Apache Kid

Apache Kid: [Warrior in the Wind, The Wind Hides Him]–– Joining the Apache Scouts.

(Al Sieber (Seated Center), Scouts, and Government Representative, 1884 Photo by Frank Randall Courtesy National Archives via Commons Wikimedia)

This post is the fourth in a series of true stories about Apache Kid, one of the most feared and mysterious outlaws in the turn-of-the-century southwest. He disappeared into northern Mexico accused of more crimes than he possibly could have committed. He was gifted with phenomenal eyesight, athleticism, and charisma that made him a natural leader who might have been a chief among the Aravaipa Apaches. He was a First Sergeant of army scouts and a close friend to General Crook’s famous Chief of Scouts, Al Sieber. As an AWOL scout he was unjustly tried and convicted twice, once by court-martial and once by a civilian court where Sieber betrayed him. Kid escaped a court martial death sentence but served time in Alcatraz, and he later escaped the sheriff and a deputy who were killed transporting him and seven other Apaches to almost certain death at the Yuma Arizona penitentiary. Kid and the other Apache escapees became the object of the greatest manhunt in Arizona history, which only he survived. The purpose of these posts is to provide the historical background for two novels which are in development about Apache Kid: Book 1, Warrior in the Wind, and Book 2, The Wind Hides Him. Book 1, Warrior in the Wind covers the years from about 1860 to 1889. In those years Kid grew from a hard-working, precocious man-child to a First Sergeant of Scouts with a family. He participated in the army’s war against the Chiricahuas and other renegades before he was accused of being AWOL when he left his post unauthorized to avenge the murder of his father. The Wind Hides Him covers his life from October 1889 and tells the story of his betrayal by Al Sieber once a close friend, his court-martial and time at Alcatraz, and his life after the Globe Sheriff and his deputy were killed. What happened to Kid after he disappeared into the Sierra Madre only the wind knew, but when the proverbial wind occasionally stopped blowing, Kid appeared and left many terrified.

The Globe mining camp sprang up on the northwest side of the San Carlos Reservation in 1875 when Kid was around fifteen years old. Life on the reservation was slow and boring, life in Globe’s boomtown atmosphere exciting and fast paced. He wound up doing a plethora of jobs in Globe ranging from hard labor to running errands, and being in a mining town, he was paid well and picked up and learned to use English from his customers and from watching and listening to what went on in Globe. He became good friends with a butcher who paid him to herd cattle for him and helped him with his English. He had also worked as cowboy and horse wrangler on some of the ranches surrounding the reservation and was known to be a good wrangler.

In addition to his work in Globe, Kid was fascinated by Agent John Clum’s Apache Police. The police were organized using General Crook’s army model for Apache scouts. They were trained by Martin Sweeney, a red-headed, retired army sergeant who was Clum’s administrative assistant and by Welford Bridwell (aka Clay Beauford) a flamboyant, retired army cavalry officer who served as Chief of Police. The police were used to keep order on the reservation and to force bands living off the reservation to move to San Carlos. One of the bands Bridwell and his police moved to San Carlos was that of Capitan Chiquito which included Kid’s father, Togo-de-chuz and his People. After the move, Bridwell let Kid follow him for a while wherever he went.

On Saturdays, San Carlos families were given rations including a portion of beef from cattle that were slaughtered that day. Policemen shot the cattle and Apache men and women butchered the meat for passing out proportionately to families who were obtaining their rations. Kid’s association with Sweeney and Bridwell and his skill with a rifle got him the job of shooting the cattle on ration day. The cattle were herded into a circular adobe corral connected to the slaughterhouse. Kid would run on top of the wall and as the cattle looked up he would shoot them in the forehead where the circle of fur began. He was an excellent shot when he began this work and he got even better having to make quick, accurate shots when the cattle looked his way.

In the years between 1877 and 1879, General Crook’s Chief of Scouts, Al Sieber, and his scouts from Camp Verde (as the crow flies about 125 miles northwest of San Carlos) were frequently at or passing through San Carlos and south of the reservation dealing with Geronimo and Juh leaving the reservation for Mexico and Victorio trying to find his place on any reservation except the “forty acres of hell” that Lieutenant Britton Davis called San Carlos. During his forays south Sieber learned about Kid, met him and became good friends with him. Kid’s skill with a rifle, his phenomenal mental and eyesight acuity, athleticism, and wrangler skills held Sieber’s attention and around 1879 Kid agreed to be Sieber’s “assistant.” Tom Horn called Kid, “Sieber’s pet Indian”. Others said, “. . .wherever Sieber went, the Kid went,” and that Kid even learned to do some cooking for Sieber.

Kid worked unofficially with Sieber from about 1879 until December 9, 1881. On that date, after soaking up all he thought Sieber could teach him, he formally enlisted for six months at Hackberry, Arizona Territory, but Kid continued to support Sieber. Much happened in the years Kid served as Sieber’s assistant before becoming a scout and he learned much. Major events Kid would have been exposed to being Sieber’s assistant included Geronimo and Juh voluntarily returning to San Carlos around January 7, 1880. May 8, 1880, Victorio attacked White Mountain Apaches at San Carlos in a revenge raid for their taking his horses after he took theirs when he escaped San Carlos in September 1877. October 14/15 1880 Mexican soldiers wiped out Victorio at Tres Castillos. In July 1881, the Apache prophet Noch-ay-det-klinne was arrested by the army, but killed when his followers tried to rescue him which led some Cibecue and White Mountain Apaches to raid and attack Fort Apache and kill any white or Blue Coat in their path at San Carlos or Fort Apache. In August 1881 Nana went on a month’s revenge raid for Victorio across the southwest in the United States and northern Mexico and then disappeared for seven or eight months into the mountains in Mexico. Nearly all the Chiricahuas joined Juh, Geronimo, Naiche, Chato, Chihuahua and others to break out of San Carlos and run for Mexico in September and early October, 1881, but left Loco and his People behind.

Kid unofficially supported Sieber long enough to convince him that Kid had the training, experience, and natural talent, he needed to serve as a First Sergeant, a leader of sergeants. It is also clear that Sieber learned that he could trust Kid unequivocally. This paradigm held true for the next five years until Togo-de-chuz, Kid’s father was murdered when it fell to pieces as Kid struggled to balance his responsibilities to the army, and in particular to his friend Sieber, with those with the customs and mandates of his People by blood.

Next Week: Apache Kid: Friends In the Scouts

Most of the information here comes from: The Apache Kid by Phyllis de la Garza; Capitan Chiquito by John Paul Hartman; Apache Voices by Sherry Robinson; Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts by Dan L. Thrapp; The Conquest of Apacheria by Dan L. Thrapp; and The Apache Wars by Paul Andrew Hutton.