THE EFFECTS OF BAD WHISKEY UPON SAVAGE INDIANS—THE WRETCH
TRIBOLLET—SOME OF THE CHIRICAHUAS SLIP AWAY FROM MAUS DURING A
RAINY NIGHT—THE BURIAL OF CAPTAIN CRAWFORD—CROOK’S TERMS
DISAPPROVED IN WASHINGTON—CROOK ASKS TO BE RELIEVED FROM COMMAND
IN ARIZONA—“GERONIMO” INDUCED TO COME IN BY THE CHIRICAHUA
AMBASSADORS, “KI-E-TA” AND “MARTINEZ”—TREACHERY SHOWN IN THE
TREATMENT OF THE WELL-BEHAVED MEMBERS OF THE CHIRICAHUA APACHE
BAND.
“Alchise” and “Ka-e-ten-na” came and awakened General Crook before
it was yet daylight of March 28th and informed him that “Nachita,”
one of the Chiricahua chiefs, was so drunk he couldn’t stand up and
was lying prone on the ground; other Chiricahuas were also drunk,
but none so drunk as “Nachita.” Whiskey had been sold them by a
rascal named Tribollet who lived on the San Bernardino ranch on the
Mexican side of the line, about four hundred yards from the
boundary. These Indians asked permission to take a squad of their
soldiers and guard Tribollet and his men to keep them from selling
any more of the soul-destroying stuff to the Chiricahuas. A
beautiful commentary upon the civilization of the white man! When we
reached Cajon Bonito, the woods and grass were on fire; four or five
Chiricahua mules, already saddled, were wandering about without
riders. Pretty soon we came upon “Geronimo,” “Kuthli,” and three
other Chiricahua warriors riding on two mules, all drunk as lords.
It seemed to me a great shame that armies could not carry with them
an atmosphere of military law which would have justified the hanging
of the wretch Tribollet as a foe to human society. Upon arriving at
San Bernardino Springs, Mr. Frank Leslie informed me that he had
seen this man Tribollet sell thirty dollars’ worth of mescal in less
than one hour—all to Chiricahuas—and upon being remonstrated with,
the wretch boasted that he could have sold one hundred dollars’
worth that day at ten dollars a gallon in silver. That night, during
a drizzling rain, a part of the Chiricahuas—those who had been
drinking Tribollet’s whiskey—stole out from Maus’s camp and betook
themselves again to the mountains, frightened, as was afterward
learned, by the lies told them by Tribollet and the men at his
ranch. Two of the warriors upon sobering up returned voluntarily,
and there is no doubt at all that, had General Crook not been
relieved from the command of the Department of Arizona, he could
have sent out runners from among their own people and brought back
the last one without a shot being fired. Before being stampeded by
the lies and vile whiskey of wicked men whose only mode of
livelihood was from the vices, weaknesses, or perils of the human
race, all the Chiricahuas—drunk or sober—were in the best of humor
and were quietly herding their ponies just outside of Maus’s camp.
“Chihuahua,” and the eighty others who remained with Maus, reached
Fort Bowie on the second day of April, 1886, under command of
Lieutenant Faison, Lieutenant Maus having started in pursuit
of “Geronimo,” and followed him for a long distance, but
unsuccessfully. As “Chihuahua” and his people were coming into
Bowie, the remains of the gallant Captain Emmet Crawford were _en
route_ to the railroad station to be transported to Nebraska for
interment. Every honor was shown them which could indicate the
loving tenderness of comrades who had known Crawford in life, and
could not forget his valor, nobleness, and high-minded character.
General Crook, Colonel Beaumont, Lieutenant Neal, and all other
officers present at the post attended in a body. Two companies of
the First Infantry, commanded, respectively, by Captain Markland and
Lieutenant Benjamin, formed the escort for one-half the
distance—seven miles; they then turned over the casket to the care
of two companies of the Eighth Infantry, commanded by Captain Savage
and Lieutenant Smiley. The detachment of Apache scouts, commanded by
Lieutenant Macdonald, Fourth Cavalry, was drawn up in line at the
station to serve as a guard of honor; and standing in a group, with
uncovered heads, were the officers and soldiers of the Eighth
Infantry, Second and Fourth Cavalry, there on duty—Whitney, Porter,
Surgeon R. H. White, Ames, Betts, Worth, Hubert, and many others.
