Victorio: Apache Warrior and Chief

by Kathleen P. Chamberlain

Overview

A steadfast champion of his people during the wars with encroaching Anglo-Americans, the Apache chief Victorio deserves as much attention as his better-known contemporaries Cochise and Geronimo. In presenting the story of this nineteenth-century Warm Springs Apache warrior, Kathleen P. Chamberlain expands our understanding of Victorio’s role in the Apache wars and brings him into the center of events.

Although there is little documentation of Victorio’s life outside military records, Chamberlain draws on ethnographic sources to surmise his childhood and adolescence and to depict traditional Warm Springs Apache social, religious, and economic life. Reconstructing Victorio’s life beyond the military conflicts that have since come to define him, she interprets his character and actions not only as whites viewed them but also as the logical outcome of his upbringing and worldview.

Chamberlain’s Victorio is a pragmatic leader and a profoundly spiritual man. Caught in the absurdities of post–Civil War Indian policy, Victorio struggled with the glaring disconnect between the U.S. government’s vision for Indians and their own physical, psychological, and spiritual needs.

Graced with historic photos of Victorio, other Apaches, and U.S. military leaders, this biography portrays Victorio as a leader who sought a peaceful homeland for his people in the face of wrongheaded decisions from Washington. It is the most nearly complete and balanced picture yet to emerge of a Native leader caught in the conflicts and compromises of the nineteenth-century Southwest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780806184609
Publisher:	University of Oklahoma Press
Publication date:	04/03/2012
Series:	The Oklahoma Western Biographies , #22
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Kathleen P. Chamberlain, Professor Emerita of History at Eastern Michigan University, is the author of In the Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War and Under Sacred Ground: A History of Navajo Oil, 1922–1982.

Read an Excerpt

Victorio

Apache Warrior and Chief

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By Kathleen P. Chamberlain

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS

Copyright © 2007 University of Oklahoma Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-8460-9

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CHAPTER 1

In the Beginning

ON the last morning of his life, October 10, 1880, Victorio watched the night sky change color ever so slightly. With dawn perhaps an hour away, the all-embracing ebony became a canopy of deep charcoal and then gradually grew lighter until threads of pale gray appeared to announce the impending sunrise. At any moment, Victorio knew that gunfire would explode around him and destroy the serenity of the desert. General Joaquin Terrazas's Mexican militia surrounded him and his people, and therefore Victorio dared not stand up or in any way relinquish his meager, rocky hiding place in order to face east and pray, as was customary for an Apache man. He nevertheless dipped into a tiny buckskin pouch that hung around his neck, removed a pinch of hádndín or sacred pollen, and held it between his fingers. Then Victorio lifted his hand in the direction of the slowly rising sun to thank Ussen for his many blessings.

Two hours later, Terrazas's soldiers overwhelmed the craggy hiding place, killed Victorio and most of his band, and took the remaining women and children prisoner. Victorio had undoubtedly anticipated the worst. For one thing, his people were exhausted and dangerously low on ammunition. So, as he greeted that final morning on the desert plains of northern Mexico, Victorio also must have wondered why Ussen and the deities had withdrawn power previously bestowed upon the Apaches. Had Killer of Enemies, along with his white men and guns, finally beaten Child of the Water? Perhaps monsters again walked the land, or maybe it was because his Chihenne people could no longer live on or care for their sacred land. What had he and his people done wrong? His thoughts must have turned, albeit briefly, to the stories that had always sustained the Apache people and supplied all of the answers.

Thus, the story of Victorio's life begins with earlier stories. Indeed, to better understand Victorio—a man who left no written records and few oral accounts—we must go all the way back to the Apache Creation story because it explains his connection to the land, his values, and in fact, what Victorio and his people believed it meant to be Apache. On that October morning in 1880, Victorio knew very well that this story explained his peoples' situation and perhaps had even predicted it. The Creation story gave meaning to the universe and thus embodied the past, present, and future. It opens a window into his essential character, and so we will begin Victorio's story there.

The Apache Creation Story

Victorio never questioned that before there were Apaches, the Creator, Ussen, had made the Apache world, including his beloved home at Warm Springs. Ussen had created the earth and everything on it. He created the vast treeless plains teeming with caribou in the north, where the ancestral Apaches began their American journey, and He made the seemingly unlimited buffalo herds on the great prairies to the south, where Victorio's relatives, the plains Apaches, now lived.

