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The Warm Spring Band of Apaches (Historic).

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From Wikipedia Article, Fort Sill Apache Tribe.

The Fort Sill Apache Tribe is composed of Chiricahua Apache, who were made up of 4 bands:

Chihende (Chinde, Chihenne – ‘Red Painted People’, known as Warm Springs Apache Band or Gila Apaches, Eastern Chiricahua) Chukunende (Chokonende, Chokonen – ‘Ridge of the Mountainside People’, known as Chiricahua Band, proper or Central Chiricahua) Nde’ndai (Ndénai, Nednai, Ndé'ndai – ‘Enemy People’, ‘People who make trouble’, sometimes known as Pinery Apache Band, known as Sierre Madre Apaches, Southern Chiricahua) Bidánku (Bedonkohe – ‘In Front of the End People’, Bi-da-a-naka-enda – ‘Standing in front of the enemy’, sometimes known as Bronco Apache Band, known as Mogollon Apaches or Gila Apaches, Northeastern Chiricahua)

It appears as if in 1869 and 1870 bands of Apaches were "fed at Canada Alamosa", meaning the area surrounding Ojo Caliente, at the north end of the Canada Alamosa. These bands lived in this area until about 1872-3 when they were transferred against their will to a reservation selected at Tularosa by Vincent Colyer. They lived in the Tularosa area in discontent and trouble until 1872-3. In 1874 they were returned to near Ojo Caliente, living there in comparative quiet until 1877 in an area centered on Ojo Caliente, called the "Hot Springs Reservation". Then the unwise "concentration policy" caused the Hot Springs Reservation to be abandoned, and the group now called the "Hot Springs Band" of about 450 in number were forcibly removed to the San Carlos Agency in Arizona. From this time until 1882, the leading warriors of the "Hot Springs Band" (Victorio, Nana, Lozen, Loco) led successive out breaks and raids until they were either killed on deported with their relatives, the Chiracuahua band to Florida, then Alabana, and then Fort Sill.

Bancroft says on p. 710,711 in a footnoted that says an Act of the 16th Assembly, 1866-67 declared the Canada Alamosa hot springs to be a public spring, free for all for baths, but this I think this refers to another more accessible and popular hot springs elsewhere than in Apache country.

On January 17, 1863 Carlton's forces lured the Eastern Chiricahua (EC) chief, Mangas Coloradas, into custody under a flag of truce, and promise of treaty talks. He was then taken as a prisoner. During the night he was tortured and shot. This was followed by a series of attacks on the Eastern and Central Chiricahuas. By May 1865 Carlton thought the EC were sufficiently weakened to agree to move to the Bosque, and he made an ultimatum to them to move. Victorio and other chiefs demanded to see the Bosque before they consented to the move. A delegation of leaders was chosen but they did not appear at the appointed place and time. By late 1866 Carlton's harsh policies had been discredited and he was transferred to other commands. The Indian agents again undertook to calm the apache bands. By 1869 a large number of EC were camping around Canada Alamosa, waiting to see what reserve the government would set aside for them. Loco and other chiefs asked that the reservation be set in the vicinity of the Ojo Caliente Warm Springs. However settlers had moved in on the lands west of the Rio Grande Valley, during the last decade and many had squatted on their land and they did not want to be dispossessed. Vincent Colyer, a special commissioner apointed by President Ulysses S. Grant to set up reserves for the western Indians arrived. The EC had fled into the mountains in fear of attack. Colyer spoke to the settlers, particularly those in Canada Alamosa and determined that a reservation in proximity to a reservation would generate friction, and that it would be too expensive to pay the settlers for the improvements they claimed ot have made. As an alternative he chose another site, further west in the Tularosa Valley and surrounding highlands, near the Arizona Border.

Lt. General Phillip A. Sheridan then ordered the Indians at Canada Alamosa area and all roaving bands in New Mexico to report to the Tularosa. Those who failed to comply would be attacked as hostiles. (New Mexico under army jurisdiction?). Of the 1600 being fed at Canada Alamosa, only about 450 were found by the Army. Among these who were at CA was Cochise, who refused to comply and left for his old country. In 1872 a determined effort was made to settle Cochise and his Chiricahuas on a reservation, and this was accomplished by General O.O. Howard with the help of Thomas Jeffords, which established a reservation in the south western part of Arizona. The troubles on the other agencies plagued the Chiricuahua Reservtion. Many members of the Warm Sprigns band, unhappy with life on the Tularosa agency, simply left and traveled to the CR, and depleted the rations. The Chiricuahua Reservation was close to the border with Mexico, and all thefts in northern Mexico were charged to the Indians of this reservation. Also, because with Tom Jeffords as the agent, the Indians had a much larger degree of autonomy and the Chiricahua Reservation became a refuge for all the Hot Springs band who were unhappy at Tularosa, as well as White Mountain Apaches (Coyoteros) who had long standiing enmities with other San Carlos Indians.

