Chiricahua is a band of Apache Native Americans.
Gerónimo was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands – the Tchihende, the Tsokanende and the Nednhi – to carry out numerous raids, as well as fight against Mexican and U.S. military campaigns in the northern Mexico states of Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern American territories of New Mexico and Arizona.
Cochise was the leader of the Chiricahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of a Chiricahua Apache. A key war leader during the Apache Wars, he led an uprising that began in 1861 and persisted until a peace treaty was negotiated in 1872. Cochise County is named after him.
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexican–American War in 1846, the United States annexed conflicted territory from Mexico which was the home of both settlers and Apache tribes. Conflicts continued as American settlers came into traditional Apache lands to raise livestock and crops and to mine minerals.
Mangas Coloradas or Mangus-Colorado, or Dasoda-hae was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Mimbreño (Tchihende) division of the Central Apaches, whose homeland stretched west from the Rio Grande to include most of what is present-day southwestern New Mexico. He was the father-in-law of Chiricahua (Tsokanende) chief Cochise, Mimbreño chief Victorio, and Mescalero (Sehende) chief Kutu-hala or Kutbhalla. He is regarded as one of the most important Native American leaders of the 19th century because of his fighting achievements against the Mexicans and Americans.
Apache Pass, also known by its earlier Spanish name Puerto del Dado, is a historic mountain pass in the U.S. state of Arizona between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains at an elevation of 5,110 feet (1,560 m). It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-southeast of Willcox, Arizona, in Cochise County.
Fort Bowie was a 19th-century outpost of the United States Army located in southeastern Arizona near the present day town of Willcox, Arizona. The remaining buildings and site are now protected as Fort Bowie National Historic Site.
Thomas Jefferson Jeffords was a United States Army scout, Indian agent, prospector, and superintendent of overland mail in the Arizona Territory. His friendship with Apache leader Cochise was instrumental in ending the Indian wars in that region. He first met Cochise when he rode alone into Cochise's camp in 1871 to request that the chief come to Canada Alamosa for peace talks. Cochise declined at least in part because he was afraid to travel with his family after the recent Camp Grant Massacre. Three months later he made the trip and stayed for over six months during which time their friendship grew while the negotiations failed. Cochise was unwilling to accept the Tularosa Valley as his reservation and home. In October 1872, Jeffords led General Oliver O. Howard to Cochise's Stronghold, believed to be China Meadow, in the Dragoon Mountains. Cochise demanded and got the Dragoon and Chiricahua Mountains as his reservation and Tom Jeffords as his agent. From 1872 to 1876, there was peace in southern Arizona. Then renegade Apaches killed Nicholas Rogers who had sold them whiskey and the cry went out to abolish the reservation and remove Jeffords as agent. Tom Jeffords embarked on a series of ventures as sutler and postmaster at Fort Huachuca, head of the first Tucson water company trying to bring artesian water to that city, and as prospector and mine owner and developer. He died at Owl Head Buttes in the Tortolita Mountains 35 miles north of Tucson.
Kas-tziden or Haškɛnadɨltla, more widely known by his Mexican-Spanish appellation Nana, was a warrior and chief of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apache. A trusted lieutenant to Cuchillo Negro and Mangas Coloradas, in the 1850s and 1860s he was one of the best known leaders of the Chihenne (Tchiende), along with Tudeevia, Ponce and Loco. He was a nephew of Delgadito, and married a sister of Geronimo.
Bernard John Dowling Irwin was an assistant army surgeon during the Apache Wars and the first Medal of Honor recipient. His actions on February 13, 1861, are the earliest for which the Medal of Honor was awarded.
The Battle at Apache Pass is a 1952 American Western film directed by George Sherman. The stars are John Lund as United States Army Maj. Colton and Jeff Chandler repeating the role of Apache chief Cochise, whom he had played two years earlier in 20th Century Fox's Broken Arrow. Jay Silverheels also reprised his role of Geronimo from the same film.
The Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma is the federally recognized Native American tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache in Oklahoma.
The Battle of Pinos Altos was a military action of the Apache Wars. It was fought on September 27, 1861, between settlers of Pinos Altos mining town, the Confederate Arizona Guards, and Apache warriors. The town is located about seven miles north of the present day Silver City, New Mexico.
Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón was a presidio located within Tucson, Arizona, United States. The original fortress was built by Spanish soldiers during the 18th century and was the founding structure of what became the city of Tucson. After the American arrival in 1846, the original walls were dismantled, with the last section torn down in 1918. A reconstruction of the northeast corner of the fort was completed in 2007 following an archaeological excavation that located the fort's northeast tower.
The Battle of Fort Buchanan was an Apache attack on the United States Army post of Old Fort Buchanan in southern Arizona Territory, which occurred on February 17, 1865. Though a skirmish, it ended with a significant Apache victory when they forced the small garrison of California Volunteers to retreat to the Santa Rita Mountains. Fort Buchanan was the only American military post conquered during the war against the Chiricahua.
Geronimo Campaign, between May 1885 and September 1886, was the last large-scale military operation of the Apache wars. It took more than 5,000 US soldiers, led by the two experienced US Army generals, in order to subdue no more than 70 Chiricahua Apache who fled the San Carlos Reservation and raided parts of Arizona and Sonora in Mexico for more than a year.
Chato was a Chiricahua Apache subchief who carried out several raids on settlers in Arizona in the 1870s. His Apache name was Bidayajislnl or Pedes-klinje. He was a protege of Cochise, and he surrendered with Cochise in 1872 going to live on the San Carlos Reservation in southern Arizona, where he became an Apache Scout. Following his service as a scout he was taken prisoner after being coerced to travel to Washington, D.C. Chato was imprisoned in St. Augustine, Florida along with almost 500 other Apache at Fort Marion.
Mickey Free, birth name Felix Telles, was an Apache Indian scout and bounty hunter on the American frontier. Following his kidnapping by Apaches as a child, he was raised as one and became a warrior. Later he joined the US Army's Apache scouts, serving at Fort Verde between December 1874 and May 1878 and was given the nickname Mickey Free.
Chihuahua or Chewawa, whose apache name was really (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Kla-esh or Tłá'í'ez ), was chief of the Chokonen local group of the Tsokanende Band of Chiricahua Apache who carried out several raids on settlers in Arizona in the 1870s and 1880s. His elder brother Ulzana, who would later become known as leader of a very famous raid through New Mexico and Arizona in 1885, was his war chief (segundo).
The Geronimo Surrender Site is situated above Skeleton Canyon in southeastern Arizona, on a small bluff. Overlooking the canyon, the San Bernardino Valley and San Simon Valley can be seen to the east and west. The actual site is marked by a cairn of rocks, which was erected by Lieutenant Henry W. Lawton, on the spot where Geronimo surrendered to General Nelson A. Miles in 1886.
