Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1897-03-11
AN APACHE CAPTIVE.
THE TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE OF LIT.
TIE ANiCErA CHAVEZ.

TIE ANiCETA CHAVEZ.
Captured by Geronimo's Rand and Dragged
About For Two MoHths - witnessed
Much Of the savages' Bloody work,
Brutaliy Treated by the squaws.
Il During the last Apache war, ended
ten years ago, there were two cases
where white children were taken pris-
oners by the Indians and afterward
were recaptured and restored to their
friends, " said q southwestern mining
engineer.
"The first Of the children captured
and rescued in the last Apache war was
Santiago McKin. The other was a little
l0-year-old Mexican girl, Aniceta Cha
vez On June go, 1883, q detachment
Of Mexican troops surprised Chief Geron-
imo's band 20 miles southeast Of Mag
dalena, in Sonora. 80 sudden was their
attack that the Indians fed, scattering
to cover and at last making their escape.
AS the soldiers searched the scene of the
fight for the wounded and the plumber
they came upon a little girl, ragged and
~barefooted, hiding among the rocks.
She was a child of Mexican blood, and
when she was made aware that those
about Ter were Of her own race and
friendly she told them her name and
story.
"She was Aniceta Chavez, who had
been adopted into the family Of a ranch
man named Peck, living neal Calaba-
sas, A. T. On the previous April 81,
when Geronimo made his bloody raid
into the Santa Cruz valley, he killed
Mrs. Peck and her young child, but
carried Aniceta into captivity. That he
should do so surprising a thing as to
spare her life was due probably to the
fact that in case of ultimately being
compelled to surrender to the United
States troops he might secure better
terms by having a prisoner to deliver
up to the whites. So the girl was hur-
ried along with her captors and COM
PEELED to witness the other murders that
they committed after their slaughter at
the Peck ranch.
1T was hard work for her to keep up
with her captors, but her life depended
on it. Several times hat day the squaws
would have killed her, but Geronimo
would not suffer it, though he allowed
them to abuse and beat her to their
hearts content But she was only at
the beginning of her troubles. From
the Santa Cruz valley the Indians
swung back to the Sierra Madre. and
their long journey through mountains
and desert was a rough and cruel one.
The Indians, pursued ceaselessly by
troops on both sides of the Mexican Dor.
der, travelled all day, never stopping
for two nights in the same place. Their
N meal a day, which they ate at night,
consisted usually Of horsefesh, but if
this were lacking and they were not
too closely followed the band scattered,
the bucks in search of small game and
the women to gather snakes, lizards,
grubs and edible roots and plants with
which to make out a satisfying meal.
Their only baggage, handled always by
the squaws, consisted Of blankets and
papooses in baskets, together with any
plumber they desired to take along. The
bucks carried their rifles and two belts
of cartridges each Usually the Indians
had plenty of horses to ride, but they
did their fighting on foot. They had ex-
cellent ieldglasses, captured from the
whites, and these they used constantly.
In travelling, one Indian rode in advance
OF the band. exploring for dangers
ahead, while another, mounted on a
specially good horse, rode far in the
rear to signal to the others information
of any signs he might see of pursuit
and ready at the right time to spur for
ward and warn them.
THE Indian bucks, while they took
little notice Of Aniceta, were not IN
kind to her, but to keep up with the
party in its endless marching through a
mountainous country was a fearful task
for a child. Sometimes they followed
trails and again ~traversed a trackless
region, often climbing heights so steep
that the Indians had to dismount and
lead their horses. When travelling afoot,
she was cautioned never to set her foot
nn soft soil, but only on rocks or grass.
This was that her footprints might not
betray the route the party was taking.
When pursuit was not hot after them
and there was no danger in sight, Ge-
ronimo would carry her on his horse. In
their flight the Indians found time for
considerable numbering and plundering
of the whites. She found the squaws
more bloodthirsty and cruel than the
bucks, and they were ever eager to hack
and mutilate the bodies of any white
person whom the warriors had killed.
Where the Indians travelled she had
no idea, except that they kept almost
altogether in the mountains. From the
character Of the scenery as she described
it and the few buildings she saw the
Indians must have kept most of the
time wholly south of the Mexican Dor.
der. 1t was the ~suddenness of the at
tack by the Mexican troops that saved
the girls life, for if the squaws had not
been for the moment panic stricken they
would have killed her to prevent her
being recaptured. But fortunately, be-
coming separated from them in the CON
fusion, she remained in hiding while
they fed. When found by the M~exicans,