John
G. Bourke, J. Ross Browne, and the manuscript
of Mike Burns, relating to the ranges of the
Indians of Arizona in 1868 and 1869, and what is known of their
previous history, legends and folklore:
APACHE (probably from apachu, "enemy," the
Zuni name for the Navaho, who were designated " Apaches de Nabaju" by
the early Spaniards in New Mexico) . A number of tribes forming the
most southerly group of the Athapascan family. The name has been
applied also to some unrelated Yuman tribes, as the Apache-Mohave
(Yavapai) and Apache- Yuma. The Apache call themselves N'de, Dine, Tinde or
Inde, "people."
They were evidently not so numerous about the beginning of the 17th
century as in recent times, their numbers apparently having been
increased by captives from other tribes, particularly the Pueblo, Pima,
Papago, and other peaceful Indians, as well as from the settlements of
northern Mexico that were gradually established within the territory
raided by them, although recent measurements by Hrdlicka seem to
indicate unusual freedom from foreign admixtures.They were first
mentioned as Apachesby Onate in 1598, although Coronado, in 1541, met
the Querechos (the Vaqueros of Benavides, and probably the Jicarillas
and Mescaleros of modern times) on the plains of eastern New Mexico,
and western Texas ; but there is no evidence that the Apache reached as
far west as Arizona until after the middle of the 16th century. From
the time of the Spanish colonization of New Mexico until within twenty
years they have been noted for their warlike disposition, raiding white
and Indian settlements alike, extending their depredations as far
southward as Jalisco, Mexico. No group of tribes has caused greater
confusion to writers, from the fact that the popular names of the
tribes are derived from some local or temporary habitat, owing to their
shifting propensities, or were given by the Spaniards on account of
some tribal characteristic ; hence some of the common names of
apparently different Apache tribes or
bands are synonymous, or practically so;
again, as employed by some writers, a name may include much more or
much less than when employed by others. Although most of the Apache
have been hostile since they have been known to history, the most
serious modern outbreaks have been attributed to mismanagement on the
part of civil authorities.
Being a nomadic people, the Apache practiced agriculture only to a
limited extent before their permanent establishment on reservations.
They subsisted chiefly on the products of the chase and on roots
(especially that of the maguey) and berries. Although fish and bear
were found in abundance in their country, they were not eaten, being
rejected as food. They had few arts, but the women attained high skill
in making baskets. Their dwellings were shelters of brush, which were
easily erected by the women and were well adapted to their arid
environment and constant shifting. In physical appearance the Apache
vary greatly, but are rather above the medium height. They are good
talkers, are not readily deceived, and are honest in protecting
property placed in their care, although they formerly obtained their
chief support from plunder seized in their forays.
The Apaches were divided into a number of tribal groups which have been
so differently named and defined that it is sometimes difficult to
determine to which branch writers refer.
The most commonly accepted divisions were the
Querechos or Vaqueros, consisting of the Mescaleros, Jicarillas,
Faraones, Llaneros, and probably the Lipan ; the Chiricahua ; the
Pinaleiios ; the Coyoteros, comprising the White Mountain and Pinal
divisions ; the Aravaipa ; the Gila Apache, including the Gilenos,
Mimbrenos and Mogollons ; and the Tontos.
Until 1904 there lived with the Apache of Arizona a number of Indians
of Yuma stock, particularly " Mohave- Apache, " or Yavapai, but these
are now mostly established At old Camp
McDowell. The forays and conquests of the
Apache resulted in the absorption of a large foreign element, Piman,
Yuman, and Spanish, although captives were treated with disrespect
and marriages with them broke clan ties. The
Pinal Coyoteros, and evidently also the Jicarillas, had some ad mixture
of Pueblo blood. The Tontos were largely of mixed blood according to
Corbusier, but Hrdlicka's observations show them to be pure Apache.
