NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS

Indian War Conflicts in the American West

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Arizona

Apache Pass - Fort Bowie (1862) - Located in forbidding Apache Pass, a landmark on the Overland Stage road, Fort Bowie played a significant role in the wars with the Chiracahua Apaches. Here in February 1861, even before the fort was established, Lieutenant George Bascom faced Cochise in a dramatic confrontation that touched off a quarter-century of bloody hostilities between the Chiricahuas and white invaders, and a personal ten-year war between Cochise and the U.S. Army. General James H. Carleton, leading a Federal army eastward in 1862 to head off the Confederate invasion of New Mexico, founded Fort Bowie, and fought for two days, July 15th and 16th, a battle with the Apaches for control of the nearby Apache Springs.

Fort Bowie Trail, courtesy National Park Service.

Canyon de Chelly - This Navajo citadel was the scene of climatic events in the conquest of the Navajo Indians by the U.S. Army Colonel Christopher C. "Kit" Carson’s invasion of this bastion of Navajo defenses in the winter of 1863 - 1864.

On January 12, 1864, Carson invaded Canyon de Chelly, attacking several Navajos with livestock, killing 11 of them and taking four captives, as well as a herd of sheep and goats. Over the next few days, a number of skirmishes were fought between the Indians and Carson’s forces. On January 16th, 150 starving Navajos surrendered and soon joined some 8,000 of their people in the tragic "Long Walk" across New Mexico to the Bosque Rendondo at Fort Sumner.

In 1868, after four years of exile, they were allowed to return to their homeland. The site is operated by the National Park Service. The Visitor Center is three miles from Route 191 in Chinle, Arizona.

Canyon de Chelly, Arizona.

This image available for photographic prints HERE!

Contact Information:

Canyon de Chelly National Monument
PO Box 588
Chinle, Arizona 86503
928-674-5500

Cibecue (1881) - Located on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, the Battle of Cibecue, occurring on August 30, 1881, was brought on by the influence of a shaman, Nockadelklinne, who preached a doctrine of raising the dead and removing the white interlopers from Arizona. Alarmed civilians and military personnel wanted the shaman arrested. Fighting erupted shortly after Nockadelklinne’s arrest along Cibecue Creek. The Prophet, as he was called, died in the aftermath, as did several soldiers under Colonel Eugene Asa Carr. Most of Carr’s casualties resulted from the mutiny of the White Mountain Apache scouts. The Cibecue affair touched off a general outbreak that saw Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apaches such as Naiche, Juh, and Geronimo bolt the reservation and plunge Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico into two years of turmoil. Cibecue battlefield is located in the village of Cibecue. No marker denotes the site.

Hualapai War (1865-1868) - Like other tribes, the Hualapai were disturbed by increased settler traffic upon their lands and when one of their leaders by the name of Anasa was murdered by a drunken settler in April, 1865, tensions erupted into war. In retaliation for the murder, the Hualapai cut off the Fort Mojave-Prescott Toll Road to the Colorado River ports and raided anyone trying to get through. However,

Captain W.H. Hardy soon negotiated a peace agreement at Beale Springs and the raids and the fighting stopped. But, it didn't last. Nine months later, another leader, Chief Wauba Yuma was murdered over a treaty dispute and the raids began again in full force. In response, the Fort Mohave Calvary was sent out which resulted in the cavalry burning villages and a number of battles. The war lasted until December, 1868, as the Hualapai began to surrender as whooping cough and dysentery was weakening their ranks. Though the vast majority surrendered, one warrior by the name of Sherum continued the battle for another two years. The violence finally ceased in 1870. During these years, it is estimated that one-third of the Hualapai people were killed either by the conflict or disease.

Salt River Canyon (Skeleton Cave) Battlefield (1872) - The Army won its most striking victory in the long history of Apache warfare at this site, where General George Crook also tasted triumph in his Tonto Basin campaign. At dawn on December 28, 1872, a 130-man force, consisting of about two companies of the 5th Cavalry from Fort McDowell and Old Camp Grant and 30 Apache scouts, under the command of Captain William H. Brown, surprised a band of more than a hundred Yavapais as they tried to emerge from a cave deep in the recesses of Salt River Canyon. The trapped Indians refused to surrender. Some of Brown's men shot at the roof of the cave and deflected a deadly fire into the defenders. Other soldiers completed the destruction by rolling boulders over the cliffs above. About 75 Indians died, and most of the rest were captured. This victory, along with Crook's other aggressive measures, so lowered the morale of the Yavapais that on April 6, 1873, they made peace at Camp Verde.

The natural setting is unimpaired. The cave lies on the north wall of the canyon in the angle of a sharp turn to the south. Access is gained by climbing a steep mountainside, crossing a lava bed, and descending from the rim of the gorge by a trail on the face of the cliff. The cave is an elliptical undercut about 65 by 25 feet, situated at the base of a cliff 170 feet high and at the top of a steep slope falling away some 1,200 feet to the water below. The cave's ceiling is blackened from the smoke of Indian fires and scarred by carbine bullets. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has jurisdiction over the site.

Salt River Canyon is in Maricopa County near Horse Mesa Dam. The dam is bounded on the east by Apache Lake and on the southwest by Canyon Lake (Salt River). The site is accessible only with great difficulty and the aid of guides, by boat from Canyon Lake or by unimproved road from the town of Horse Mesa.

Skeleton Canyon (1886) - On September 4, 1886, Geronimo and less than 40 Apaches, including women and children, surrendered to Brigadier General Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, near the Arizona and New Mexico border. Geronimo's surrender marked the end of the Apache Wars in the Southwest. Geronimo and all the Chiricahuas, including those who were peacefully settled on reservations, were uprooted and imprisoned in Florida. Ultimately, the Chiricahuas were relocated at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where they remained as prisoners of war until 1913. In that year, about 200 of the 300 surviving Chiricahua Apaches elected to resettle in New Mexico on the Mescalero Reservation. Geronimo died in 1909. The site is on private land.

Turret Peak (1873) - The Battle of Turret Peak in south central Arizona was one of the pivotal fights that broke the backs of the Apaches and Yavapais in their efforts to resist white encroachment into their lands. Fought on March 27, 1873, the battle of Turret Peak formed part of General George Crook's Tonto Basin campaign to force the Apaches and Yavapais to submit to reservations. Captain George Randall, leading a small force, which included Apache scouts, surprised a rancheria ensconced near the crest of Turret Peak. The battle at Turret Peak proved to the Indians that there was no sanctuary from the soldiers. Two weeks later, most of the Apaches and Yavapais surrendered to General George Crook at Camp Verde, Arizona. The site is within the jurisdiction of the National Forest Service.

Continued Next Page

ALSO SEE:

Frontier Skirmishes between the Pioneers & the Indians\

Indian Campaigns

Indian Fighters

Indian Wars of the Frontier West

US Army at Gillems Camp, Lava Beds National Monument,

1873, photo courtesy National Park Service.

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