July 19, 1882, Jacob S. Ferrin of Pima was killed under circumstances of
treachery. A freighting camp, of which he was a member, was entered by a
number of Apaches, led by "Dutchy," escaped from custody at San Carlos.
Pretending amity, they seized the teamsters' guns and fired upon their
hosts. Ferrin was shot down, one man was wounded and the others escaped.
On the morning of December 1, 1885, Lorenzo and Seth Wright were killed
by Indians who had been combing the valley for horses. The Wrights had
started, with members of a posse, from Layton, and were joined at
Solomonville by Sheriff Stevens and two other men, after there had
been recovered a number of the stolen horses, for the pursuers rode
harder and faster than the fleeing thieves. There had been assumption
that the thieves were Mexicans and so there was an element of
recklessness in the pursuit that would have been missing had the truth
been known, that they were Apaches. The four leading men of the posse
were ambushed by the redskins, who had halted by the roadside. Seth
Wright was shot from his horse. His brother immediately dismounted and
opened fire upon the Indians. Lorenzo's right arm was broken by a bullet,
and then, while he was running, he was shot in the back.
This same band had killed a man and a boy at Black Rock and a herdsman at
Bear Springs Flat.
May 23, 1886, Frank Thurston of Pima, while starting a lime kiln, six
miles from the town, was surprised by eight Apaches and killed. This band
passed by the Curtis settlement, driving off a number of horses.
Concerning the Indian situation, James H. Martineau, on June 1, 1886,
wrote that the Apaches then were riding in many small bands, but were
kept on the move constantly by the vigorous measures of General Miles,
and he assumes that the Apache question would have been settled had his
predecessor, General Crook, been less dilatory. The writer expressed his
conclusion that in military skill, strategy and ability the Indians far
excelled their opponents, and details that fifty or sixty Apaches the
year before had killed more than 75 white settlers, all the while pursued
by seventeen companies of United States troops, without losing a single
Indian.