Chiricahua (also Chiricahua Apaches, Chiricagui, Apaches de Chiricahui, Chiricahues, Chilicague, Chilecagez, Chiricagua) (pronounced /ˌtʃɪrɨˈkɑːwə/, us dict: chĭr′·ĭ·kâ′·wə) refers to a group of bands of Apache that formerly lived in the general areas of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico (it is not possible to precisely define the exact boundaries of their territory).
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Once led by Cochise (whose name derived from the Apache word "Cheis," meaning "having the quality of oak"), Mangas Coloradas, Victorio, Nana, Juh and later by Goyaałé (known as Geronimo) and Cochise's son Naiche (among others), this Apache group was the last to resist U.S. government control of the American southwest [1].
There were several loosely-affiliated groups of Apaches that came to be called Chiricahuas. These include the Chokonen, Chihenne, Nednai and the Bedonkohe. Today, all are commonly referred to as Chiricahuas, but in reality, they were not a single band. There were also many other less-related Apachean groups ranging all over eastern Arizona and the American southwest. It is incorrect to lump them all together, but these few mentioned bands that we call the Chiricahuas today have a combined history -- they intermarried, lived and fought together occasionally. They formed short-term as well as longer alliances among themselves that today leads to a natural tendency to consider them as one people.[2]
The Apachean groups and the Navajo peoples were part of the Athabaskan migration into the North American continent from Asia, across the Bering Strait from Siberia. As the group moved south and east into North America, groups splintered off and became different peoples over time. The Apache and the Navajo are thought by some anthropologists to have been pushed south and west into what is now New Mexico and Arizona by pressure from other Plains groups such as the Comanche and Kiowa. Among the last of these splits before their histories became entwined with the European newcomers (and memorialized in modern history books) were those resulting in the different Apachean bands encountered by westering Americans; the Navajos and all the southwestern Apache groups we came to know. They were originally more closely related, but in their day-to-day existence in modern times we see them as independent groups.
From the beginning of American/Apache relations, the relationship was fraught with difficulties, but it should be noted that Spanish and Mexican incursions and settlement on the Apache's lands had resulted in well over one hundred years of difficult relations by that time.[3] The Americans were newcomers to this struggle, but inherited much of the baggage that accompanied it, since in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo they took on the responsibility to prevent and punish cross-border incursions by Apaches intent on raiding in Mexico.[4] Nevertheless, the Apaches tended to see the Americans with ambivalence, maybe even initially as friends (in some instances), perhaps even as potential allies in their continuing vigorous fight against the Mexicans. In 1852, a treaty was signed between the U.S. and some of the Chiricahuas, but it had little lasting effect. [5] During the 1850s, American miners and settlers began moving into Chiricahua territory, beginning a flood that continues unabated today. This began the inevitable process of changing the Apachean people's lives as nomads, free on the land, to their eventual defeat and the confinement of reservation life. Today, they are preserving their culture as much as possible and forging new relationships with the peoples around them. The Chiricahua Apaches today are a living and vibrant culture, [6] not without problems, but a part of the greater American whole and yet distinct based on their history and experience.
Although they had lived peaceably with most Americans in the New Mexico Territory up to about 1860, [7] the Chiricahuas became increasingly hostile to American presence in the southwest after a number of provocations had occurred between them. First, in 1837, an American named John (aka James) Johnson invited the Chihenne in the area to trade with his party (near the mines at Santa Rita del Cobre, NM). When they gathered around a blanket on which pinole (a ground corn flour) had been placed for them, the American and his men opened fire on them not only with rifles, but with a concealed cannon loaded with scrap iron, glass, and a length of chain). About 20 Apaches were killed, including a chief (Juan José Compá).[8] Mangas Coloradas is said to have witnessed this attack, which inflamed Apache thoughts of vengeance for many years thereafter. Some historians believe that the Apaches were not blameless in the events leading to the "massacre," but that they had been planning all along to attack Johnson's party themselves. [9]
Americans began entering the area in greater numbers after the conclusion of the US/Mexican War and the Gadsden Purchase in the late 1840s, and the more that came, the more the opportunities for incidents and misunderstandings increased, with inevitable results. In 1851, Mangas Coloradas, was tied to a tree and whipped by miners when he tried to convince them to move away from the Pinos Altos (NM) area he loved. [10] His treatment at the hands of these Americans incensed his followers, and those of the related Chiricahua bands -- Mangas had been just as great a chief in his prime (during the 1830s & 1840s) as Cochise was then becoming.[11]
A few years later, (in 1861) another provocation occurred when some of Cochise’s relatives were killed by the U.S. Army near Apache Pass in what became known as the Bascom Affair, or to the Chiricahuas, "cut the tent." [12] In 1863, Mangas Coloradas was killed by American soldiers when he entered their camp and attempted to negotiate a peace. The murder and subsequent mutilation of Mangas' body enraged his people and increased the tensions between the Chiricahuas and the United States. The overall effect of these incidents slowly but surely changed the status of these newcomers in the minds of many Chiricahuas to that of "enemies we go against them." From that time on there was almost constant war for 23 years.
