Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-08-02
/ BORDER TROUBLES.
ALIrrLE DE APACHE HISTORY RE
 VIEWED.
some of the Popular Failacies Corrected The Natural Treachery of the In dians---Inside Facts of the
 Geronimo Campaign.

The captive Apache chlet terOnlno, Is | reported as saying that he left the reser- vation and went on the war path because J he hal been imposed upon and robbed | by white people and that he had been ac- cnsel of crimes which were in reality | committed by Mexicaus. The willy old | chief has lost none of the cunning which | enabled him to baiiia his pursuers so long, | aud he makes these statements m the | hope that he may yet be returned to his | old stamping grounds In Arizona. The | writer of this not only passed through the l final campaign against the Apaches, but was present at the surrender of Geroni- mo. and took down word for word what the crafty old chief had to say. The facts are that Geronimo made his first uvertures of surrender only when he had been fairly run down by Captain Henry LawtOn's troops of Fourth Cavalry, aud had failed in all of his artifices to elude pursuit. He had been followed day and night by the troop through noun | tain passes aud over plain a distance of more than 5000 miles, and when over taken on the banks of the Bavispe river, m Sonora, his band was worn out and destitute, and no alternative before them but to surrender or fight. On Wednes day. August 9. 1886, the renegade chief came into Captain Lawton's camp and proposed to surrender, and on the Friday following long talk took place, in the course of which he related all of his real and imaginary wrongs He then sad that he left the reservation because Chat to. another Apache chief, wanted to kill him, and that Mickey Free, half-breed, was helping him. He told in his own poetic language how he regretted leaving his home, for he said when Ee took his departure "his hocks were multiplying, his herds increasing, and his fields were green" Tue greatest grievance which he had against the whites was that General Crook had refused to let him keep the cattle which had been stolen in Mexico on previous raid. He dwelt upon this at great length, and seemed to think 1t a great hardship that he was not allowed to keep the cattle after his band had been to the trouble of killing several hundred Mexicans, and making long drive from the interior of Sonora. The time to which Geronimo referred was when he met Gen. crai Crook in the Sierra Madre noun tains in 1881. and promised to come into San Berpssdlno ranch and at once sur render Instead of this he made a raid through SonoIS lasting nearly two months. and when he did come in it was with several hundred head of Mexican horsea and cattle. It was a picturesque sight when this savage horde came over the mountain pass leading down to San Bernardno, riding, at full speed, and driving the stolen horses and cattle be- fore them. They had sent in runners in forming General Crook of their coming, but their whooping and yelling could be .seard long before they came in sight over fhe summit of the divide The cattle I..e Sc. ted by General Crook, and this is the great robbery of which Geronimo had to complain.
 People of east have very little idea how much people have suffered CD account of these Apache raids, and how dpiustly they have been dealt with by our own government Now that there are some s200OOJ,0OO of American capital invested in Mexico, and a great effort Is being ,lade to establish the most friendly re- 1atiOn- between the two republics, these border troubles should be understood, and the same justice accorded Mexicans which our government asks for its own citizens. At the present time the depart ment of State at Washington Is being urged to press the claims for damages which have been presented against the Mexican government by the family of the
 
 murdered by the noted bardit Bernal, iu the mountains of Durango some two years ngo. IT Mexico admits the justice of this claim. which is supported by our Minister at the city of Mexico, she can upon equally good grounds present claims against the American government for in demnity on account of the Mexican sub iects who have been murdered on Amefi- can soil by Geronimo and his band. 1t Is true that Mir. Baldwin was a highly re- spected and prominent man, while the Mexicans who have been killed in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico were generally poor, ignorant, and un- known; but the principles of justice which would apply m the one case would equally bind in the others. Not only have many Mexican subjects been murdered by the Apaches, but many hundred head of cat tie have been driven out of Sonora and Chihuahua for which the owners never received cent in return. A review of the closing scenes of the last Apache war will illustrate this fact, and what happen ed at that time was but the oft repeated experience of former years.
 When Captain Lawton left Fort Hua- cuhca in May, 1886, to take Geronimo's s trail. he had with his command some thirty Indian scouts, all of whom started out on foot. The pursuit had not con ,uued long when the hostile camp was surl, rised, and all of their horses and camp outfit captured. This captured property the scouts claimed, as had been the custom iii the past, and after second surprise had occurred every one of the Indians who had started out on foot was in possession of horse and saddle all oI which had been taken originally iron Mexicans. In July the first company o scouts were sent in, and thirty-two new ones took their places. Again the hostile camp was surprised. and again theil stolen property fell into the hands of tho scouts. Captain Lawton was always Ii favor of returning captured property tC the Mexicans to whom it belonged, but was unable to do anything, owing to thu long established custom to the contrary On one occasion some Mexicans Tn thu district of Saneaipi identified the brand on the horses, but the Indian scouts re fused to give them up In the closinl scenes of the campaign, when GeroEim came into Fort Bowie on the morning o September i, 1886, his band consisted c some J0horses, stolen in the district of UT es, which were turned into the gogernmen corroal. The Indians left the next da for Florida, but were stopped in Sa Antonio, Texas, and whan tine writer rC turned to Bowie, after the lapse of som two weeks, he found that all the horse had been sold.
 It has been the invariable custom consider stock taken from the hostile fl dians as captured property, and as a ready stated tt sometimes passes into th hands of the Indian scouts, and Is carrie
 back tO the reservations and at othC times is sold by the government, but
 no instance is 1t eyer returned to ti
 rlghtfu Mexican owners.
 The MeXicans have good cause to con
 plain of the f-ildre of our government
 protect their citizens, and there are evC
 insiauces of Mexieans being killed
 Sonora by Indian scouts while in u
 service of the United States and wearir
 the army uniform. The truth of this
 vouched for, not only by many Mexican
 but by Americans resident of Sonora.
 one instance Mir. George Woodward,
 well-tO-do miner of Guasabas, came up,
 three of Captain Crawford's scouts m |
 mountains, and they tried to kill him; b
 he, being an old frontiersman, knew he
 to protect himself, and after 2 long fig
 succeeded in killing one Indian al
 WOundiuV the other tWO There are ma