Apache Wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflict s between the United States Army and various Apache nations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886 , though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924 . Its origins started a year before the first conflict when a fraction of Mexico became part of the United States in the aftermath of the Mexican - American War . Therefore the Native Mexican s had become Native Americans for the series of conflicts where a significant part of the Westward Expansion Trails in the American frontier . The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s in Texas , before being diverted to action in the American Civil War in New Mexico and Arizona . First conflicts . Historically , the Apache had raided enemy tribes and sometimes each other , for horses , food or captives . They considered such raids different than warfare . They raided with small parties , for a specific purpose . While the Apache sometimes waged war with large armies , using all tribal male members of warrior age , by the 1880s such methods of warfare were ended as most of the Apache bands had agreed to a negotiated settlement with the US government . However , other sub - nations of the Apache , usually clans or specialized warrior societies , continued their warfare . In turn , this limited potential negotiated solutions as American responses failed to distinguish between Apache raiding parties and other groups . Consequently , American responses were sometimes heavy - handed , resulting in an escalation of the situation as other Apache were drawn into the conflict . The first conflicts between the Apache ( who call themselves " T ` Inde , Inde , N ` dee , N ` ne " , meaning the " people " ) and other people in the Southwest date to the earliest Spanish settlements , but the specific set of conflicts now known as the Apache Wars began during the Mexican - American War . The first United States Army campaigns specifically against the Apache began in 1849 and the last major battle ended with the surrender of Geronimo in 1886 . This final phase lasted from 1886 until as late as 1906 , as small Apache bands continued their attacks on settlements and fought United States Cavalry expeditionary forces and local militia . The fighters were mostly warrior groups , with small numbers of noncombatants . US forces went on search and destroy missions against the small bands , using tactics including solar signal ing , wire telegraph , joint American and Mexican intelligence sharing , allied Indian scouts , and local quick reaction posse groups . Nonetheless , not until 1906 were the last groups of Apache , who had evaded the US Army ' s border control of the tribal reservation , forced back on the reservation . Apache leaders such as Mangas Coloradas of the Bedonkohe ; Cochise of the Chokonen ; Victorio of the Chihenne band ; Juh of the Nednhi band ; Delshay of the Tonto ; and Geronimo of the Bedonkohe led raiding parties against non - Apache . Because they resisted the military ' s attempts , by force and persuasion , to relocate their people to various reservations they are usually regarded as national heroes by their own people . Wars . Jicarilla War . At the start of the Mexican - American War in 1846 , many Apache bands promised American soldiers safe passage through their land , though other tribes fought in defense of Mexico and against the influx of new settlers to New Mexico . When the United States claimed the frontier territories of Mexico in 1848 , Mangas Coloradas signed a peace treaty , respecting the Americans as the conquerors of the Mexicans ' land . However , as Tiller relates regarding the treaty signed at Santa Fe on April 2 , 1851 , " " The Jicarillas were expected to comply with the terms of the treaty immediately , yet as far as the new Mexicans were concerned , their part of the bargain would go into effect only after Congress had ratified it . " " The United States Congress never did ratify the treaty . An uneasy peace between the Apache and the Americans persisted until an influx of gold miners into the Santa Rita Mountains of present - day Arizona led to conflict . The Jicarilla War began in 1849 when a group of settlers were attacked and killed by a force of Jicarillas and Utes in northeastern New Mexico . A second massacre occurred in 1850 , in which several mail carriers were massacred . It wasn ' t until 1853 that the army became involved . The army went on to fight at the Battle of Cieneguilla , a significant Apache victory , and later the Battle of Ojo Caliente Canyon , an American victory . Chiricahua Wars . In 1851 , near the Piños Altos mining camp , Coloradas was attacked by a group of miners ; they tied