ARAVAIPA (Nevome Pima; aarivapa, "girls," possibly applied to these
people on account of some unmanly act). An Apache tribe whose home was
in the canyon of Aravaipa creek, a tributary of the Rio San Pedro,
southern Arizona, although like the Chiricahua and other Apache of
Arizona, they raided far southward, and were reputed to have laid waste
every town in northern Mexico as far as the (lila, prior to the
(ladsden purchase in 1853, and with having exterminated the Sobaipuri,
a Piman tribe, in the latter part of the 18th century. A writer in
Bulletin No. 30, of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian
Institution, says:
In 1863 a company of California volunteers, aided by some friendly
Apaches, at old Camp Grant. on the San Pedro, attacked an Aravaipa
rancheria, at the head of the canyon, killing 58 of the 70 inhabitants,
men, women, and children, the women and children being slain by the
friendly Indians, the men by the Californians, in revenge for
their atrocities. After this Loss they sued for peace, and their
depredations practically ceased. I have been unable to find any record
of this raid, and am forced to believe that the writer has reference to
the Camp Grant massacre, which occurred in 1871, a full description of
which is given in Volume 2 of this History, at page 269, ct seq. About
1872 they were removed to San Carlos Agency. The remnant of this tribe
is now under the San Carlos and Fort Apache agencies on the White
Mountain reservation.
(CHIRICAHUA (Apache: great mountain ). An important division of the
Apache, so called from their former mountain home in southeastern
Arizona. Their own name is Aiaha. The writer last above quoted, in
regard to this tribe, says: The Chirirahua were the most warlike of
the Arizona Indians, their raids extending into New Mexico, southern
Arizona, and northern Sonora, among their most noted leaders being
Cochise, Victorio, Loco, Chato, Nachi, Bonito, and Geroninio. This is
evidently a mistake; Victorio, Loco and (ieronimo were Mimbres Apaches,
and some of the others belonged to other tribes, but were affiliated
with the Chiricahuas by marriage. Physically they do not differ
materially from the other Apache. The men are well built, muscular,
with well developed chests, sound and regular teeth, and abundant hair.
The women are even more vigorous and strongly built, with broad
shoulders and hips and a tendency to corpulency in old age. They
habitually wear a pleasant open expression of countenance, exhibiting
uniform good nature, save when in anger, at which time their faces take
on a savage cast. White thought their manner of life, general physique,
and mental disposition seemed conducive to long life. Their
characteristic long legged moccasins of deerskin had a stout sole
turned up at the toes, and the legs of the moccasins, long enough to
reach the thigh4 were folded back below the knee, forming a pocket in
which were carried paints and a knife. The women wore short skirts of
buckskin. and the men used to display surplus skins folded about the
waist. Their arrows were made of reed tipped with obsidian or iron, the
shaft winged with three strips of feathers. They used in battle a long
spear and when obtainable a sling shot made by inserting a stone into
the green hide of a cow
s tail, leaving a portion of the hair attached. They possessed no
knowledge of weaving blankets. White supposed that they had immigrated
into Arizona from New Mexico three or four generations back. Their
camps were located on the highlands in winter, that they might catch
the warm rays of the sun, and in summer near the water among stunted
trees that sheltered them from its scorching glare. Their bands or
clans were named from the nature of the ground about their chosen
territory. Both men and women were fond of wearing necklaces and ear
pendants of beads. The hair was worn long and flowing, with a turban,
to which was attached a flap hanging down behind ; they plucked out the
hairs of the beard with tweezers of tin, and wore suspended from their
necks a small round mirror which they used in painting their faces with
stripes of brilliant colors. Strings of pieces of shell were highly
prized. Their customary dwelling was a rude brush hut, circular or
oval, with the earth scooped out to enlarge its capacity. In winter
they huddled together for warmth and, if the hut was large, built a
fire in the center. When they changed camps they burned their huts,
which were always built close together. They subsisted on berries,
nuts, and the fruits of various trees, mesquite beans, and acorns, of
which they were particularly fond, and they ground the seeds of
different grasses on a large flat stone and made a paste with water,
drying it afterward in the sun. In common with other Apache tribes they
relished the fruit of the giant cacti and of the yucca, and made mescal
from the root of the agave. Fish they would not eat, or pork, but an
unborn calf and the entrails of animals they regarded as delicacies,
and horse and mule flesh was considered the best meat. Though selfish
in most things, they were hospitable with food which was free to anyone
who was hungry. They were scrupulous in keeping accounts and paying
debts. Like many other Indians they would never speak their own names
or on any account speak of a dead member of the tribe. They tilled the
ground a little with wooden implements, obtaining corn and melon seeds
from the Mexicans. In their clans all were equal. Bands, according to
White, were formed of clans, and chiefs were chosen for their ability
and courage, although there is evidence that chieftainship was
sometimes hereditary, as in the case of Cochise, who appointed his
oldest son his successor, which was confirmed or ratified by the tribe.