Having been detailed, in company with Captain Charles Morton, Third
Cavalry, to conduct the remains to the city of Kearney, Nebraska,
and there see to their interment, my official relations with the
Department of Arizona terminated. I will insert, from the published
official correspondence of General Crook, a few extracts to throw a
light upon the history of the Chiricahuas. Lieutenant Macdonald
informed me, while at Bowie, that the “medicine men” present with
his Indian scouts had been dancing and talking with the spirits, who
had responded that “Geronimo” would surely return, as he had been
stampeded while drunk, and by bad white men. Under date of March 30,
1886, General Sheridan telegraphed to Crook:
“You are confidentially informed that your telegram of March 29th
is received. The President cannot assent to the surrender of the
hostiles on the terms of their imprisonment East for two years,
with the understanding of their return to the reservation. He
instructs you to enter again into negotiations on the terms of
their unconditional surrender, only sparing their lives. In the
meantime, and on the receipt of this order, you are directed to
take every precaution against the escape of the hostiles, which
must not be allowed under any circumstances. You must make at once
such disposition of your troops as will insure against further
hostilities, by completing the destruction of the hostiles, unless
these terms are acceded to.”
General Crook’s reply to the Lieutenant-General read as follows:
“There can be no doubt that the scouts were thoroughly loyal, and
would have prevented the hostiles leaving had it been possible.
When they left their camp with our scouts, they scattered over the
country so as to make surprise impossible, and they selected their
camp with this in view, nor would they all remain in camp at one
time. They kept more or less full of mescal. To enable you to
clearly understand the situation, it should be remembered that the
hostiles had an agreement with Lieutenant Maus that they were to
be met by me twenty-five miles below the line, and that no regular
troops were to be present. While I was very averse to such an
arrangement, I had to abide by it as it had already been entered
into. We found them in a camp on a rocky hill about five hundred
yards from Lieutenant Maus, in such a position that a thousand men
could not have surrounded them with any possibility of capturing
them. They were able, upon the approach of any enemy being
signalled, to scatter and escape through dozens of ravines and
cañons which would shelter them from pursuit until they reached
the higher ranges in the vicinity. They were armed to the teeth,
having the most improved arms and all the ammunition they could
carry. Lieutenant Maus with Apache scouts was camped at the
nearest point the hostiles would agree to his approaching. Even
had I been disposed to betray the confidence they placed in me it
would have been simply an impossibility to get white troops to
that point either by day or by night without their knowledge, and
had I attempted to do this the whole band would have stampeded
back to the mountains. So suspicious were they that never more
than from five to eight of the men came into our camp at one time,
and to have attempted the arrest of those would have stampeded the
others to the mountains.”
General Crook also telegraphed that “to inform the Indians that the
terms on which they surrendered are disapproved would, in my
judgment, not only make it impossible for me to negotiate with them,
but result in their scattering to the mountains, and I can’t at
present see any way to prevent it.”
Sheridan replied:
“I do not see what you can now do except to concentrate your
troops at the best points and give protection to the people.
Geronimo will undoubtedly enter upon other raids of murder and
robbery, and as the offensive campaign against him with scouts has
failed, would it not be best to take up the defensive, and give
protection to the business interests of Arizona and New Mexico?”
Crook’s next despatch to Sheridan said:
“It has been my aim throughout present operations to afford the
greatest amount of protection to life and property interests, and
troops have been stationed accordingly. Troops cannot protect
property beyond a radius of one half mile from camp. If offensive
operations against the Indians are not resumed, they may remain
quietly in the mountains for an indefinite time without crossing
the line, and yet their very presence there will be a constant
menace, and require the troops in this department to be at all
times in position to repel sudden raids; and so long as any remain
out they will form a nucleus for disaffected Indians from the
different agencies in Arizona and New Mexico to join. That the
operations of the scouts in Mexico have not proved so successful
as was hoped is due to the enormous difficulties they have been
compelled to encounter, from the nature of the Indians they have
been hunting, and the character of the country in which they have
operated, and of which persons not thoroughly conversant with the
character of both can have no conception. I believe that the plan
upon which I have conducted operations is the one most likely to
prove successful in the end. It may be, however, that I am too
much wedded to my own views in this matter, and as I have spent
nearly eight years of the hardest work of my life in this
department, I respectfully request that I may now be relieved from
its command.”
