The Chiricahua Prisoners

Chato: The Chiricahua Prisoners of War Make Their Case for Relocating to Fort Sill, OK.

(Participants in the Meeting: Around the circle beginning at 10:00 and clockwise: Geronimo, Naiche, Chihuahua, Nana, Chato, Kaytennae, Loco, Mangas; in the center L-R: CAP Hugh L. Scott, LT Marion P. Maus. Background Courtesy NARA: Spring Flowers at Sunset, near Peridot, AZ)

This post is the thirty-sixth 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 who hated White Eyes 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 events described in this post took place after when Chato and other Chiricahua leaders made their case for leaving Mount Vernon Barracks and moving to their own reservation as General Miles had promised eight years earlier.

By late 1893 the St. Augustine, Fort Marion Chiricahua Apaches had been at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, over six years and those from Pensacola, Fort Pickens, over five years. The army had moved them there to give the Fort Marion Apaches more space, reunite the Fort Pickens Apaches with the rest of the tribe, and to provide a more healthful climate. But, Mount Vernon was surrounded by dense forests and swamps that allowed little air movement making the hot, humid air insufferable, torrential rains came often, and clouds of mosquitos were experts at spreading malaria and yellow fever. The Apaches were at Mount Vernon less than a year before army leadership began to realize they needed to be moved. Their death rate was still three times the national average and the land was too poor for them to support themselves farming.

The bureaucrats in Washington wanted to destroy tribal culture through the Dawes Act (assigning a fixed acreage to each Indian and taking back the rest of the reservation), education of young children far from their parents, and making the adults disappear into “clearly superior” white society through farming and manual trades. At Mount Vernon the Chiricahuas made the best of a bad situation by learning carpentry, becoming soldiers, letting their children be locally taught White Eye knowledge, continuing to tell their children tribal history and stories, and conducting important tribal ceremonies like the Haheh, the Puberty Ceremony for girls to become young women. The Chiricahuas learned enough White Eye culture to survive as a tribe, but they badly wanted to get away from Mount Vernon.

After over four years of political wrangling in Congress and between Congress and War Department bureaucrats, the War Department decided in late 1893 to try a second time (it had tried after Crook’s 1890 report but was stopped by Congressional politics) to relocate the prisoners. The North Carolina mountains on and near the Cherokee reservation suggested by Crook didn’t have enough arable land to make Chiricahua farms self sufficient. Another proposal was to break them up into small bands and put them on existing reservations with the restriction that they could not be sent to Texas, Arizona, or New Mexico. By the 6th of August 1894, the War Department had managed to get an amendment to the Army Appropriations Act authorizing the transfer of the Chiricahuas to any military reservation under its control. The War Department then considered a plan to distribute them to various locations around the country. The plan was sent to General Miles who was in charge of the Department of Missouri, which provided oversight to the eastern half of the western military posts. Miles opposed the policy saying, that such distribution would be a “gross injustice and refined cruelty to separate family and friends.” He suggested Fort Sill and sent Lieutenant Hugh Lenox Scott (stationed at Fort Sill), and Captain Marion P. Maus (on his staff) to confer with the Apaches at Mount Vernon on their preferences.

The Comanche and Kiowa living around Fort Sill, and to whom the land would revert when the army left, learned of the proposed move and held a council with Scott who they knew and trusted. They told Scott that, although they had never liked the Apaches, they would accept them there as long as they stayed on Fort Sill land, which was a typical display of Indian sympathy for homeless people.

Maus and Scott got to Mount Vernon Barracks and held their conference on 29 August 1894. Second Lieutenant Allyn Capron who was then in charge of the Chiricahuas at Mount Vernon and George Wratten serving as interpreter attended. Lieutenant Scott recorded the proceedings. The Apaches were asked their wishes to be moved to some other locality. They had met together earlier to form their answer and made Geronimo their spokesman. He summarized how they felt in straightforward language.

Geronimo said, “I am very glad to hear you talk – I have been wanting for a long time to hear somebody talk that way. I want to go away somewhere where we can get a farm, cattle, and cool water.

“I have done my best to help the authorities – to keep peace and good order to keep my house clean – God hears both of us and what he hears must be the truth. We are very thankful to you – these poor people who have nothing and nothing to look forward to – what you say makes my head and whole body feel cool – we are all that way – we want to see things growing around our houses, corn and flowers – we all want it – we want you to talk for us to Gen’l Miles in the same way you have talked to us –

“Young men old men women and children all want to get away from here – it is too hot and wet – too many of us die here – I remember what I told General Miles – …I told him that I wanted to be a good man as long as I live and I have done it so far. I stood up on my feet and held my hands up to God to witness what I said was true –. I feel good about what you say and it will make all the other Indians feel good – Every one of us have got children at school and we will behave ourselves on account of these children, we want them to learn I do not consider that I am an Indian any more I am a white man and we’d like to go around and see different places I consider all white men are my brothers and all white women are now my sisters – that is all I want to say.” (Crook in his day would have called his last assertion of whiteness another Geronimo lie, but the next fifteen years would prove his sincerity.)

Maus said, “I understand it to be your opinion that all of you want to go somewhere.”

Geronimo answered, “We all want to go, everybody.”

Naiche said, “We live just like white people, have houses and stoves just like them, and we want to have farms just like other white people – we’ve been here a long time and have not seen any of us have a farm yet.”

Chihuahua said, “ God made the earth for everybody and I want a piece of it – I want to have things growing –– I want the wind to blow on me just as it blows on everybody else – I want the want the sun to shine on me and the moon just as everybody else.” Remembering his children he said, “I went to Carlisle to see them and it made my heart feel good to see them in the white man’s road ––… I want to have all our children together where I can see them…I want my children wherever I go ––.” Remembering when Maus brought him back as a hostile, he said, “I want you to look at me and see that I am not like I was when you saw me before –––.”

Nana said although he was “too old to work,” he wanted “to see young men have a farm and I could go around and talk to them and get something to eat.”

Chato said, “If anything I could say would hurry up the farms I wish it would – You can find some of the old people yet – the grandmothers and grandfathers, but most of them are dead – that is why I do not like it here. I want to hurry – I want you to tell General Miles to get them away from here in a hurry.”

Kaytennae said, “I had lots of friends – cousins brothers and relatives when you saw me but since coming to this country they have all died – …I have children here and all the time I am afraid that they will get sick and die ––.”

Loco said that, “…it is just like a road with a precipice on both sides – they fall off on both sides – nobody killed them – sickness did it ––.”

Mangas said, “When I got there (Fort Pickens) I have been a good man and have never stepped off the good path. While walking around I have always want to look pleasant at everybody –––. … here we are in this little bit of reservation – there are lots of trees here yes – they shade but when you put your foot on the ground it burns you ––.”

As Scott remembered it later some of the prisoners told him Mount Vernon was no larger than a thumb nail and that the trees were so thick one had to climb to the top of a tall pine to see the sun. He told them that they would be sent to a place where they could not only look up at the sun but see mountains.

General Miles sent their statements along with his recommendations to the War Department and it was officially decided the Chiricahuas would be sent to Fort Sill. There they would still be prisoners of war.

Most of this information comes from Angie Debo’s biography, “Geronimo”.