him to a tree and severely beat him . Similar incidents continued in violation of the treaty , leading to Apache reprisals against European Americans . In December 1860 , thirty miners launched a surprise attack on an encampment of " Bedonkohe " on the west bank of the Mimbres River in retaliation for the theft of numerous livestock . According to the historian Edwin R . Sweeney , the miners " . . . killed four Indians , wounded others , and captured thirteen women and children . " The Apache quickly retaliated with raids against U . S . citizens and property . In early February 1861 , a group of unidentified Indians stole cattle and kidnapped the stepson of the rancher John Ward near Sonoita , Arizona . Ward sought redress from the nearby American army . Lieutenant George N . Bascom was dispatched and Ward accompanied the detail . Bascom set out to meet with Cochise near Apache Pass and the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach station to secure the cattle and Ward ' s son . Cochise was unaware of the incident , but he offered to seek those responsible . Dissatisfied , Bascom accused Cochise of having been involved . He took Cochise and his group of family members under arrest in the negotiating tent . Angered , Cochise slashed his way from the tent and escaped . After further failed negotiations , Cochise took a member of the stage coach station hostage after an exchange of gunfire . With Bascom unwilling to exchange prisoners , Cochise and his party killed the members of a passing Mexican wagon train . The Apache killed and ritually mutilated nine Mexicans , and took three whites captive , but killed them later . They were unsuccessful in attempting an ambush of a Butterfield Overland stagecoach . With negotiations between Cochise and Bascom at an impasse , Bascom sent for reinforcements . Cochise killed the remaining four captives from the Butterfield Station and abandoned negotiations . Upon the advice of military surgeon , Dr . Bernard Irwin , Bascom hanged the Apache hostages in his custody . The retaliatory executions became known as the Bascom Affair ; they initiated another eleven years of open warfare between the varying groups of Apache and the United States settlers , the U . S . Army and the Confederate Army . After the American Civil War began in April 1861 , Mangas Coloradas and Cochise , his son - in - law , struck an alliance , agreeing to drive all Americans and Mexicans out of Apache territory . Their campaigns against the Confederates were the battles of Tubac , Cookes Canyon , Florida Mountains , Pinos Altos and Dragoon Springs . Other Apache bands fought the Rebels as well ; Mescalero Apache attacked and captured a herd of livestock at Fort Davis on August 9 , 1861 , with the Apache killing two guards in the process . The Army sent out a patrol to try to retrieve the livestock , and the Apache killed them all . Mangas Coloradas and Cochise were joined in their campaign by the chief Juh and the notable warrior Geronimo . They thought that they had achieved some success when the Americans closed the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach and Army troops departed , but those actions were related to the beginning of the American Civil War . The United States military leadership decided to move against the Arizona Confederates in what the Union considered part of the New Mexico Territory by dispatching a column of Californian volunteers under Colonel James Henry Carleton . The California Column , as it was known , followed the old Butterfield Overland Trail east . In 1862 the troops encountered Mangas Coloradas and Cochise ' s followers near the site of the spring in Apache Pass . In the Battle of Apache Pass , soldiers shot and wounded Mangas Coloradas in the chest . While recuperating , he met with an intermediary to call for peace with the United States . In January 1863 , Coloradas agreed to meet with U . S . military leaders at Fort McLane , near present - day Hurley in southwestern New Mexico . Coloradas arrived under a white flag of truce to meet with Brigadier General Joseph Rodman West , an officer of the California militia . Armed soldiers took him into custody , and West is reported to ordered the sentries to execute the Apache leader . That night Mangas was tortured , shot and killed , as he was " trying to escape . " The following day , soldiers cut off his head , boiled it and sent the skull to the Smithsonian Institution . The mutilation of Coloradas ' body increased the hostility of the Apache toward the United States . Carleton then decided to move the Navajo and Apache to reservations . Initially he intended to make the Rio Grande valley safer for settlement and end the raids on travelers . He began by