Apaches' Homelands
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
The hole in my knowledge of Apaches was large enough to drive a stagecoach through. It consisted of brief mentions in books and movies and a few place names. Those place names along I-10 don’t denote reservations or present day populations of Apache people as a similar interstate drive in New Mexico does. They can, however, reflect their homelands which stretched broadly across the southern part of present New Mexico and Arizona. In at least one location, the names have been nearly entirely erased.
EVE BALL
Roswell resident and author Eve Ball died at 94, leaving an important legacy. In the most recent edition of her book, An Apache Odyssey, Indeh, Lynda A. Sanchez, her assistant, notes that she began her research at age sixty and worked determinedly “to write and interpret (Apache) history and to record oral tradition.” Her work was well received by critics and Apaches themselves. Author Sherry Robinson has written a recent book, Apache Voices: Their Stories of Survival As Told by Eve Ball, in which she reviews, reinterprets and presents Eve Ball’s stories and interviews. It is an engaging read, if somewhat frustrating for the lack of a timeline.
The place names first spurred my interest. Things like “Doubtful Canyon," and Apache references along the seemingly desolate stretch of I-10 between Las Cruces and Tucson provide multiple hints at Apache history and enticements to learn more.
THE STAGECOACH
The route of Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company coaches roughly parallels the freeway. It is partly visible in satellite photos and was granted status as a National Historic Trail in 2023. The trip took approximately fifty-two hours and coaches were express - running day and night. The portion that parallels I-10 was only one of several routes west. All of them cut through Apache territory but were popular because they were snow free, unlike more direct trails further north.
The route is still visible today in many places where it hasn’t been obliterated by plowing, grading, pipelines, or the freeway itself. Still, in general, more is known today about the stagecoach than the Apaches, perhaps because it continued in use after remaining Apaches were exiled to Florida. Perhaps because we romanticize the settlement of the west.
The movie “Stagecoach” radically changes the geography and route of the Butterfield Stage and affords no honest or fair representation of Apaches or even of the stagecoach era. Another, called “Broken Arrow,” is far more sympathetic but combines and fictionalizes events and characters, including Cochise and Geronimo.
The Overland Mail Company only ran stagecoaches on this route for three years, from 1858-1861, despite the large effort and amount of capital invested in establishing the route. At the start of the Civil War, Union troops stationed at multiple forts for protection were withdrawn. But use of the trail by others, including emigrants, continued.
APACHE WARS
According to some sources, there was relative peace in the lands of the Apache until Mexican independence. Deterioration in relationships closely aligned with incursions into their territories and the practice of reprisals and raiding. The Mexican government, like later American government, attempted limit nomadic tribes’ movements by establishing Apache settlements where they were provided rations and land to farm. But after independence supplies to “peace camps” became unreliable and Apache raids resumed. In 1835 the Sonoran government established a scalp bounty, creating a hellish landscape.
Americans efforts apparently didn’t fare much better. Various efforts to make peace and end raiding were of mixed success. Some Indian agents were accused of selling rations intended for Apache settlements and shortages led to renewed raiding. Some Anglos in Tucson didn’t support settlement efforts. Perhaps the most egregious move was to break prior agreements and forcibly remove Apaches from their homelands to a single reservation in Arizona - San Carlos. Conflicts between various bands and the sheer distance from their lands led many to flee. Nothing ended very well for the Apaches and much of their history isn’t taught.
THE WARM SPRINGS APACHES
One striking example is that of the Warm Springs Apaches who were closely associated with the Mogollon and Mescalero and considered an eastern branch of the Chiricahuas. They called themselves the Chihennes. Among their better known leaders were Mangas Colorado, Nana, Loco, and Victorio. Their homeland was around the San Mateo Mountains in New Mexico and along Alamosa Creek near the village of Monticello.
An extensive study of the 4000 year long prehistory and history of this area was conducted over a thirteen year period and presented by the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum. The “Cañada Alamosa Project” included 728 square miles extending west from today’s Truth or Consequences west into the mountains. According to the project, Apache people occupied this land from approximately 1621 to 1879.
In 1874 the Warm Springs Apache reservation was approved by President Grant but it didn’t stick. They were forcibly removed to San Carlos for the second time. Soonafter their leader, Victorio, was killed in Mexico at a place called Tres Castillos. Eventually, Apaches not settled at San Carlos were exiled to Florida, Alabama, and then Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They didn't regain their freedom until 1913.
I visited this place in the eighties. We were enchanted even without knowing its rich history. There were building ruins there not far from the dramatic mouth of Alamosa Creek called the Monticello Box. Nearby was the namesake warm spring. (Above) At the time it seemed the place was being deliberated destroyed. There were cattle in the springs and a road directly through the creek bed. The land appeared overgrazed and contemptuously abused. There was no reference to the reservation on the map we used.
Recently my friend Jerry told me he remembered a topographic map showing the reservation. I searched for it and didn’t know that topo maps could be revised by the public like wiki pages. While the reservation isn’t shown on these, an unusual number of individual ranches are named. (Right) Perhaps this is an intentional effort to erase the Indian history.
But on topoquest.com (Left) I finally found the old version showing “Old Indian Treaty Boundary.” The marked area extends from the mouth of the creek west into a neighboring canyon.
Nurturing a sense of wonder and curiosity about this history is a comfort in present tumultuous times. The freeway routes we take today with tractor-trailers, potholes and windstorms are nothing compared to the hardships and horrors travelers endured in previous centuries. And our land use conflicts over zoning and with our neighbors, simply pale in comparison to those that cost settlers, soldiers and Apaches, their lives. And in the case of the Apaches, their homelands.
Further Reading:
Eve Ball, Indeh, An Apache Odyssey, University of Oklahoma Press, 1980 edition.
_______, Victorio, Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache, University of Arizona Press, 1970. Sherry Robinson, Apache Voices, Their Stories of Survival as Told to Eve Ball, UNM Press, 2000
New Mexico Historical Review, Various authors, online digital repository.