Thursday, October 6, 2011

Hunting, Raiding, Horses

 Hunting/Raiding: The Spanish brought the horse to the New World and by the seventeenth century large herds began to move across the plains. The Comanche’s became the first people to domesticate the horse on the Staked Plains and their knowledge was quickly learned by other tribes including the Apaches whose attitude toward horses was pragmatic. They rode them only as long as they helped in raiding or in a conflict and would abandon them without sentimentality to fight on foot in the desert or among rocks when that proved more effective. Horses were expendable not Apaches!  Pony was similarly considered a food delicacy and often roasted. When General Howard meets with Cochise in 1872 he was feed Pony! Apache warrior training emphasized the absolute need to rely on self and not on horses or other external resources. Hunting was a significant economic activity to raiding. Apaches were great hunters and used the bow as the weapon of choice. They often used poison arrows to bring down their four legged quarry: deer, antelope, buffalo although the latter herds were actually outside Apacheria. Fall was the major time to hunt. Animals were skinned and butchered on the spot and hides were used for clothing, containers and a host of other items. Sharing of meat among the elderly, widows and orphan was prized among the Apaches as it manifested compassion. Cochise excelled at this as a mark of his leadership. Raiding was a natural extension of their hunting/gathering tradition. Raids occurred in the winter when food supplies were low. Raiding parties were small in number averaging ten and they often attacked Mexican Rancheros or American mines where there were large herds of livestock: cattle, horse, and sheep. Another goal was to take Mexican infants or young children, especially male, who would be brought back to Apacheria to be, raised Apache. Cochise had captured a young Mexican by name of Grijalva Merejildo in 1849 that he raised as his own. Ten years later he would escape and became a formidable foe scouting for US Army. (Cf, Sweeney, Merejildo Grijalva, 1992) In addition, Apaches were taught to conduct their raids with cunning/stealth by moving slowly and quietly into a Spanish, Mexican or American pueblo or town. As they approached the site they spoke in a special code, used hand signals and mirrors. Dawn was their favorite time to attack when Mexicans /Americans were still groggy from sleep. The raiding party would divide into smaller units with 2-3 responsible for running off the livestock. Once they gathered the animals they would drive them without stopping to their encampment so as to avoid capture.
Other tactics used by the Apaches against their superior enemies involved creating the illusion of greater numbers by racing their ponies back and forth, surprise and terror accompanied by shouting, yelling, taunting their enemies with images of a horrible death. Though outnumbered, Apaches believed that they could nevertheless win, each warrior was viewed as a self-contained fighting unit and they were masters at using the southwest landscape to their advantage. For instance, , Geronimo with only 35 warriors called “hesh-kes” or wild ones in 1885-86 held off one quarter of American military before surrendering to General Miles in Skelton Canyon. They were taught how to disappear into the sand, vanish at night ,and some leaders had special psychic powers over nature. Geronimo was known to raise dust storms which enabled him and his followers to escape pursuers. To protect the Band from attack Apaches had institutionalized the strategy of rendezvous or prearranged points where they would scatter  in case of being attack by Mexicans, Americans or miners before regathering.
      Another Chiricahua form of raiding consisted of avenging personal loss.  Apaches believed in collective guilt meaning that they held all Mexicans/ Pindah’s responsible for the losses that they experienced regardless of whether or not they had been personally involved. The death of one Apache was the responsibility of all Mexican/American, for all shared in the perception that Apaches were animals, sub-humans who should be hunted down like crazy dogs. This is certainly true of Cochise after the hanging of his brother, Coyuntura, at Apache Pass in February 1861. Cochise launched a war of revenge which would last more than 10 years in which thousands of Pindah’s paid with their lives, because of the rash act of Lieutenant George Bascom, a recent graduate from West Point, who unjustly accused Cochise of stealing a young boy, Mickey Free, adopted son of John Ward, from the Ward ranch located near Santa Cruz river. This type of raiding began with the Spanish and was intensified by the scalping of Apaches which became official Mexican policy in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, and by the emergence of Mexican/American Bounty Hunters, who got rich seeking scalps often of children/women. Bounty Hunting was lucrative profession netting in the vicinity of $50-70,000 dollars a year. Generally the family of the dead person would demand justice by cutting their hair, slashing their arms and insisting that the spirit of the dead be revenged by relatives and friends. One of the more famous examples of this was Nana’s Raid to avenge the death of Victorio in August 1881. Nana, 80 years old, and his guerrilla band of perhaps thirty warriors travelled a thousand miles, killing 60-70 Americans/Mexicans, and were able to elude more than thousand troops before escaping into Mexico. (Cf. De Witt, Avenging Victorio , fictional account,  Sweeney, Cochise to Geronimo, pp 76-77,)


