San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation

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San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona.

That's ...

That is some elk.

The Apache bands that went to war in the 1870s and 1880s did so from specific, concrete grievances.

The San Carlos Reservation, where many bands had been concentrated, was a place of genuine misery, with inadequate food and water, with corrupt agents who stole the rations, with the concentration of traditional enemies in close quarters producing violence, with the systematic destruction of the way of life that had sustained the Apache for generations.

The leaders who led breakouts from the reservation, Victorio, Loco, Nana, and eventually Geronimo, were responding to real conditions, not acting from an innate savagery that the legend preferred.

Tom Horn understood this.

When I visited the reservation in the fall of, uh, 2024, I met with a medicine man who was leading Holy Ground ceremonies.

I know there are also Holy Ground followers in the San Carlos Reservation.

They are still out there, diminished in numbers, I would say, from the peak period in the 1920s.

But it's still important to many people and still gives many Apache people a foundation and a strong support for their cultural and religious identity.

By the twenty-second of April, many of the preliminary arrangements had been completed, and some of the difficulties anticipated had been smoothed over.

Nearly a hundred Apache scouts joined the command from the San Carlos Reservation, and in the first hours of night began a war dance, which continued without a break until the first flush of dawn the next day.

They were all in high feather, and entered into the spirit of the occasion with full zest.

Not much time need be wasted upon a description of their dresses.

But Cochise died in 1874, and the federal government soon abandoned the agreement.

In 1876, the Chiricahua Reservation was closed, and its people were ordered to move to the San Carlos Reservation.

Many resisted.

The resulting conflicts eventually included famous Apache leaders such as Victorio, Nana, and Geronimo.

BUT HAS THERE EVER BEEN A TIME WHEN WHITE SOLDIERS DID NOT PROMISE US ONE THING AND GIVE US ANOTHER? WHY DO YOU THINK I FOLLOW YOU TO THIS PLACE WHERE YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE HAVE FLED? GERONIMO QUERIED, I WILL NOT LIVE WITH THE OTHER APACHES IN THAT STINKING COUNTRY.

called the san carlos reservation which the white man saw fit to give them and there are too many soldiers being stationed in arizona i knew that i and those few who came with me could not hope to fight them it is good here It is good here, Victoria agreed, but only because the white soldiers are so stupid.

In Arizona, every group of soldiers starting on an Apache trail had many mules to carry provisions.

Thus they were able to stay on the trail for many days or even weeks.

Here in New Mexico, each soldier has only his own horse.

When they set out to pursue us, they may continue only until their horses are too weary to go on then the soldiers must turn back there is small need to fret about them geronimo said confidently for many years we have run away from all the soldiers in arizona and new mexico too they will not catch us now Victorio said, It is not the soldiers who worry me, but a white man who is now in charge of the San Carlos Reservation.

His name is John Clum, and he is no more like an ordinary white man who comes to oversee Indians than a jackrabbit is like an elk.

He has treated the Apaches fairly, and as a result they have grown to respect him.

Ms. Dinea Yazzie is representing the Navajo Nation Tribe.

Corina Coletia, she's representing the Hopi Tribe and Kylie Kenton, she's representing the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and Miss Pyra Simpson, representing the White Mountain

Apache Tribe.

Wow.