Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-06-18
something About the Apache.
BY nRs. susAN Z. WALLACE.


much ssvaeery; but the wild tribes Of
North America are more hardly driven
now than ever before, owing 10 the
rapid disappearance Of game, especially
the buffalo. Time was when the ciboia.
as they called him, fed, warmed and
clothed the nomads. Indians are now
moved about as far West as they can
70, and the Buffalo goes with them,
but is disappearing much more rapidly
than the Red Man Is.
The narrowing limits OF his range
make many a chase barren as that of
the English party in tho Catskiils, gay
ly hunting the great American bison
in the Summer of 1876.
He once ranged as far east as the
Atlantic sesboard in Virginia ana the
Carolinas. From Catesby we learn
that, about the yea- l7l2, herds Of
buffalo were seen within thirty miles
of Charleston, South Carolina The
decrease of their main reliance for
food and clothing alarmed the tribes
years ago; and in the last generation
they brought forward the fact in their
pow-wows with commissioners: "The
cibola is dying, and the red brother
must keep peace with the pale face,
and eat his spotted buffalo" (Indlan
for domestic cattle.) Such was the
peaceful and alluring speech of the
war chief of the Apaches; but the
promise of peace was never kept. To
steal and murder, and, under the show
Of friendship beat out the brains ofun-
suspecting men; to carry off to captlv-
ity worse than death the women and
larger children, was merely question
Of opportunity.
The ''spotted buffalo of the white
brother" is handler than the ancient
and lawful game which ranged in
such vast herds along the Arkansas,
Republican and Platte rivers, and the
future geographers will not regale in
genious American youth with that
blood curdling, whitening pic
ture of the shaggy and ferocious beasts
rushing to suicide over an awful preci-
pice overhanging bottomless abyss.
He will rather take his place in natu-
raj history with the extinct dodo and
the outgoing cassowary.
The tanned skin of the buffalo is
the best material for the manufacture
OF "tepes," and the '.bois de bache" is
as good fuel as the Indian desires. Il
has been enormously stated that only
the white man kills and wastes buffalo
They are, or have been frequently
killed by war parties, who take what
may be needed as food; but the rest ol
the carcass falls to the portion Of
wolves and ravens, never far off
Young buffaloes fall prey to the hun
CRY gray wolf and coyotes, and sick
or wounded buffalo has long train at
tendent Of wolves, thirsting for bis
blood.
Coronado, the old Spanish explorer
who crossed the Gila in l540, wrote 8
curious and accurate description ot
the cibola, Of which / copy portion
"These oxen are the bigness and color
Of our bulls; but their horns are moi
so great. They have great bunch
upon their fore shoulders, and more
hair upon their fore part than on theil
hinder part; 1t Is like wool. They
have, as it were, horses name upor
their back bone, and much hair anG
very long from the knees downward
Thew have great tufts of hair hanging
down their foreheads, and it seemett
they have boards, because of the grea
store Of hair hanging down at their
chins and throats. The males have
very long tails, and great knob OF
flock at the end; SO that, in some re,
spects, they resemble the lion, and II
some the camel. Their masters have
no other riches or substance; Of then
they eat, they drink, they apparel, they
shoe themselves; and of their hides
make many things, as houses anc
ropes; of their bones they make bod
kins; of their sinews and hair, thread
of their horns, maws and bladders
vessels; and of their calf skins, buck
cts, wherein they draw and keep wa
ter"
The whole living of the rowing
tribes is thus cut off with the buffalo
The Apache love Of meat is not fasti-
dious, and they are particularly, fonc
of mule and horse flesh. Deer, ante
lope-- whatever the game may be-
every portion, except the bones, is con
sumed, the entrails being an especia
delicacy They partially cook it, gen
orally eating it extremely rare; that is
about half raw. Fertile valleys In th'
territories bear small proportion tt
the extent Of arid deserts, lava beds
and plains Of sand. Isolated peak
contain wood and springs, thus afford
ing protection for the sure-tootet
savage, who can outmarch our bes
cavalry horses. The scant grass il
soon exhausted, SO he must move from
place to place, or starve, and thu
necessity is added to inclination; ant
they roam over immense tracts o
country, seeking what they may de
your.
They have smoke signals by day an