In 1872, General Oliver O. Howard, with the help of Thomas Jeffords, succeeded in negotiating a peace with Cochise. A Chiricahua Apache Reservation was established with Jeffords as agent, near Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory. It only remained open for about 4 years, and in the interim, Cochise died.[13]. In 1877, about three years after Cochise's death (from natural causes), the Chiricahuas and some other Apache groups were concentrated on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. These mountain people hated the desert environment of San Carlos and some of them (a limited number) entered into a cycle of off-reservation excursions and raids which ended only with a surrender to General Nelson Miles in 1886. Today, the most well-known leader of the renegades, although he was not considered a chief, was the forceful and influential Geronimo, But he and Naiche (the hereditary leader) together led many of the resistors during those last few years of freedom.
One of their last strongholds was in the Chiricahua Mountains, part of which is now inside Chiricahua National Monument, and across the intervening Willcox Playa to the northeast, in the Dragoon Mountains (all in southeastern Arizona). In late frontier times they ranged from San Carlos and the White Mountains of Arizona, to the adjacent mountains of southwestern New Mexico around what is now Silver City, and down into the mountain sanctuaries of the Sierra Madre (of northern Mexico) where they often joined with their Nednai kin. First General George Crook, then finally General Miles' troops and their Apache scouts relentlessly pursued these exiles until they lost any hope of evasion and peace, at which time they gave up. One of the strategies which ultimately led to their defeat was an agreement between Mexico and the United States that troops in hot pursuit could continue onto each other's territories.[14] This prevented the Chiricahua groups from using the border as a shield, after which they could achieve no time to rest and consider their next move. The fatigue, attrition and demoralization that resulted led directly to their surrender.
The final thirty-four hold-outs, including Geronimo and Naiche, gave up in September, 1886 and from Bowie Station, Arizona they were entrained, along with all other remaining Chiricahuas (including the Army's Apache scouts) and exiled to Florida, then later Alabama, and Oklahoma. This ended the Indian Wars in the United States.[15] Eventually, the surviving Chiricahuas were moved to the Fort Sill military reservation in Oklahoma. In August 1912, by an act of the U.S. Congress, they were released from their captivity after they were thought to be no further threat. They were given the choice to remain at Fort Sill or to relocate to the Mescalero reservation near Ruidoso, N.M. One hundred and eighty-three elected to go to New Mexico, while seventy-eight remained in Oklahoma.[16] Their descendants still reside in these places. At the time, they were not permitted to return to Arizona (because of the public's animosity toward them there), and apparently, they do not wish to do so today.
Since the band was much more important than tribe in Chiricahua culture, there is no native word for a Chiricahua tribe in the Chiricahua language.
According to Opler (1941) the Chiricahuas consisted of three bands:
Schroeder (1947) lists five bands:
According to the Chiricahua-Warm Springs Fort Sill Apache tribe in Oklahoma, there are four bands in Fort Sill:
Additionally there is the word Chidikáágu (derived from the Spanish word Chiricahua) which refers to Chiricahuas in general, and the word Indé, which refers to Apaches in general.
Chiricahuas are called Ha’i’ą́há (meaning 'Eastern Sunrise") by the White Mountain, Cibecue, and Bylas groups of the Western Apaches. They are called Hák’ą́yé by the San Carlos group of the Western Apaches. The Navajos call Chiricahuas Chíshí.
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