02/02/2023
Chato: Days of Raids and Terrazas Strikes.
(1884 Photograph of Kaytennae by Frank Randall. Courtesy Library of Congress)
This post is the seventh in a series of true stories about a Chiricahua chief, Chato, who lived in the times of the Apache wars, survived twenty-seven years of prisoner of war internment, and twenty-one years of life on the Mescalero reservation. The purpose of these posts is to provide the historical background for a duology of novels about Chato, the first book of which will be released next year. Chato’s story is told in: Book I, Desperate Warrior; and Book II, Proud Outcast. Book I, covers the years from 1877 to early 1886. In those years, desperate to get his wife and children out of Mexican slavery, Chato changed from a hard-eyed warrior to a hardworking supporter of General Crook. Book II covers the years from 1886 to 1934, when Chato survived betrayal by the army as a prisoner of war and proudly endured being treated as an outcast by some of his own People after they were freed.
The last post described how Geronimo and about seventy warriors from Juh’s great camp in the Sierra Madre Mountains had forced Chief Loco and about 350 of his people to leave the San Carlos reservation and run south for the border pursued by U.S. Cavalry and Apache scouts. They made it across the border losing three women and a man in two major battles with the cavalry. Believing the cavalry wouldn’t cross the border unless invited by the Mexican government, they stopped to rest and bake mescal hearts about seventeen miles south of the border at Sierra Enmedio, a small range of mountains standing by itself out on the llano about four miles from Sierra Luis, and with good water and fuel for fires on its north end. The Apache leaders hadn’t counted on the cavalry breaking its own rules and crossing the border to attack them. The attack lasted from early morning until midafternoon. Fourteen warriors and several women and children were killed before the cavalry under Captain Tupper had to withdraw because they were running out of ammunition. In the fight, the Apaches had lost nearly all their possessions (taken by the Apache scouts) and most of their livestock. After burying their dead and bandaging and praying over their wounded, they began a long walk in the moon lit darkness across the level llano to a planned meeting place where they would be led to Juh’s camp by Geronimo and his warriors.
The Apaches had covered about thirty miles when at dawn the head of their column, which stretched out two or three miles, was ambushed by Mexican military that had learned their planned route from two warriors they had captured and later probably executed. They had also let small lead groups of less than fifteen warriors lead by Naiche and Mangas pass by without to avoid warning the much larger group of a few men and mostly women and children behind them. Those that passed included some of their best warriors––Chato, Naiche, and Kaytennae. These warriors watched the fighting from a nearby hill but made no move to help Geronimo and Chihuahua’s men fight the Mexicans. To this day no one knows for sure why they chose not to fight (my theory for their choice is in Desperate Warrior). The ambush turned into an all-day fight with many losses on both sides. The Apaches managed to get away in the darkness and meet the next day at the rendezvous with those who escaped the ambush. From there Geronimo was to lead them to Juh’s camp. In two days of fighting Loco had lost about 40 percent of his people––mostly women and children. Most of Loco’s People, Chihenne Apaches, blamed Geronimo for the losses because he and his men had forced them to leave San Carlos. Geronimo led the People to a place they called Bent-ci-iye (Plentiful pine trees) where they could rest and heal for a couple of days, and he sent warriors out to gather cattle so the People would have something to eat. When he left two or three days later he left the warriors Tzoe and Kayihtah to continue healing from their wounds with the help of Martine’s wife who as a di-yen (medicine woman) had healing Power. A year later, Tzoe led General Crook to the Apache camps in the Sierra Madre. A month later the two wounded men and their medicine woman appeared in Juh’s camp.
Juh’s camp welcomed Loco’s People with open arms, shared food, clothing, and lodging with them and Juh told them they were welcome to stay and asked that they join him. They agreed to stay but Loco told Juh, it would be a while before they were ready to join him in raids. Juh told them he fully understood and when they were ready he would support them in their raids.
Juh with Geronimo as his segundo (number two) was trying to work out another peace treaty with the Chihuahuans led by Colonel Joaquin Terrazas. When Loco and his People appeared, Juh was planing to meet with Terrazas outside of Casas Grandes to negotiate a peace treaty that included giving the Apaches the Carcay Mountains and adjoining valleys to live and grow crops. Geronimo was anxious to get to the meeting because he said he needed a good shot of whiskey. Juh told his warriors that if they had things (livestock and b***y taken in Sonoran raids) they wanted to trade at Casas Grandes they could come with the chiefs and leaders going to meet with Terrazas and about a third went. Most would stay in a camp on the Río San Miguel about fifteen miles from Casas Grandes. A second camp for the chief and those who wanted to trade would be in a camp about a mile south of Casas Grandes. Juh had a rule that only half of the Apaches could go into town at a time, the other half must wait until the next day to go when those who had gone first had to wait until the next. This was to keep the Mexicans from getting the Apaches drunk and easily slaughtering them, which they had done at least two times in past encounters. The Mexicans knew if they slaughtered one group of the Apaches those sober would be after them with blood in their eye.
