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Dahteste

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Dahteste
Dahteste in 1886
Chokonen Chiricahua Apache warrior
Personal details
Bornc. 1860 (1860)
Died1955 (aged 94–95)
Mescalero Apache Reservation, New Mexico
RelationsChihuahua (brother-in-law)
NicknameMrs. Coonie

Dahteste[pronunciation?] (circa 1860–1955) was a Chokonen Apache woman warrior.

Family

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Dahteste was the sister of Ilth-goz-ay, the wife of Chihuahua (also known as Kla-esh), chief of the Chokonen local group of the Chokonen band of the Chiricahua.

Career

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In her youth she rode with Ye'ezi's band in southeastern Arizona. Despite being married with children, Dahteste took part in raiding parties with her first husband Ahnandia. She was later a compatriot of Geronimo and companion of Lozen on many raids. Dahteste was fluent in English and acted as messenger and translator for the Apache. With Lozen, she became a mediator and trusted scout at times for the U.S. Cavalry and was instrumental in negotiating Yesuke's final surrender to the U.S. Cavalry in 1886.[1]

Prison

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She spent eight years as prisoner of war at Fort Marion in St. Augustine in Florida, where she survived pneumonia and tuberculosis. Thereafter she was shipped to a military prison in Fort Sill, Oklahoma.[2] During the confinement she and Ahnandia divorced in the "Apache way".[example needed][3]

Later life

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After nineteen years of imprisonment at Fort Sill, Dahteste lived out the rest of her life at Whitetail on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. She married a former Apache Scout named Kuni, dressed traditionally and refused to speak English. She was known to others as "Old Mrs. Coonie" until her death in 1955.[4][5]

Literature

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  • Karl Lassiter, The Warrior's Path, Kensington Publishing Corporation, 1998.
  • Philippe Morvan, Ours, Calmann-Levy, 2018.

References

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  1. ^ Kraft, Louis (2000). Gatewood & Geronimo. UNM Press. pp. 114–116, 163. ISBN 978-0-8263-2130-5.
  2. ^ White, Julia. "Dahteste - Mescalero Apache". Woman Spirit. Archived from the original on 2013-01-26. Retrieved 2013-08-14.
  3. ^ H. Henrietta Stockel: Chiricahua Apache Women and Children: Safekeepers of the Heritage, ISBN 978-0890969212
  4. ^ Ove, Robert S.; Stockel, H. Henrietta (1997). Geronimo's Kids: A Teacher's Lessons on the Apache Reservation. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 15–16, 36–37. ISBN 978-0-89096-774-4.
  5. ^ Stockel, H. Henrietta (2000). Chiricahua Apache Women and Children: Safekeepers of the Heritage. Texas A&M University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-89096-921-2.