Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-10-13
CROOKS CAMPAIGN.
What a Chief Packer has ts to Say in Re
 gard to it.

James CcOk, a chef packer in Crook
 late Sierra Madre expedition, Is lyInl lll Et the American lodging house OI Fremont street. Last night he was in
 terviewed by an Epitapher with refer
 ence to the pasear of the "Gray Fox
 into Mexican territory, and the follow l ing facts were elicited:
 Cook was in the Animas valley will Captain Crawford's Indian scouts wher General Crock started out from Wilcox l and joined the expedition at San Der nardiuo ranch, and WIS with 1t contin | ually until the return to San Carlos. II | had been raining for three days prior tc ] the discovery of ChattO's camp, Tn the | Sierra Madre. and all the Indian signs
 were thus CbIiterated. The scouts under | Crawford, Al Seibert, Archie Mcintosh
 and others were sent ln advance, and l discovered a buck and a squaw on the
 mountain side. They were ordered l to halt, but disregarded the order
 and were fired upon by Q White | Mountain scout, and thus the rancherla of the renegades was alarmed, and they nearly all escaped, though the scouts claim they killed nlne ID all, SIX wOrlen, two men and ona child Al the time of
 
 and guard of forty-tive soldiers, was five
 miles in the rear, and when he came up not a renegade was to be seen. A squaw
 then came into camp, and she was sent out with an invitation to the Indians to come in and have a big talk. The woman first accepted the invitation and then about a hundred bucks, under Geroni- mo, Chatto, BonIto, NgtcheZ, Chihua-
 hua, and fine looking Warm Spring Indian, who seemed to be the head chief whose name Cook could not remember. They had a grand pOw-wow with Gen eral Crook, which wound up with a war dance. They were ordered by Al. Sci bert to wlnd up their festivities, but paid no attention to the order. In fact. they seemed to think 1t was their picnic, and ran things to suit themselves. The Indians stated to Cook that they would return to San Carlos as soon as they could make 8 rad into Chihuahua and capture a certain herd of horses they knew of.
 ALL THE BOOTY
 Captured in Chatto's camp, including some four or five thousand dollars, horses, guns, ammunition, watches, jew elry, etc, was returned to the invited guests. aud they were well pleased with their reception. When Crook left the camp with the women and children and the old and decrepit bucks there seemed Co be the best os feeling existing be- tween him and the healthy young war rIors he lift behind. Undoubtedly the ''Gray Fox believed the Indians would join him at SIlve- creek as they prom I=ei; bu, that they did not, and have not yet made tnelr appearance, only proves tEat what little knowledge he possessed of Indian character he has forgotten.
 ir. Cook, who has been a scout and packer in Arizona for many years, un derstaUds thoroughly the Apache lan- guage as well Hs their character. He had conversations with a num- Der of "caD;ives,' who denied all knowledge of Charlie McCOmas, but some of the little Indian boys told him they had been playing with a little white toy who could not talk Apache the same morning the attack 1 was made upon the camp. It was after | wards learned that BOnitO's wife had 1 taken the little fellow off into the noun | tains.
 Cook expressed 1t as his opinion that l the general could easily have captured ! the entire outfit when they were in his l camp having their wsr-dance, but there | seemed a lack of confidence in the White | Mountain scouts, although the San Car | los, Yuma and Tonto Apaches were | steadfast and true. However, they were | sadly deficient in physical courage when | compared with the Chiricahua Apaches. To this fear of treaChery is probably | due the utter failure of the campaign, for Cook believes that General Crook | was actualed by a sincere desire to kill | or capture the renegades, but was unfOr- tunate m the selection of his command.