Ussen had fashioned the thick, jade-colored forests and the rugged, nearly impenetrable mountains of southwestern New Mexico, which would one day provide sanctuary for Victorio and his Warm Springs Apache children. Ussen made the cool, glassy springs and streams that bubbled out of the mountains, as well as the sacred hot springs of the Cañada Alamosa region. The white-tailed deer, the stately elk and antelope, the mischievous rabbits and squirrels, even the lowly field mice were all part of Ussen's design, as were the bear, mountain lion, and rattlesnake. Because these were spiritual manifestations, Victorio and his men would one day learn to hunt, in large part, by following specific rituals and prayers and observing well-understood taboos, which honored the Creator and the spirits of the animals. The Creator had also devised the piñon pines, wild strawberries, yucca, and mescal to grow in exactly the right places. He had scattered all of the healing plants and stones for his people to find when they needed these items. Victorio had understood from an early age that Ussen's gifts were blessings and with them came the intrinsic responsibility to care for the land. If for any reason Victorio's people neglected this duty, an imbalance would result. They would endure misfortunes, chaos, and might even cease to exist as a people.

The Creator also placed White Painted Woman and her brother, Killer of Enemies, onto this beautiful and abundant earth. According to the Apache stories, monsters also found their way onto Ussen's domain. Hence, it was a good world, but it was not perfect because the monsters terrorized every living thing. Neither White Painted Woman nor Killer of Enemies dared to come out of hiding for fear of encountering these monsters. The few human beings who lived on the earth at the time could not enjoy the fresh woodlands or bathe in the clear rivers for constant fear of attack. The Warm Springs di-yins or medicine men realized, of course, that "monsters" were both literal and metaphoric. Thus, White Painted Woman and Killer of Enemies feared hideous, savage beasts, but evil came in many packages, including smallpox, drought, and even Mexican soldiers.

The ominous presence of these first monsters filled White Painted Woman with such dread that she hid her younger brother in a dark and isolated cave. Even so, out of sheer desperation, Killer of Enemies periodically armed himself with bow and a quiver of arrows and went in search of deer or elk to eat. Usually, the moment Killer of Enemies brought down his game, the monsters lurking nearby leaped out and stole it. They found great sport in taking the fresh venison or elk and laughing when Killer of Enemies cried. White Painted Woman and her brother faced certain starvation and death at the hands of the monsters. She finally asked Ussen for help in much the same way as Victorio would pray from his hiding place at Tres Castillos. In the case of White Painted Woman, Ussen answered her prayers for help in such a way that all who followed might benefit.

The Apaches, or Indeh as they refer to themselves, tell many versions of this story and of how Water subsequently impregnated White Painted Woman. Victorio undoubtedly had his favorite and over the span of his lifetime had retold it many times. Possibly in his version, she stretched out at the foot of a great waterfall and allowed Water to glide between her legs. Or maybe Victorio preferred the version that said, she begged Ussen to end a withering drought on earth and offered to surrender her own life in exchange for the badly needed rain. Ussen took pity upon her. He summoned Water, who nourished earth and at the same time fathered White Painted Woman's son. In all versions of the story, she named the boy Child of the Water. Besides Ussen the Creator, Child of the Water and White Painted Woman were the most sacred deities to the Apache people. The monsters remained on the prowl, however, and so White Painted Woman felt compelled to conceal her infant inside the secret cave just as she had hidden Killer of Enemies. She knew the monsters would especially delight in feasting upon her child's tender flesh if they detected his presence.

Much to her dismay, one day White Painted Woman found Child of the Water standing bravely outside of the cave asking Lightning for power. "Go back inside," White Painted Woman pleaded. "You are just a boy, and you are taking on a man's task." But Lightning agreed to test the boy. "Face east," Lightning commanded, and suddenly a powerful streak of black lightning lashed at Child of the Water. He barely flinched. "Now face south," Lightning ordered. Blue lightning struck with full force. Again, Child of the Water stood his ground. From the west, streaks of yellow ignited the sky, and lastly, from the north came white lightning. Lightning was impressed. "Your son possesses great stamina and courage," he told White Painted Woman. "I want you to fashion for him four arrows. Make one each of black, blue, yellow, and white." White Painted Woman carried out her task as Lightning commanded. When she finished, she handed the four arrows to her son. From that time on, Victorio's people would honor each of the four cardinal directions as associated with color, holy people, natural phenomenon, and life cycles.