Juh and Geronimo and the other chiefs including Naiche, Chato, and Kaytennae met with Terrazas and explained what they wanted for peace terms. Geronimo spoke for Juh, who stuttered badly when he was excited and the Apaches didn’t want any misunderstanding of what they wanted. Geronimo spoke excellent Spanish, and Terrazas concentrated his attention listening to Juh’s proposal. He said the terms sounded reasonable, but he would have to send them to the governor of Chihuahua to approve them. They should know something in two or three weeks. In the meantime why didn’t they join him in Casas Grandes for some fine mescal to further discuss terms. Geronimo and Juh said thanks but no thanks and camped on the south end of Casas Grandes. Where Terrazas gave them rations while they waited. Chato returned to his wife Ishchos and three children, Maud his ten-year-old daughter, his seven-year-old son Bediscloye, and youngest child Naboka, a daughter who was about four.
Terrazas was giving away high-quality bottles of mescal and more and more Apaches moved from the first camp to the one near Casas Grandes to get their share of the whiskey. On the sixth day after coming to Casas Grandes, Geronimo sent word for Chato to come in to the first camp to discuss spring and summer raiding plans with him and Chato went. They had a good day making plans when in the middle of the afternoon Terrazas sent a wagon load of mescal and a wagon load of corn, which he knew the Apaches would use to make tizwin (corn beer). The Apaches proceeded to get happily drunk in their camp. Geronimo and Juh believed the Mexicans had sent the presents of whiskey because the governor of Chihuahua, Luis Terrazas, cousin to Joaquin Terrazas, had decided to give them what they wanted. In fact the governor had said not only no, but Hell No! He told his cousin to take as many slaves as he could and exterminate the rest.
All the while the Apaches had been waiting for an answer from the governor and drinking Casas Grandes dry, Joaquin Terrazas had assembled over 500 soldiers and made his plans. Late that night as the Apaches were sleeping off their mescal drunk, soldiers positioned outside the camp for cross-fields of fire began firing into the wickiups and then charging the camp as the Apaches staggered up trying to understand what was happening. Some Apaches escaped over the west ridge (including Juh, Geronimo, Chato, and Kaytennae) but about thirty or forty women and children (including Geronimo’s wife Chee-hash-kish) and about ten men were captured. The women and children were kept for the slave market and the men were killed “while trying to escape.” Fortunately, Geronimo’s two oldest children, Chappo and Dohn-say had managed to get away. There were too many soldiers guarding the prisoners for Geronimo to free Chee-hash-kish and he understood he would have to somehow buy her back–probably with important Mexican captives of his own.
Juh led his followers to back to the camp on the Río San Miguel where a few families were reunited, including Chato and his family. The Apaches broke camp on the San Miguel and Juh led them to his Guaynopa camp on the edge of the great canyon near the Río Aros. Juh planned to raid into Sonora, but an initial probe northwest showed soldiers were camped near villages he wanted to raid. The warriors returned to Guaynopa. Juh and Geronimo talked for a day. They couldn’t agree on what to do so they called a council.
At the council meeting Geronimo said he wanted to go west as far as Ures, the destination of many packtrains that could be taken on the road and big rancho loaded with livestock that could be taken. Juh believed raiding west was too risky. It opened up the camp to attack by Rarámuri soldiers from nearby towns. He thought it was better to return east and raid from his strongholds in Chihuahua, which could be defended by women and children if the men were off raiding. At the council each leader made his case for what he wanted to do and let the leaders and their men follow who they wanted. Chihuahua and Kaytennae said they and their warriors wanted to follow Geronimo. Surprisingly, Geronimo’s segundo, Chato decided to follow Juh. Then Loco, Nana, Naiche, and Bonito said they would go with Juh. About eighty followers went with Geronimo, nearly five hundred followed Juh back to his strongholds in Chihuahua. It would be about four months before the bands reunited and the leaders decided to take revenge against Joaquin Terrazas’s segundo, Juan Mata Ortiz.
Next week: The Chocolate Pass Fight
Most of the information presented here is from Indeh by Eve Ball, Nora Henn, and Lynda Sánchez; From Cochise to Geronimo by Edwin Sweeney; The Truth About Geronimo, by Britton Davis; Geronimo by Angie Debo; Geronimo by Robert Utley; In the Days of Victorio by Eve Ball; and I Fought with Geronimo by Jason Betzinez
