PIONEER WOMAN KIDNAPPED BY INDIANS

Back in years 1937-1939, as part of the New Mexico Federal Writers’ Project, Edith Crawford, the representative in Lincoln County, collected a number of interviews of Lincoln County pioneers.  These were never published and lost until the collection was brought to the attention of the Lincoln County Historical Society.  This vignette is based on that work and taken from the actual words spoken by the subject.

Jose Apodaca’s parents, Severanio and Juanita, moved to Agua Azul, on the south side of the Capitan Mountains, in 1872.  They built a two roomed hut and had a few horses and cattle.  The following story was told to Jose when he was just a boy.

Early in January, 1873, Marcial Rodriguez and Severanio went on a hunting trip.  “They got up at daybreak and went out to look for their horses.”  The men had to cross a flat between the mountain and a big arroyo.  The junipers in that area had limbs that were very close to the ground.  “While my father and Marcial were crossing this flat a band of Indians were hidden in the juniper trees and, as the men came out in the open, the Indians began shooting at them.”

In our last installment we learned that Severanio escaped the Indian attack and made it to the Casey Ranch.  The Casey’s formed a posse and sent word up and down the Rio Bonito for every man who could go to meet at Agua Azul to fight the Indians.

Jose Apodaca continues, “The posse left the Casey Ranch just at day break and went as fast as possible to Father’s house to see about my mother, who was expecting a baby.  When they got there they found that the Indians had been there and taken my mother away with them.  The posse, headed by my father, took up the trail of the Indians.  When they got to the flat at Agua Azul they found the body of Marcial Rodriguez.  The Indians has scalped him and cut off his right arm.  The posse dug a grave and buried him where he lay.  By this time several others had joined them and they started out after the Indians again.  They overtook them at the west end of the Capitan Mountains and the Indians and the posse had a fight.  Several of the Indians were killed but some got away.”

Someone in the posse noticed two Indian women on the side of the mountain and a white woman with them.  We’ll learn what Jose Apodaca told about that in our next installment in two weeks.