Chiefs and old men were usually deferred to in council. They used the
brain of the deer in dressing buckskin. It is said that they charged
their arrows with a quick, deadly poison, obtained by irritating a
rattlesnake with a forked stick, causing it to bite into a deer's
liver, which, when saturated with the venom, was allowed to putrefy.
They stalked the deer and the antelope by covering their heads with the
skull of the animal and imitating with their crouching bodies the
movements of one grazing ; and it was their custom to approach an
enemy's camp at night in a similar manner, covering their heads with
brush. They signaled in war or peace by a great blaze or smoke made by
burning cedar boughs or the inflammable spines of the giant cactus. Of
their social organization very little is definitely known, and the
statements of the two chief authorities are widely at variance.
According to White, the children belong to the gens of the father,
while Bourke asserts that the true clan system prevails. They married
usually outside of the gens, according to White, and never relatives
nearer than a second cousin. A young warrior seeking a wife would first
bargain with her parents and then take a horse to her dwelling. If she
viewed his suit with favor she would feed and water the horse, and,
seeing that, he would come and fetch his bride, and after going on a
hunt for the honeymoon they would return to his people. When he took
two horses to the camp of the bride and killed one of them, it
signified that her parents had given her over to him without regard to
her consent. Youth was the quality most desired in a bride. After she
became a mother the husband might take a second wife, and some had as
many as five, two or more of them often being sisters. Married women
were usually faithful and terribly jealous, so that single girls did
not care to incur their rage. A woman in confinement went off to a hut
by herself, attended by her women relatives. Children received their
earliest names from something particularly noticeable at the time of
their birth. As among the Navahos, a man never spoke to his
mother-in-law, and treated his wife's father with distant respect ; and
his brothers were never familiar with his wife nor he with her sisters
and brothers. Faithless wives were punished by whipping and cutting off
a portion of the nose, after which they were cast off. Little girls
were often purchased or adopted by men who kept them until they were
old enough for them to marry. Frequently girls were married when only
10 or 11 years of age. Children of both sexes had perfect freedom, were
not required to obey, and never were punished. The men engaged in
pastimes every day, and boys in mock combats, hurling stones at one
another with slings. Young wives and maidens did only light work; the
heavy tasks were performed by the older women. People met and parted
without any form of salute. Kissing was unknown. Except mineral
vermilion, the colors with which they painted their faces and dyed
grasses for baskets were of vegetable origin yellow from beech and
willow bark, red from the cactus. They would not kill the golden eagle,
but would pluck its feathers, which they prized, and for the hawk and
the bear they had a superstitious regard in lesser degree. They made
tizwin, an intoxicating drink, from corn, burying it until it sprouted,
grinding it, and then allowing the mash diluted with water to ferment.
The women carried heavy burdens on their backs, held by a strap passed
over the forehead. Their basket work was impervious to water and
ornamented with designs similar to those of the Pima, except that human
figures frequently entered into the decorative motive. Baskets 21/2
feet in length and 18 inches wide at the mouth were used in collecting
food, which was frequently brought from a great distance. When one of
the tribe died, men carried the corpse, wrapped in the blankets of the
deceased, with other trifling personal effects, to an obscure place in
low ground and there buried it at once, piling stones over the grave to
protected it from coyotes and other prowl-ing beasts. No women were
allowed to follow, and no Apache ever revisited the spot. Female
relatives kept up their lamentations for a month, uttering loud wails
at sunset. The hut in which a person died was always burned and often
the camp was removed. Widows used to cut off their hair and paint their
faces black for a year, during which time the mourner lived in the
family of the husband's brother, whose wife she became at the
expiration of the time for mourning. They had a number of dances,
notably the "devil dance," with clowns, masks, headdresses, etc., in
which the participants jumped over a fire, and a spirited war dance,
with weapons and shooting in time to a song. When anybody fell sick
several fires were built in the camp, and while the others lay around
on the ground with solemn visages, the young men, their faces covered
with paint, seized firebrands and ran around and through the fires and
about the lodge of the sick person, whooping continually and
flourishing the brands to drive away the evil spirit. They had a
custom, when a girl arrived at puberty, of having the other girls tread
lightly on her back as she lay face downward, the ceremony being
followed by a dance.