Hunting/Raidingg/Horses

Hunting/Raiding: The Spanish brought the horse to the New World and by the seventeenth century large herds began to move across the plains. The Comanche’s became the first people to domesticate the horse on the Staked Plains and their knowledge was quickly learned by other tribes including the Apaches whose attitude toward horses was pragmatic. They rode them only as long as they helped in raiding or in a conflict and would abandon them without sentimentality to fight on foot in the desert or among rocks when that proved more effective. Horses were expendable not Apaches!  Pony was similarly considered a food delicacy and often roasted. When General Howard meets with Cochise in 1872 he was feed Pony! Apache warrior training emphasized the absolute need to rely on self and not on horses or other external resources. Hunting was a significant economic activity to raiding. Apaches were great hunters and used the bow as the weapon of choice. They often used poison arrows to bring down their four legged quarry: deer, antelope, buffalo although the latter herds were actually outside Apacheria. Fall was the major time to hunt. Animals were skinned and butchered on the spot and hides were used for clothing, containers and a host of other items. Sharing of meat among the elderly, widows and orphan was prized among the Apaches as it manifested compassion. Cochise excelled at this as a mark of his leadership. Raiding was a natural extension of their hunting/gathering tradition. Raids occurred in the winter when food supplies were low. Raiding parties were small in number averaging ten and they often attacked Mexican Rancheros or American mines where there were large herds of livestock: cattle, horse, and sheep. Another goal was to take Mexican infants or young children, especially male, who would be brought back to Apacheria to be, raised Apache. Cochise had captured a young Mexican by name of Grijalva Merejildo in 1849 that he raised as his own. Ten years later he would escape and became a formidable foe scouting for US Army. (Cf, Sweeney, Merejildo Grijalva, 1992) In addition, Apaches were taught to conduct their raids with cunning/stealth by moving slowly and quietly into a Spanish, Mexican or American pueblo or town. As they approached the site they spoke in a special code, used hand signals and mirrors. Dawn was their favorite time to attack when Mexicans /Americans were still groggy from sleep. The raiding party would divide into smaller units with 2-3 responsible for running off the livestock. Once they gathered the animals they would drive them without stopping to their encampment so as to avoid capture.
Other tactics used by the Apaches against their superior enemies involved creating the illusion of greater numbers by racing their ponies back and forth, surprise and terror accompanied by shouting, yelling, taunting their enemies with images of a horrible death. Though outnumbered, Apaches believed that they could nevertheless win, each warrior was viewed as a self-contained fighting unit and they were masters at using the southwest landscape to their advantage. For instance, , Geronimo with only 35 warriors called “hesh-kes” or wild ones in 1885-86 held off one quarter of American military before surrendering to General Miles in Skelton Canyon. They were taught how to disappear into the sand, vanish at night ,and some leaders had special psychic powers over nature. Geronimo was known to raise dust storms which enabled him and his followers to escape pursuers. To protect the Band from attack Apaches had institutionalized the strategy of rendezvous or prearranged points where they would scatter  in case of being attack by Mexicans, Americans or miners before regathering.
      Another Chiricahua form of raiding consisted of avenging personal loss.  Apaches believed in collective guilt meaning that they held all Mexicans/ Pindah’s responsible for the losses that they experienced regardless of whether or not they had been personally involved. The death of one Apache was the responsibility of all Mexican/American, for all shared in the perception that Apaches were animals, sub-humans who should be hunted down like crazy dogs. This is certainly true of Cochise after the hanging of his brother, Coyuntura, at Apache Pass in February 1861. Cochise launched a war of revenge which would last more than 10 years in which thousands of Pindah’s paid with their lives, because of the rash act of Lieutenant George Bascom, a recent graduate from West Point, who unjustly accused Cochise of stealing a young boy, Mickey Free, adopted son of John Ward, from the Ward ranch located near Santa Cruz river. This type of raiding began with the Spanish and was intensified by the scalping of Apaches which became official Mexican policy in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, and by the emergence of Mexican/American Bounty Hunters, who got rich seeking scalps often of children/women. Bounty Hunting was lucrative profession netting in the vicinity of $50-70,000 dollars a year. Generally the family of the dead person would demand justice by cutting their hair, slashing their arms and insisting that the spirit of the dead be revenged by relatives and friends. One of the more famous examples of this was Nana’s Raid to avenge the death of Victorio in August 1881. Nana, 80 years old, and his guerrilla band of perhaps thirty warriors travelled a thousand miles, killing 60-70 Americans/Mexicans, and were able to elude more than thousand troops before escaping into Mexico. (Cf. De Witt, Avenging Victorio , fictional account,  Sweeney, Cochise to Geronimo, pp 76-77,)