GERONIMO IN MEXICO “Apaches get back their stock from the Mexicans: 1868”

Most of us know of the Apache leader Geronimo but most of what most of us know we learned at the movies.  Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, Geronimo led the fight against the expansion into Apache tribal lands by the United States during the Apache Wars.  But you knew that much from the movies.  It is true that the greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But the history of the Geronimo’s war parties started in Mexico…and we continue with the story.

In the year 1868 Mexican troops and cowboys rounded up all the horses and mules that the tribe had taken from Mexico.  The animals were not far from the Chiricahua Apache settlement and the Indians were taken by surprise. No raids had been made down into Mexico that year, and the Apaches were not expecting any attacks or reprisals. The Indians were all resting in camp, having just returned from hunting.

About two o’clock in the afternoon, two Mexican scouts were seen near the settlement. The Apaches dispatched these scouts at once, but the Mexican soldiers and vaqueros got under way with the herd of Apache horses and mules before the warriors saw them.  The Indians realized that it was useless to try to overtake the Mexicans on foot, and so the tribe had not one horse left.

Geronimo took twenty warriors and trailed the Mexicans. The Apaches eventually found their horses and mules at a cattle ranch in Sonora, not far from Nacozari, and attacked the Mexican cowboys who were keeping watch over the herd. The Indians killed two Mexican charros and lost no warriors. After the fight the Apaches drove off their own stock and all of the Mexican cowboys’ stock, as well.

The Apaches were trailed by nine Mexican vaqueros. Geronimo sent the livestock on ahead and, with three warriors, stayed in the rear of the war party in order to intercept any attacking parties of Mexicans. One night, when near the Arizona line, Geronimo discovered that the Mexican cowboys were on their trail.  The warriors watched the Mexicans set up camp for the night and picket their horses.  About midnight, the Apaches quietly crept into the Mexican camp and, while the Mexican charros slept, silently led away all their horses.  Once well away, the Indians rode hard and overtook the rest of their compatriots, who always traveled at night instead of in the daytime. Geronimo turned these horses in with the herd and again fell back to intercept anyone who might trail them.

The Mexican cowboys did not follow the Indians and they were not molested. When Geronimo arrived in camp at home there was great rejoicing in the tribe. It was considered a good trick to get the Mexicans’ horses and leave the vaqueros asleep in the mountains.

It was a long time before the Apaches again went into Mexico or were disturbed by the Mexicans.