forcing various bands of Mescalero and Navajo onto the reservation at Fort Sumner . He enlisted Kit Carson , one - time friend of the Navajo , to round them up by destroying their crops and livestock , and forcing them on The Long Walk to Fort Sumner . Carleton later fought the First Battle of Adobe Walls , the largest Indian War battle of the Great Plains . Sometime in 1862 Yavapai County , Arizona , Theodore Boggs fought a small engagement with Apaches at Big Bug , Arizona . He was a son of the Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs . Texas Indian Wars . On November 25 , 1864 , the Plains Apache fought in one of the largest battles of the American Indian Wars at the First Battle of Adobe Walls . Kit Carson led an army of 400 soldiers and Ute scouts to the Texas panhandle and captured an encampment from which the inhabitants had fled . More than one thousand Comanche , Kiowa and Plains Apache attacked him . Carson took a position in an abandoned adobe building on top of a hill and repulsed several attacks . After a day of fighting , Carson retreated and the Indians permitted him to leave without opposition . Iron Shirt , a Plains Apache chief , was killed in the battle . Six soldiers were killed ; the army estimated that the Indians suffered 60 killed and wounded . Yavapai War . In 1871 , a group of six white Americans , forty - eight Mexicans and almost 100 Papago warriors attacked Camp Grant . They massacred about 150 Apache men , women , and children . The incident came to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre . Campaigning against the Apache continued in the mid - 1870s . The battles of Salt River Canyon and Turret Peak are prime examples of the violence in the Arizona region . Soldiers and civilians , especially from Tucson , frequently pursued various Apache bands , trying to end their raiding and in retaliation . Victorio ' s War . In 1879 , an Apache army under the war chief Victorio launched a campaign against the American settlers in and around Alma , New Mexico . Beginning with the Alma Massacre , the Apache campaign concluded with their siege of Fort Tularosa . The United States Army fought them off and defeated Victorio ' s forces . A year later in August 1881 , George Jordan was among those who fought at the Battle of Carrizo Canyon in New Mexico territory . After the victory , Sergeant Jordan was given a Medal of Honor for his actions . Geronimo ' s War . Just days after the Carrizo Canyon fight , at the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona Territory , a force of soldiers was sent to investigate recent reports of Apache unrest and to detain the medicine man , Nochaydelklinne . The arrest of Nochaydelklinne by three native scouts was peaceful until they made their way back to camp , upon arrival the camp had already been surrounded by Nochaydelklinne ' s followers . The Battle of Cibecue Creek began . The following day , the native army attacked Fort Apache in reprisal for the death of Nochaydelklinne , who was killed during the fighting at Cibecue Creek . In the spring of 1882 , the warrior " Na - tio - tisha " began to lead a party of about 60 White Mountain Apache warriors . In early July they ambushed and killed four San Carlos policemen , including the police chief . After the ambush , " Na - tio - tisha " led his band of warriors northwest through the Tonto Basin . Local Arizona settlers were greatly alarmed and demanded protection from the U . S . Army . It sent out fourteen companies of US cavalry from forts across the region . In the middle of July , " Na - tio - tisha " led his band up Cherry Creek to the Mogollon Rim , intending to reach General Springs , a well - known water hole on the Crook Trail . Noticing they were being trailed by a single troop of cavalry , the Apache lay an ambush seven miles north of General Springs , where a fork of East Clear Creek cuts a gorge into the Mogollon Rim . The Apaches hid on the far side and waited . The cavalry company was led by Captain Adna R . Chaffee . The chief scout , Al Sieber , discovered the Apache trap and warned the troops . During the night , Chaffee ' s lone company was reinforced by four more from Fort Apache under the command of Major A . W . Evans . Then they were ready to begin the Battle of Big Dry Wash . Geronimo is probably the most notable Apache warrior of that time period , but he was not alone . He belonged to a Chiricahua Apache band . After two decades of guerrilla warfare , Cochise , one of the leaders of the Chiricahua band , chose to make peace with the US . He agreed to relocate his people to a reservation in the Chiricahua Mountains . Soon afterward in 1874 , Cochise died . In a change of policy , the U . S . government decided to