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...