Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-10-24
GENERAL CROOK IN ARIZONA.
4 Review of the Indian Wars In That Territory. How HAndful of >aVAges Dictated Terms oi Peac--Our Ind an Policy C Ct itsci.et.

been inc national battle ground. says
 writer in the New York Commercial Ad
 vertiser. On the one side has been ar rsyed the forces which go to mase ul
 the total called civilization; Oh th,
 other, barbHrlsm. It has been the writ,
 against tie red. Up t. lo15, though {
 great many white people had beer
 killed, there had been no whOlesal,
 slaughteriug. Since then there have beer
 three wars, and 1881, 1855 and lS-J ar,
 dates which are burned deep into the braIns and hearts of AuzOnlans, and
 will waken for generations to comC
 memories of horrors. In those year.
 was proven the total ineificiency ot the | troops and tue incapacity of govern,
 ment ruling GO,UOO,OOO of people to con. 1 trol handful of them who were uuru!y In lS16 the different branches ot tLt Apache tribe were gathered with. m the limits of the White Mountain reservation, sId for the first time III the history of the Territory feeling that 1 life and property were secure prevailed The underbIush in the bottom lands gave place to gram fields, mosquito thickets to orchards, barrenness to mani fold results of intelligent labor, the wiekiup to the cottage, and the signal fires on the mountain top to the glare of the copper smelters at its base. The national wealth was increasing at the rate of S20, 0,0O0,OO0 8 Wear from the gold and silver mines, and queenly peace sat enthroBed m the land. A phantom queen she proved. sitting there.
 Diablo, chief of the White Mountain Apsches, was dead, and knock-a-de- kienny, a medicine man, offered, for a present Uf ponies and tTinkets, to bring him back tO life. The price was paId and the performance began. The man. tie of God had not touched the shoul- ders of the Indian and he failed. The White Mountains clamored for a fulfill ment of the contract. Knock-a de-Klen- ny told them that he could not succeed till the corn was ripe and the white man driven from the land. As soon as the corn ripene1 another medicine dance was held. IL was feared that the race hate of the Indians would be famed into R flame by the medicine man, and SO the Indian agent, J. c. Tiffany, invoked the sld of the military.
 On August 29, 1881. Col. Carr, then in command al Camp Apache, accompanied by less than one hundred soldiers and some Indian scouts. went to dIspeTse the Indians and arrest the medicine man. The night following the arrest the troops camped on the Cibicu. No precautions were taken to prevent a surprise. and they were attacked by party of White Mountains, assisted by the scouts they had brought with them, and nIne men and an officer, Capt. HentIg. were killed. One Indian, the medicine man, was killed, and he was under arrest. Col. Carr retreated tO Camp Apache, leaving stores and ammunition behind hun, and be WAS again attacked under the very walls ot hIs fort. Two of the chiefs who were engaged ID the fight, George and BODItO, were sfterward arrested by the Indian agent, taken to Camp Thomas on the 2jih of September, and turned oye tO Gen. Wilcox. Within ten hours one Of them was pat1led and the rother clad in United States uniform and enlI ted hs a scout. Dandy Jim and one other Indian were executed for the kIilug of Capt. Heutig. IL Is the only instance the writer remembers W here sn Apache Was executed for killing white man. There would not have been any punish ment fl the victims had been settlers.
 
 dreaded Of Gli the Apaches, heard of the victory oi the White Mountains. and grew thirsty for blood. Ezra HOag was m charge Of them, ana possessing much influence, held them for some time to their fealty. He could have continued to hold them. but an order issued by Gen eral Wilcox aroused their passions, Gnd Juh, Geronimo and NatcheZ, with seven ty-fve of the band, broke for Mexico, destroying property and killing us they went. Troops were put III motion, but they never overlook the murderers. At Clear Spr.ngs, General Wilcox, with several troops of cavalry, saw the burn ing houses and the Indian column be- yond but he dId not go Tn pursuit. The Indians had their wives and child ren with them, and the cattle they had stolen, and their grass-bellled ponies were laden with plunder but the troops, mounted on good horses, could not over take them. The Chiricshuss got safely into MexlcO, and the troops captured a squHw.
 In 1888, Gen Crook, then ID command, placed one of hIs subOrdlnates, Capt. Crawford, at the San Carlos agency. A conflict followed between the civil and military authorities. The Indians be- came discontented-they had two mas ters to serve. Runners went from the reservation into the Sierra Madres. and arms and ammunition were sent 10 Ger onimo. The military authorities were informed of what was going on, but they made no effort Co stop IL. Letters were sent to Washington begging for protection, and assurances gwen that another war was imminent. still no nO- tice was taken. In the early part of May, s Mexican was killed near tue lIne. and tbat was the beginning of raid so san guinary and horrible that It shocked for the nonce the Indian lovers iu the east. The war, If that can be called d war it. which unarmed nOn-combataais were killed on their doOrsteps, and armed soldiers hugged their barracks, lasted less than two weeks. Scores Of people were killed, thousands of dollars worth of property destroyed and the Indians were safely back m their mountain re- treat before Gen. Crook had started m pursuit. Five fOrts-BOwie, Grant, Thomas, Huachuca, and Lowell con tRinIng soldiers, lay between the most northern point reached by the raiders and the Mexican line. This IS the foul est stain un the escuicheon of the Amer ican army, The soldiers did not lack courage nor the subordinates skill; but General Crook was handicapped by hls personal ambitions and they would be iuierfered with itby killing the Indian fiends he did violence to the pro-Indian sentiment uf the east. After a confer ence with the Governor ot Sonora, Gen. Crook sought the Chiricahuas ID the SI- erra Madres. He did Lot find them they found him, and dictated such terms as never before We're given ty a hun dreG men to an army with GO,UOO,O0O oi people behind It. So powerless was lac with his two hundred soldiers that the squaws of the hCstIl,s cEme into hls | camp and took the cartridges out of the belts of Lis Indian scouts. These scouts were standing proof of Gen. l Crooks lack of judgment and hls ! ignorance of the Indian character They belonged 10 a tribe that has always been disafTected, and which has ! intermarried with tue Chiricahuas
 There were the lumss, Tontos and Mo | hayes. traditional foes of the Chlrca' huas, who could have been employed, and who would have cleaned them O1