move the Chiricahua to the San Carlos reservation in 1876 . Half complied and the other half , led by Geronimo , escaped to Mexico . In the spring of 1877 , the U . S . captured Geronimo and brought him to the San Carlos reservation . He stayed there until September 1881 . As soldiers gathered near the reservation , he feared being imprisoned for previous activities . He fled the reservation with 700 Apache and went to Mexico again . On April 19 , 1882 , another Chiricahua chief named Juh attacked the San Carlos reservation and forced Chief Loco to break out . During the hostilities , Juh ’ s warriors killed the Chief of Police Albert D . Sterling , along with Sagotal , an Apache policeman . Juh led Loco and up to 700 Apache were led back to Mexico . In the spring of 1883 , General George Crook was put in charge of the Arizona and New Mexico reservation s . With 200 Apache , he journeyed to Mexico , found Geronimo ’ s camp , and with Tom Horn as his interpreter , persuaded Geronimo and his people to return to the San Carlos reservation . Chiefs Bonito , Loco , and Nana came with Crook at the time . Juh remained in Mexico , where he died accidentally in November . Geronimo did not come until February 1884 . Crook instituted several reforms on the reservation , but local newspapers criticized him for being too lenient to the Apache . They demonized Geronimo and on May 17 , 1885 , he escaped again to Mexico . In the spring of 1886 , Crook went after Geronimo and caught up with him just over the Mexico border in March . Geronimo and his group fled , and Crook could not catch them . The War Department reprimanded Crook for the failure , and he resigned . He was replaced by Brigadier General Nelson Miles in April 1886 . Miles deployed over two dozen heliograph points to coordinate 5 , 000 soldiers , 500 Apache scouts , 100 Navajo scouts , and thousands of civilian militia against Geronimo and his 24 warriors . Lt . Charles B . Gatewood and his Apache scouts found Geronimo in September 1886 and persuaded them to surrender to Miles . An 1887 letter from Charles Winters , Troop D of the 6th Cavalry , describes a soldier ' s experiences during the Apache Wars in New Mexico : Geronimo and his party had killed dozens of people during the Bear Valley Raid and similar attacks . The Army imprisoned Geronimo and many other Apache men , including some of the Apache scouts locally , then they transported them to the East as prisoners of war . They held them at Fort Pickens in Florida . Some of the warriors and families were imprisoned at Fort Marion , also in Florida . Northerners vacationing in St . Augustine , where Fort Marion was located , included teachers and missionaries , who became interested in the Apache prisoners . Volunteers participated in teaching the Apache to speak and write English , about Christian religion and elements of American culture . Many citizens raised funds to send nearly 20 of the younger male prisoners to college after they were released from detainment . Most attended the Hampton Institute , a historically black college . Many Apache died in the prisons . Later , Apache children were taken to the Carlisle boarding school in Pennsylvania , where fifty of them died . Eventually , after 26 years , the Apache in Florida were released to return to the Southwest , but Geronimo was sent to Fort Sill , Oklahoma . Renegade Period . Despite the surrender of Geronimo and his followers in 1886 , Apache warriors continued warfare against Americans and Mexicans . The United States Cavalry had several expeditions against the Apache after 1886 . During one of them , 10th Cavalry and 4th Cavalry forces under First Lieutenant James W . Watson pursued mounted Apache warriors north of Globe , Arizona , along the Salt River . Sergeant James T . Daniels , Company L . , 4th Cavalry and Sergeant William McBryar , Troop K . , 10th Cavalry , are the last - known recipients of the Medal of Honor for actions during the Apache Wars . Both were cited for " " extreme courage and heroism " " while under attack by hostile Apaches , on March 7 , 1890 . A Private Rowdy , Troop A , of the Indian Scouts , was also decorated for " " faithfulness , zeal , and great tenacity , making it possible to encounter the Apache renegades . " " The native warriors continued to resist by maintaining dozens of holdouts until the Battle of Bear Valley in 1918 but hostilities continued for several more years . The last Apache raid into the United States occurred as late as 1924 when a band of natives stole some horses from Arizonan settlers who were caught and arrested . This is considered to be the end of the American Indian Wars , but the neighbouring Mexican Indian Wars were still going on for another nine years .