General Crook had carefully considered the telegrams from his
superiors in Washington, and was unable to see how he could allow
Indians, or anybody else, to enter his camp under assurances of
personal safety, and at the same time “take every precaution against
escape.” Unless he treacherously murdered them in cold blood, he was
unable to see a way out of the dilemma; and Crook was not the man to
lie to any one or deal treacherously by him. If there was one point
in his character which shone more resplendent than any other, it was
his absolute integrity in his dealings with representatives of
inferior races: he was not content with telling the truth, he was
careful to see that the interpretation had been so made that the
Indians understood every word and grasped every idea; and all his
remarks were put down in black and white, which, to quote his own
words, “would not lie, and would last long after the conferees had
been dead and buried.”
The whole subject of the concluding hours of the campaign against
the Chiricahuas, after Crook had been relieved from command, has
been fully covered by documents accessible to all students, among
which may well be mentioned: Senate Documents, No. 117; General
Crook’s “Resumé of Operations against Apache Indians from 1882 to
1886”; the report made by Mr. Herbert Welsh, Secretary of the Indian
Rights Association, of his visit to the Apache prisoners confined at
Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida; the reports made to General
Sheridan by General R. B. Ayres, commanding the military post of St.
Francis Barracks (St. Augustine, Florida); the telegrams between the
War Department and Brigadier-General D. S. Stanley, commanding the
Department of Texas, concerning his interview with “Geronimo” and
other prisoners, etc.
It may be laid down in one paragraph that the Chiricahua fugitives
were followed into the Sierra Madre by two Chiricahua Apaches, sent
from Fort Apache, named “Ki-e-ta” and “Martinez,” who were assisted
by Lieutenant Gatewood, of the Sixth Cavalry, and Mr. George
Wrattan, as interpreter. Not all the band surrendered; there are
several still in the Sierra Madre who, as late as the past month of
January (1891), have been killing in both Sonora and Arizona. But
those that did listen to the emissaries were led to believe that
they were to see their wives and families within five days; they
were instead hurried off to Florida and immured in the dungeons of
old Fort Pickens, Pensacola, Florida, and never saw their families
until the indignant remonstrances of Mr. Herbert Welsh caused an
investigation to be made of the exact terms upon which they had
surrendered, and to have their wives sent to join them. For
“Geronimo” and those with him any punishment that could be inflicted
without incurring the imputation of treachery would not be too
severe; but the incarceration of “Chato” and the three-fourths of
the band who had remained faithful for three years and had rendered
such signal service in the pursuit of the renegades, can never meet
with the approval of honorable soldiers and gentlemen.
Not a single Chiricahua had been killed, captured, or wounded
throughout the entire campaign—with two exceptions—unless by
Chiricahua-Apache scouts who, like “Chato,” had kept the pledges
given to General Crook in the Sierra Madre in 1883. The exceptions
were: one killed by the White Mountain Apaches near Fort Apache, and
one killed by a white man in northern Mexico. Yet every one of those
faithful scouts—especially the two, “Ki-e-ta” and “Martinez,” who
had at imminent personal peril gone into the Sierra Madre to hunt up
“Geronimo” and induce him to surrender—were transplanted to Florida
and there subjected to the same punishment as had been meted out to
“Geronimo.” And with them were sent men like “Goth-kli” and
“To-klanni,” who were not Chiricahuas at all, but had only lately
married wives of that band, who had never been on the war-path in
any capacity except as soldiers of the Government, and had devoted
years to its service. There is no more disgraceful page in the
history of our relations with the American Indians than that which
conceals the treachery visited upon the Chiricahuas who remained
faithful in their allegiance to our people. An examination of the
documents cited will show that I have used extremely mild language
in alluding to this affair.