Mescalero Culture
For centuries, the
Apache Indians inhabited the Southwest region of the United Sates and Northern
Mexico. The Mescalero Apaches made their homes in present-day New Mexico and
the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. A nomadic, hunter-gatherer people, they
lived off the plant that gave them their name, the desert Mescal plant. Like
other Apache tribes, there was no overall tribal government. Instead, the
Mescalero were divided into 20 to 30 member bands, usually based on family
affiliations. In times of conflict, they gathered together under a leader who
had proven himself in battle or possessed spiritual skills. They lived in brush
shelters called “wicki-ups” or crude teepees made of animal hides.
War With The Spanish
Considered peaceful at first by the Spanish Conquistadores, attitudes changed when those same Spaniards tried to enslave them. The ensuing war led to whole villages and ranches in New Mexico being laid waste, making a mockery of Spanish authority. By the end of the 1700’s and after years of bloody conflict, the Apaches and Spaniards were finally at peace. After Mexico gained its independence in 1824, the war was renewed.
Raiding
Although the desert provided them with sustenance, the Mescalero’s livelihood was raiding. Mescalero warriors targeted villages in the New Mexico territory, West Texas, and the Mexican State of Coahuila for livestock, horses and captives, mostly females and children. Military force, treachery and treaties did little to overcome the Mescalero; who excelled in guerrilla, hit and run tactics before holing up in remote mountain ranges.
Misery at Bosque Rodondo
After New Mexico and Texas were acquired by the United States, the Mescalero targeted the newly arriving settlers from their camps in the Guadalupe and Davis Mountains. Wagon trains in route to the California gold fields were often attacked, leaving a visible trail of human remains and burnt wagons. In response, a number of U. S. Army forts were established in West Texas and New Mexico to protect residents from Mescalero raids. During the Civil War, Union forces from California, under the command of Brigadier General James Carlton, and with the assistance of famed frontier scout Kit Carson, established martial law in New Mexico. Carlton adopted a harsh, shoot-on-sight policy toward the Mescalero and Navajos. Both tribes, who intensely disliked each other, were placed in a dreadful, military-run reservation in Southern New Mexico called Bosque Redondo. Here, the Indians were to establish farms which failed dramatically due to drought, sudden floods and worms. The nearby salty Pecos River was a poor source of drinking water and made the Indians sick. To make matters worse, disease and conflicts with renegade bands of Navajos made conditions intolerable.
Problems On The Reservation
In 1865, the Mescalero began leaving the reservation in small groups and made their way back to their ancestral homes in the mountains. A total failure, Bosque Redondo was closed. In its place, a new reservation system was adopted; the San Carlos Agency in Arizona was established for the Apaches. After the Mescalero bands were rounded up and placed on the reservation, problems quickly arose, mostly from white squatters looking to exploit the region’s mineral wealth or sell the Indians cheap whiskey, corrupt U. S. Government officials who cheated them, malnourishment, and U. S. soldiers who would rather shoot them than reach an understanding. In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant established a Board of Indian Commissioners to manage the reservations. In an abrupt departure from military control, agents from the various Protestant denominations were appointed to train Native Americans in farming and Christianity, though still under the watchful and scornful eye of the U. S. Army.
The Rise Of Victorio
From among the many Apache bands a skillful leader and tactician arose that would frustrate the U. S. Army and Mexican militias for many months to come. A Mexican by birth, Victorio was probably born around 1825 in Chihuahua City prior to his abduction by the Apaches during a raid. While growing up, he learned Apache customs and war tactics under his mentor, the great Apache Chief Mangas Colorados, who was later tortured, killed and beheaded by U. S. soldiers. Defiant toward U. S. authority, Victorio became the leader of a mixed band of Mescalero and Mimbrenos Apaches. On November 10, 1877, Victoria and his band left San Carlos for Ojo Caliente in New Mexico - a sacred place for the Mescalero. The U. S. Government held to its policy of concentration; the Mescalero were to be forcibly brought back to the San Carlos Agency. Victorio had other plans. With 80 men, he departed for the mountains in August 1878. What followed was a game of cat and mouse. Victorio’s warriors, who never numbered more than 250, would raid ranches and villages and then head for the mountains. The U. S. Cavalry would give chase until Victorio ambushed them, took their horses, and disappeared across the U. S. Border with Mexico.
Ambush
At an army post near Ojo Caliente, Mescalero warriors killed 7 army privates and made off with 47 horses, practically dismounting the army post’s garrison. Troops from Fort Bayard followed Victorio’s trail until they were ambushed at the headwaters of the Animas River. Facing annihilation, the troops were forced to retreat on foot, leaving 53 of their horses behind. Herding his captured horses before him, Victorio found refuge in the Candelaria Mountains in the Mexican State of Chihuahua. A militia unit from the village of Carrizal discovered Victorio’s camp before recklessly attacking it. True to form, Victorio ambushed them, killing 30 Mexicans. Ten Texas Rangers crossed the border to assist the panicked Mexicans, but the Indians were long gone.
Fight At Hembrillo Canyon
Colonel Edward Hatch came down from Santa Fe to head up a thousand man force to subdue Victorio. According to his plan, soldiers and Indian scouts were to converge on New Mexico from every direction to trap him. Like many military plans, it looked better on paper as compared to its actual execution. As with any desert campaign that involved men, horses and mules, you had to have access to water, something that wasn’t readily available in the arid Southwest. A column of thirsty cavalry, which included the famed Buffalo Soldiers under Captain Henry Carroll, went looking for a spring in the steep-walled Hembrillo Canyon. What they found was a well-laid ambush. Carroll’s seventy-one dismounted men were penned down. Mad with thirst, many of their horses had bolted for the nearby spring which was held by the Apaches. A detachment from the 6th Cavalry arrived on the scene, driving away the Mescalero. Carroll and 7 of his buffalo soldiers were wounded. Again,Victorio got away.
Death At Tres Castillos
After the fight at Hembrillo Canyon, Victorio headed back into the Candelaria Mountains across the Rio Grande. By the fall of 1880, time was running out for Victorio. After a failed attempt to liberate fellow Mescaleros from San Carlos, the U. S. Cavalry, Texas Rangers, militia companies and citizen posses were all on the hunt. That didn’t stop small bands of Victorio’s followers from jumping civilian parties in Texas, killing the chief engineer of the Texas Pacific Railroad. The end came in Mexico, south of El Paso, in the Tres Castillos Mountains. Mexican forces surrounded his camp on October 9, 1880, killing 86 warriors. Though his body was never identified, it was believed he committed suicide rather than face certain death from the hated Mexicans. In a macabre procession, Mescalero scalps, attached to poles, were displayed to the residents of Chihuahua City. One esteemed writer calculated that Victorio’s band “seldom more than seventy-five strong, had taken the lives of more than one thousand white’s and Mexicans while eluding three American cavalry regiments, two American infantry regiments, a huge number of Mexican troops, and a contingent of Texas Rangers.”