In 1874 the failure of the Tularosa Velley reserve was admitted. The government agreed to establish a reservation at Canada Alamosa. Cochise was asked to move there with his followers. He refused, but died soon afterward. After his death the civilian Indian Agent at San Carlos, John Clum, arrived with armed troops and announced that the CR was being aboloished and he was instructed to escort their inhabitants to San Carlos. Although about 1000 Indian persons had been present on the CR, by the time Clum rounded up the remaining Indians on June 12, 1876 there were only 42 men, and 480 women and children.

The Hot Springs Reservation now attracted many displaced and disaffected Chiricahuas, and so in the next year it suffered the same fat. On April 20, 1877 John Clum arrived with an armed force to compel teh Apaches living at Hot Springs to march to San Carlos. Geronimo, who had fled from the Chricahua Reservation to avoid being compelled to go to San Carlos was captured by Clum at the Hot Springs Agency, arrested and taken to San Carlos in Irons, where he was subjugated to confinement and hard labor for some time.

San Carlos was hot and humid. The Reservation wsa operated by civilian aministrators and also by military officers, but they quarrelled constantly over lines of authority. Leaders of bands who had been unchallenged in their authority were now in conflict with leaders in other groups. The Apaches were in bands that were living now in close proximitity other bands with whom they had feuds in the past. The Army officers maintained an Indian Police force but supplied themselves with information through favorite informers. Indians were encouraged to spy on their fellows. Once accused punishements were harsh and arbitrary. The reservation was subject to rumors and fear. The civilians who had contracted with the government to feed the Apaches increased their profits by a series of swindles. These swindles by civilian contractors were so profitable that the Indian Agent became implciated, and even the commissioner of Indian affairs was found to be manipulating Apache reservaton assetts to his own interest and was dismissed in disgrace.

In early September 300 bolted the reservation. 187 were discovered at Ft. Wingate and they were taken as captives to Hot Sprrings where there was still a military post. Other wandering groups were sent to join them. A year later in 1878 it was announced they would be returned to San Carlos. 80 escaped but in December 1878 53 appeared at Mescalero destitute and begged to be allowed to stay there.

In February 1879 Victoria and 22 followers approached the military post at Hot Springs and offered to surrender if he could stay at Hot Springs. He was pressed to agree to go to Mescalero. He and his party then went back into the nearby San Mateo Mountains, but appeared later at Mescalero and talked with the agent. Reassured by the agent he and his followers were enrolled on the Mescalero reservation along with a sizable number of Chiricahuas who had also fled there. However in July 1879 three indictments were returned against Victorio in Grant County, and he learned of this. A few days later Victorio learned that a hunting party had crossing through the Mescalero reservation that included a judge and prosecuting attorney from Grant County. Victorio interpreted this as preliminary to their arrest, and the alarmed Indians broke out of the reservation, pursued by the military. A bloody war erupted that resulted in the death of Victorio and most of his followers on October 15, 1880 in a battle with Mexican armed forces at Tres Castillos Mexico, where Victorio had been driven by pursuing American forces.

The irony of the costly Victorio campaign ws that it had virtually been decided to restore the Hot Springs reservation for the use of the Chiricahua, when the outbreak from the Mescalaro Reservation occurred and the recommendation was suspended.

External links

• This internet citation has the Congressional edition, Volume 2467, page 567 with the actual language of the three critical executive orders for the Canada Alamosa area first establishing the "Hot Springs Indian Reservation" centered on the Ojo Caliente Hot Springs at the upper end of the Canada Alamosa canyon in 1875, and then canceling that order and restoring the reservation lands to the public domain in 1877.
  • 1) The 4/9/74 Presidential Executive Order of President U.S. Grant that withdrew from sale as public domain federal lands a designated tract in "the valley of the Canada Alamosa" near "the present town of Canada Alamosa" for the "such Indians as the Secretary of the Interior may see fit to locate thereon";
  • 2) The 12/21/75 Presidential Executive Order of President U.S. Grant setting apart an even larger parcel of lands "for the use and occupancy of the Southern Apache and such other Indians to be known as the 'Hot Springs Indian Reservation:'".
  • 3) The 8/25/77 Presidential Executive Order of President R.B. Hayes vacating the previous executive order of 12/21/75, thereby terminating the "Hot Springs Indian Reservation" and returning the land to the public domain.[1]

Notes: 1. Reflects complete integration of Warm Springs band of the Membrenos and Mogollon and Gilenos into Chircauhua, absorbed after scattering and defeats of Warm Spring bands. 2. Shows alternative ways to spell "Red Paint People"