History: Apache were the most feared predators in Arizona

Wednesday, February 1, 2012  

"Last week I posted here about how the U.S. Government hosted 8 0r 10 Apache men for an all expenses paid sightseeing tour of Washington D.C. and New York City. Many people seemed to have enjoyed that tidbit of local history, so here’s a brief follow-up.

This account comes from the same book, Britton Davis’s The Truth About Geronimo, published in 1929. The book was written almost 5 decades after Lt. Davis was assigned by General Crook as Commandant of the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Davis also led U.S. troops and Indian scouts into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Chihuahua and Sonora Mexico to locate the “hostiles” and either bring them back to San Carlos to live in peace or kill them in battle.

To any Anglo or Mexican, whether merchant, rancher, or laborer and their families, Apaches were the alpha predators, far more dangerous than mountain lions and wolves. No Anglo or Mexican man, women, or child living in Southern Arizona between 1861 and 1886 was safe from Apache depredations if the Indians found them in the open away from a large settlement like Tucson. Virtually every Anglo and Mexican living here wanted the Apaches exterminated. And these civilians clamored for the Army to carry out the eradication."

Get the Story:
Jim Gressinger: Eyewitness Account Of American Treachery In 1880′s Southern Arizona (The Tucson Citizen 2/1)