What student of American history has not heard of Geronimo, famous
warrior of the Chiricahua Apache Indians? When, in 1886, Geronimo and
his band finally surrendered to United States soldiers, there ended one
of the most stubborn phases of aboriginal resistance to white
domination. The Chiricahua Mountains and their neighboring ranges were
the ancestral home of the nomadic Apache Indians. Living mainly on wild
animals and native plants, these resourceful people moved from place to
place depending upon the requirements of the season and the supply of
food. Occasionally they raided the farmer Indians of the desert valleys,
and with the coming of the Spaniards, they found increased incentive to
pillage the European cattle, horses, and grains introduced by the white
men.
Stolen horses greatly increased the power and widened the range of
Indian activities, and the southeastern corner of what is now Arizona
became an Apache stronghold. With the Gadsden Purchase in 1853 and the
opening of settlement of the region to United States citizens, the
Apache raiders became more and more a hazard. United States troops were
dispatched to the Southwest to protect settlers, prospectors, travelers,
and the mail- and passenger-carrying stages of the Butterfield Route
which were often attacked. Cavalry camps and bases were established. One
of the most famous of these, Fort Bowie, established in 1862, commanded
strategic Apache Pass at the end of the Chiricahua Mountains, north of
the monument. From 1860 until 1872, the Chiricahua Apaches under the
leadership of the wily Cochise matched the strategy of the soldiers.
In 1876, the Chiricahua Apaches were finally rounded up and placed on a
reservation, but hostilities continued to flare up when bands left the
reservation to attack travelers and pillage isolated ranches. Geronimo,
who was the most persistent and cunning of the leaders, was captured in
1886. This ended the organized resistance of the Chiricahua Apaches, but
"Big Foot" Massai staged several one-man escapades in later years.
Cochise Head, just north of the monument, and Massai Point and Massai
Canyon, within its boundaries, immortalize the names of two of the
famous Apaches of the Chiricahua group.