STAG VACATION By: Carl Adams
In 1978 Charley and I were making plans to take a short vacation to south east Arizona. Charley had picked out a good used car from his car lot and I had called Papa Cochise to tell him that we were coming. In the course of the conversation with Papa I asked how the deer hunting was in Arizona. He told me that the hunters had to buy a license in June and the wildlife Dep. held a drawing in August to see which ten percent of the people who had bought license would be allowed to buy deer permits. He also said he would like to go deer hunting again (He was 105 years old at the time and had lost one leg just below the knee) but he was not among the ten percent for that year.
Late in the afternoon we were packing the car and planning to drive all night when we heard a truck driver on the C.B. say he had just hit a deer about two miles up the road from Charley's shop. We looked at each other, then jumped in the car and made a mad dash up the road and picked up the deer. We took it to my shop about two miles off of the road and field dressed it and put it in a large igloo cooler with some dry ice. I am one half American Indian and my foster Dad is full blood Apache so I did not feel we were doing anything illegal by retrieving the deer. The treaty of Cow Skin Prairie allows Indians to hunt and kill wildlife as it is needed for food and we Indians feel that wildlife is our livestock just as cattle is the livestock of white people, so, in spite of some state laws, the treaty prevails.
We left north east Texas and drove to Houston then west to Monahands and little did we know that 1978 was a year of many deer in west Texas. I counted 252 live deer on the highway right of way on I-10 that night west of San Antonio. There were any number of deer that had been killed by cars and trucks along that stretch of highway. Some were not totally dead and some had been dead for two or three days. The moon was out and there were herds visible in the pastures on both sides of the road too.
We slept in the car just east of Monahands for about three hours and like to have froze to death.
Not long after sun up Charley woke me and said "lets go find some coffee and food". I was too cold to talk so He drove on to the next town and we ate. We then drove on to Willcox with occasional stops for coffee, food, and gasoline. We arrived there late that afternoon where we rented a room at Sue's Motel. We learned that the owners of Sue's Motel were friends with Papa and Minnie and that their deep freeze was there at the motel since they didn't have room in their trailer house for it. We also soon learned that it was against the law for a packing house to dress any kind of wild game unless they shut down operations and completely cleaned their operation , then it was necessary to re-clean it again before they could process any more domestic meat.. I was eventually able to get the deer cut, wrapped and frozen then I took it to the hotel and put it in Papa and Minnie's deep freeze. We then went by for a short visit with Papa and Minnie and made arrangements to go back the next morning and take them for a drive where they could show us around the area. We did not mention the deer then but the next morning when we went to their trailer out at the Rex Allen Museum we took a package of it with us. Papa asked what it was as we came in the door and I said"pink eskay"(It`s deer). He said "I already have my mouth fixed to eat deer. Minnie, as soon as you fix these boys something to eat, cook me some of the deer". The vinson was packaged for two people to the package but Papa ate a complete package, and really enjoyed it.
Minnie is some kind of yankee Indian and has a slight speech impediment so she is a little hard to understand until you get used to her speech. Papa spoke English, Spanish , French, German and Apache fluently but there are a lot of things the Apache will not say around anyone but family except if the non family member can not understand it, so it must have been awkward for Charley until I could get him aside and explain this to him. If Papa wanted to tell me anything that He did not feel comfortable with Charley hearing, He would tell me in Apache and if I did not understand all of it, He would repeat it in Spanish since I speak some Apache as well as some Spanish.
We rode around over Cochise County then went over to Dos Cabezas then into Apache Pass and as we were driving into the pass from the west Papa told me He used to hide behind those white rocks and ambush the wagon trains and Calvary Patrols as they returned to the fort (Ft. Bowie). Charley overheard Him and asked "Who". Papa meant His Grandfather, Mr Chese Cochise and we do not say anyone's name who is deceased, except in a whisper, and then only around family members. Papa asked me to tell Charley who He was referring to and I thought for a second and said His grandfather". This allowed Charley to know who we were talking about without breaking any tribal taboos. We went on up to Bowie, then back to Willcox, where we took Papa and Minnie out to eat. After we had spent about an hour and a half eating and visiting we took them home and went back to the motel. By this time it was nearly dark since this was in the late fall. We watched the news on T.V. then sat around for a while then decided to go up to the local truck stop for coffee and to see if there was anything going on in town after dark.
The waitress told us that the only thing going was a small bar with a dance floor and juke box down on main street. After we had drank three or four cups of coffee each, we moseyed down-town and found the cantina.
The only empty table was a double one so we took it and sat on the back side with our backs to the wall. By the time we had ordered drinks and were listening to the music a family of Mexicans consisting of the Father, Mother and three adolescence girls came in. The Father was obviously slightly under the influence, and he came over and asked if it was alright for them to set with us since there was no other tables. We readily agreed and he immediately ordered drinks for Him and us. His wife and daughters had soft drinks and He had to introduce us to each one in a very formal manner. Then he asked his wife to dance and they danced until She was exhausted. He then danced with each of the
daughters until they were all tired and asked his wife to dance some more. She told him she was too tired and that there were plenty of girls in the place wanting to dance so to go dance with some of them. He didn't want to so he began to visit with us.
Apaches and Mexican are traditional enemies so it was somewhat of a surprise to me to learn that He and Papa Cochise were best of friends. He was also one of the City Councilmen there in Willcox and they had just came from a wedding reception where his eldest daughter had gotten married. This old gentleman was really interesting to talk to and was as likeable as anyone we met on the trip. He also told me of an acquaintance which I had not seen since 1941, who lived near Willcox. He is Arthur Brokesholder of the Choctaw nation of Carter County Okla.
The next morning we went back to visit with the Cochises for a while then went over to Tombstone, Arizona, with stops at Benson and Gleeson. In Benson we went through a combination museum and flea market. We then stopped at the abandoned part of town where there were the remains of a number of dobie houses and other buildings that had been left when the minerals were exhausted in that area. As we came into Gleeson we stopped at an abandoned mine which had a verticle shaft about twenty feet across and it took a rock four seconds to fall to the water in the bottom of it. I don't know how deep it was but there was a pile of tailings 100 feet wide, one quarter mile long and fifty to two hundred feet thick. By the time we reached Tombstone it was dark again so we ate then rented a room for the night.
The next morning we saw all of the sights there including the Birdcage theater and the accompanying museum with it. As far as I know, that is the only house of ill repute on the National list of historical sights. Almost all of the contents of the museum have since been sold at auction, and I understand that they brought in excess of one million dollars.
Later in the day we went on to Gleeson (originally called Brewery Gulch) where we visited a number of museums and the world famous copper mine. East of town there is a pile of tailings out of the copper mine that must be a half mile wide, five to six hundred feet high and five miles long. We went on east to Douglas then north to Apache and on north east to Lordsburg, New Mexico. We traveled I-10 to Anemis N.M. where we visited a book store and ate in a cafe which Poncho Villa (Doreto Arango) was supposed to have robbed in His heyday, and they ever had a bullet hole in the wall where He had shot at someone.
From Anemis we drove I-10 to Houston, Tex. and visited with some of Charley’s relatives then returned home.