The Tartar Chinese speak the dialect of the Apaches. The Apaches bear a
striking resemblance to the Tartar. About the year 1885, W. B. Horton,
who had served as County Superintendent of Schools, at Tucson, was
appointed Post Trader at Camp Apache, and went to San Francisco to
purchase his stock, where he hired a Chinese cook. His kitchen adjoined
his sleeping apartment, and one evening while in his room he heard in
the kitchen some Indians talking. Wondering what they were doing there
at that hour of the night, he opened the door and found his cook
conversing with an Apache. He asked his cook where he had acquired the
Indian language. The cook said: "He speak all same me. I Tartar
Chinese; he speak same me, little different, not much." At Williams, in
Navajo County, is another Tartar Chinaman, Gee Jim, who converses
freely with the Apaches in his native language. Prom these facts it
would seem that the Apache is of Tartar origin.
From the fact that the Apache language was practically the same as that
of the Tartar Chinese, color is given to the theory advanced by
Bancroft in his "Native Races," Volume 5, p. 33, et seq., that Western
America was "originally peopled by the Chinese, or, at least, that the
greater part of the new world civilization may be attributed to these
people. ' '
In this connection it may be stated that the swastika, which is an
oriental emblem, is found on the painted rocks in the range of
mountains south of Phoenix, according to Herbert R. Patrick, and this
sign is used by most of the Arizona Indians in their basketry.
COYOTEROS ( Spanish : "wolf men " ; so called in consequence, it is
said, of their subsisting partly on coyotes or prairie wolves [Gregg,
Com.Prairies, 1, 290, 1844] ; but it seems more probable that the name
was applied on account of their roving habit, living on the natural
products of the desert rather than by agriculture or hunting).
A division of the Apache, geographically
divided into the Final Coyoteros and the White Mountain Coyoteros,
whose principal home was the western, or southwestern, part of the
present White Mountain reservation, eastern Arizona, between San Carlos
Creek and the (lila River, although they ranged almost throughout the
limits of Arizona and western New Mexico. The name has evidently been
indiscriminately applied to various Apache bands, especially to the
Pinal Coyoteros, who are but a part of the Covoteros.
PINAL COYOTEROS. A part of the Coyotero Apache, whose chief rendezvous
was the Final Mountains and their vicinity, north of the (lila
River in Arizona. They ranged, however, about the sources of the (lila,
over the Mogollon mesa, and from northern Arizona to the (lila, and
even southward. They are now under the San Carlos and Fort Apache
agencies. where they are officially classed as Coyoteros. They are
reputed by tradition to have been the first of the Apache to have
penetrated below the Little Colorado among the pueblo peoples.with whom
they intermarried. They possessed the country from the San Francisco
Mountains to the Gila, until they were subdued by General Crook in
1873. Since then they have peaceably tilled their land at San Carlos.
White, for several years a surgeon at Fort Apache, says that they have
soft, musical voices, uttering each word in a sweet, pleasant tone. He
noted alsotheir light hearted, childish waYs and timid manner. their
pleasant expression of countenance.and the beauty of their women.
Married women tattooed their chins in three blue vertical lines running
from the lower lip.
PINALENOS (Spanish: "Pinery people"). A division of the Apache,
evidently more closely related to the Chiricahua than to any other
group. Their principal seat was formerly the Pinaleno Mountains, south
of the Gila river in southeastern Arizona, but their raids extended far
into Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico. They are now under the San Carlos
and Fort Apache agencies, Arizona, being officially known as Pinals,
but their numbers are not separately reported. The Pinalenos and the
Pinal Coyoteros have often been confused.
TONTOS (Spanish: "fools," so called on account of their supposed
imbecility ; the designation, however, is a misnomer). A name so
indiscriminately applied as to be almost meaningless :
( 1) To a mixture of Yavapai, Yuma, and Mohave, with some Pinaleno
Apache, placed on the Rio Verde reservation in 1873, and transferred to
the San Carlos reservation in 1875 ; best designated as the Tulkepaia.
