Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-10-13
TIE BOTTOM PAcrs

' Cr'ok's Sierra Madre expedition whic
 appearei in the Epitaph of yesterda, , Tho statement is brief and strai zhtfor
 ward' aud We are inclined to oeliev
 that 1t IS nearer to the truth thai anything hitherto published, with tn
 exception of the story Of the Apach,
 scout as told to a reporter of the CITI
 ZEN a few weeks ago, and which. whIl,
 not So clear as the story told by
 Mr. Cook, embodied about the same
 statement as to the facts. The careful
 reader will observe some glsring dis.
 crepanciss between the statement of Mir
 Cook and the official report of General
 Crook, some Of which it will be well to
 note. For instance, General Crook, in
 hIs report to military headquarters at
 San Francisco. stated that "early on the
 morning of May 18th Captain Crawford
 surprised the village of chief Chato, the
 fight lasting all day, and the entire viii
 lage was wiped out and the entire camp.
 with stock and everything belonging to
 1t, was captured"
 Per contra, James Cook says: ''The
 scouts under Crawford, Al. Seiber, Archie Mcintosh and others were sent in ad- vance and discovered a squaw ou the mountain side. She was ordered to halt, but disregarded the order was fired upon by white mountain Apache scout, winch alarmed the raucheria of the renegades and they nearly all es- capped. At the time of the attack Crook. with his pack train and guard of forty i've soldiers, was five miles Tn 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 sn in- vltation to the Indians to come iI and have big talk. A hundred bucks under Geronimo, Chato, Bonito, Nachez, and fine looking Warm Springs Indian. who seemed to be the head chief, came in, and had grand pow-wOw with General Crook, which wound up with war dance" which General Crook nor Al. Seiber could not "wind mp" until they tired of the festivities.
 General Crook in his report said they were much frightened by our sudden appearance ID their fortresses, and scattered like quail, and not until the l7th did they begin to surrender. They asked me to remain unrl they couid | gather all the bands together, wh, they would go back to the reservation"
 Mr. Cook says "rhe Indians stated t. | Crook that they would g back to the | as soon as they could make | B raid into Chihuahua and capture certain herd ot horses they knew of" which line Of policy they seem to have acted upon, 90 far aS going, Lu: not as To the returning to San Carlos.
 Al the booty" ss Cook, captured ID Chato's camp sa-. including some 'our pr five thousand dollars, horses; guns, ammuni ion. watches, iewelry. e'c, @ uraed to the invited guests and, hey were well pleased with the,r recsp- tion.'
 IL Is not strange that they should have 1een "well pleased!" Such generosity vas never shown to prisoners bef re slther in savage or civilized warfare, and If General Crook was not courting avor from these red-handed murderous 'avages, he would hardly have turned pack to them all the booty including ARMS AND AMMUNITION with a carte blanche to pillage and murder in MT. Cook expressed the opinion that General Crook "could have easily captured the entire outfit when hey were in his camp having their var dance, but there seemed to be a ack of confidence in the White noun am scouts, though the Yumas and ronto Apaches were steadfsst and rue"
 From Mir. Cooks statement it will be ,een that Crook made a great bungle of he gave 10 the world as brilliant victory" and that be either found him. 'elt unable to cope with the savagss on account of the uureliability of the White mountain scouts or he acred a doubtful part and neglected his bounden duty to rapture or extermmate the renegsdes \ hen he had It in his power to do so. In ,ither case he has shown hIs inability to ,ope with the nostiles, and the War Department should lose no time in in- luiring into the manner in which he conducted his Sierra Madre failure.