THE LOST APACHES By: Carl Adams
In 1874 Taza (eldest son of CHIEF CHESE COCHISE) went to Washington D. C. to negotiate a new treaty with the Pendilicy (White People-literally pale eyed men).
Chief Cochise had preached pease to his people in spite of the fact that he had been lied to and deceived repeatedly and had even been incarasatedand wounded while under a flag of truce by the White People.
Before leaving Apacheria, Taza had been told by his father to make the best deal he could but avoiding war with the whites was the most important part of his mission.
Taza knew the white people could be very treacherous so he did not send his immediate family to the reservation as he had been told to do by the military commander. He sent his wife Nod-Ah-Sti (Queen Bee), His son Nino, His shaman Teit-O-Teet, and about ten others south, into old Mexico until he could return from Washington.
This small group was the beginning of the Lost Apaches. They went about eighty kilometers into Mexico, south of Agua Perita, into the Sierra Madre Mountains to an ancient campground called Pa-Gotsin-Kay by the Apaches. (A close translation is Mountain Stronghold).
After they been there for about six months Gothilay (Geronimo) came by and told his sister that her husband, Taza, had died in Washington. The white people said he had died of pneumonia but the Apaches believed he had been poisoned by the whites so they did not return to the reservation in Arizona.
There were only two white people who the Apaches trusted. One was Gen. George Crook, who they called Nantham-Lupan (Grey Wolf) and the other was their Indian agent, Tom Jeffords who they called Tangileto (Red Beard).
For the next three or four years they lived an improvised life in the mountains and were frequently visited by Geronimo while he was raiding in Mexico and by most of the Apache scouts who were employed by the U.S. Calvary to track down and capture Geronimo. There were times when Geronimo and some of the scouts were in the stronghold at the same time but they were all visitors in someone elses home so this created an automatic truce, even if the scouts had wanted to capture or kill Geronimo.
No one other than Apaches, Tangileto and a small number of local Mexicans were ever aware of the lost ones and none of the Lost Ones has ever appeared on any Reservation rolls.
After four or five years, the crops they had been planting began to improve and each year they were able to cultivate more and more ground and raise more food. Their herd of cattle and horses had increased, partly to the natural process,and partly because Geronimo had brought them some he had stolen.
They had also started to work a gold mine near Pa-Gotsin-Kay which they had known about for a number of generations, and they called itSno-Ta-He(just lying there). Until this time, gold had very little value to the Apache, and knowledge of it would only have brought hordes of rock scratchers (Prospectors)to the area. With the gold they were to buy almost everything they needed which they could not raise, as long as it could be transported by pack mule to get it home. They had also befriended Bill Green and his chief of security, Doreto Arango (Poncho Villa).
By 1885 The son of Taza had been elected chief of the lost ones and since he was already hereditary chief this made it a permanent position. His name was Ciye Nino Cochise.
What the U.S. Government called the Apache campaign was started in 1870 and had been executed using a multitude of manpower and supplies along with deceit, half truths, and outright un-truths. It took the U. S. Government and the Mexican government fifteen years to subdue less than one thousand Indians, of which about one third were warriors and to put it mildly, This three hundred and fifty or so warriors were not as well equipped or supplied as were the conquerors.
The Lost Ones and chief Nino in particular were kept in a state of confusion. They did not want war with anyone, but were a compassionate people to non enemies, so they allowed any Indian to stop and rest a number of days or weeks as they came by in their flight from the U.S. or Mexican calvary. Their group had increased, partly due to new arrivals who had become disillusioned with reservation life, and partly by non Apache Indians who had come by and decided to stay. The scouts for the calvary still came by to visit and rest but the command was never aware of the Lost Ones.
After Geronimo, Who was never captured, surrendered and had been shipped to Florida, along with all the scouts who had been employed as scouts and any other Apache who Gen. Miles thought might have been hostile in the past, and imprisoned there, then relations in Arizona began to become less strained.
Chief Nino waited another five years before he would go back to Arizona to buy supplies or visit what relatives were still confined to the reservations there, and then he went disguised as a Mexican most of the time.
The clan existed for a total of fifty six years before it was disbanded and the people went their separate ways.
AUTHORS NOTE; The Apache Indians, like most, have a process for adapting and I was adapted by Chief Cochise when I was forty five years old. This may seem odd to White people, but Papa was one hundred and seven at the time so I was not much more than a child to him. This adaption allowed Papa to pass on to me by word of mouth a lot of Apache history which we don't tell non Apaches. I just wish I had been allowed to use a recorder or better yet a cam-corder.