(2) To a tribe of the Athapascan family well known as Coyotero Apache.
(3) To the Pinalenos of the same family.
(4) According to Corbusier, to a body of Indians descended from Yavapai
men and Pinal Coyotero (Pinaleno) women who have intermarried. The term
Tontos was therefore applied by writers of the 19th century to
practically all the Indians roaming between the White Mountains of
Arizona and the Colorado river, comprising parts of two linguistic
families, but especially to the Yavapai, commonly knowit as
Apache-Mohave.
SAN CARLOS APACHE. A part of the Apache dwelling at the San Carlos
agency, Arizona. The name has little ethnic signiticance, having been
applied officially to those Apache living on the Gila river in Arizona,
and sometimes referred to as Uileños, or Gila Apache.
GILA APACHE. The name Gila. or Xila, was apparently originally that of
an Apache settlement west of Socorro, in southwestern New Mexico, and
as early as 1630 was applied to those Apache residing for part of the
time on the extreme headwaters of the Rio Gila in that territory,
evidently embracing those later known as Mimbrenos, Mogollons and Warm
Springs (Chiricahua) Apaches, and later extended to include the Apache
living along the Gila river in Arizona. The latter were seemingly the
Aravaipa and Chiricahua, or a part of them. There were about 4,000
Indians under this name in 1853, when sonie of their bands were
gathered at Fort Webster, New Mexico, and induced by promises of
supplies for a number of years to settle down and begin farming. They
kept the peace and made some progress in industry, but were driven back
to a life of pillage when the supplies were stopped, the treaty not
having been confirmed. They are no longer recognized under this name.
The term Gilenos has also been employed to designate the Pima residing
on the Gila in Arizona.
MOGOLLON (from the mesa and mountains of the same name in New Mexico
and Arizona.which, in turn, were named in honor of Juan Ignacio Flores
Mogollon, governor of New
Mexico in 1712-15). A subdivision of the
Apache that formerly ranged over the Mogollon mesa and mountains in
western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. They were associated with the
Mimbrenos at the Southern Apache agency, New Mexico, in 1868, and at
Hot Springs agency in 1875, and are now under the Fort Apache and San
Carlos reservations in Arizona. They are no longer officially
recognized as Mogollons.
MIMBRENOS (Spanish: "people of the willows").A branch of the Apache who
took their popular name from the Mimbres mountains, southwestern New
Mexico, but who roamed over
the country from the east side of the Rio
Grande in New Mexico to the San Francisco river in Arizona, a favorite
haunt being near Lake Guzman, west of El Paso, in Chihuahua. In habits
they were similar to the other Apache, gaining a livelihood by raiding
settlements in New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico. They made peace with the
Mexicans from time to time, and before1870 were supplied with rations
by the military post at Janos, Chihuahua. They were sometimes called
Coppermine Apaches on account of their occupancy of the territory in
which the Santa Rita mines in southwestern New Mexico are situated. In
1875 a part of them joined the Mescaleros and a part was under the Hot
Springs (Chiricahua) agency, New Mexico. They are now divided between
the' Mescalero reservation, New Mexico, and Fort Apache agency,
Arizona, The Indians of this tribe under Mangus Colorado, intermarried
with the Chiricahuas, and upon the death of that chief joined with
Cochise. Geronimo, Loco and Victorio, were among their noted chiefs.
WHITE MOUNTAIN APACHE. Formerly the Sierra Blanca Apache, a part of the
Coyoteros, so called on account of their mountain home. The name is now
applied to all the Apache under Fort Apache agency, Arizona, consisting
of Aravaipa, Tsiltaden or Chilion, Chiricahua, Coyotero, Mimbreno and
Mogollon.
TSILTADEN ("mountain side"). A clan or band of the Chiricahua Apache,
associated with and hence taken to be a part of the Pinalenos ;
correlated with the Tziltaden clan of the Final Coyoteros, the
Tziseketzillan of the White Mountain Apache, and the Tsayiskithni of
the Navaho. They are now under the San Carlos Agency, Arizona.
|