Child of the Water took the arrows and left the cave. He traveled across the earth and stalked each of the monsters individually. He first challenged Owl-Man Giant, who taunted the child and, after laughing, pounced on him with every intention of killing him. Suddenly, Child of the Water reached into his quiver for the black arrow and destroyed Owl-Man with a single shot. Next, Child of the Water pursued Buffalo Monster and slew him with the blue arrow. With the yellow arrow, he killed the Eagle monsters, and finally, he tracked down and used his white arrow to kill Antelope Monster. Now, Child of the Water had vanquished all of the monsters. It was safe for White Painted Woman, Killer of Enemies, and all the human beings to come forward and live happily upon Ussen's beautiful earth. At this point, however, there were still no Apaches. Victorio's people had not yet arrived.

So Ussen placed two weapons—the gun and the bow and arrow—before Killer of Enemies and Child of the Water. Since he was older, Killer of Enemies was allowed to select first. Killer of Enemies picked up the gun. "You are now the chief of the white men," Ussen told him. "Go and find your people." Then, armed with bow and arrows, Child of the Water became the first Apache. Many years would pass before Killer of Enemies and Child of the Water's people would meet again in the American Southwest. In the meantime, Ussen called White Painted Woman and Child of the Water to join him in the Sky Land. But before they did so, the Creator asked them to instruct the Indeh regarding everything—the rituals, songs, prayers, and taboos—necessary for their survival.

Each generation thereafter would pass on these teachings. Like every Apache male, Victorio would learn the Creation and other stories, and these would form his view of the world around him and shape his behavior. One day he would receive Child of the Water's most sacred messages when he made the transition from boy to adult warrior. Similarly, his sisters would hear White Painted Woman's words and seek her blessings during their four-day puberty ceremonies, the most sacred of all Apache rituals. This was White Painted Woman's and Child of the Water's gift to Victorio's ancestors. These stories told them how to care for their land and how to live peacefully. Finally, Ussen assigned new homes to his Apache people. On these lands, he placed game, wild fruits and vegetables, healing plants, and wood for their shelters and their weapons. The climate on Victorio's future homeland was warm and pleasant. Water flowed abundantly. All Indeh received everything they needed to lead happy lives. It was up to them, however, to find their specially chosen, sacred places.

White Painted Woman and Child of the Water feared that, despite all of Ussen's blessings and their sacred instructions, Victorio's people might still need further assistance one day. Therefore, before they traveled to their new home in Sky Land, mother and son asked Ussen to send the Mountain Spirits or the Gááns to finish teaching the ceremonies. After they completed their task, the Gááns drew pictures of themselves upon rocks throughout the Apache landscape and vowed that, whenever needed, they would return to bestow further lessons or assistance. It was the Mountain Spirits' gift to the Apache people. The knowledge that the Gááns lived in a cave deep within the Guadalupe Mountains tied Victorio's Warm Springs people, and indeed all Apaches, even more closely to their assigned homes in the American Southwest. When once asked why the Chiricahua Apaches lived in the sun-baked expanses of the Arizona desert, the great chief Cochise replied without hesitation, "God told them to do so." Therefore, on the last day of his life, when Victorio held his sacred hádndín in his fingers and thanked Ussen, he undoubtedly did so with a sense of remorse for having somehow lost the land over which his people were responsible. He perhaps also wondered which instruction or lesson they had violated. Or had Killer of Enemies returned and a new cycle of fighting monsters begun?

What the Scholars Say

Ussen had selected lands for each of his Apache peoples. He did not, however, automatically place them there. It was up to the people to find their designated place. The first Apaches began their search for the desert and rugged mountain ranges, the well-watered valleys, even the stretches of lava-pocked badlands of southern New Mexico and northern Mexico, at least a thousand years before Victorio was born. In fact, the monsters, caves, and emphasis on direction found in the Apache stories may recall a long-ago and lengthy migration. Although scholars have painstakingly tried to reconstruct this migration, scientific evidence remains scanty.

Cultural anthropologists linguistically classify the Indeh as an Athapascan-speaking people. Shared grammatical features and words link the Apache distantly to such bands still residing in western Canada as the Dogrib and Hare, to the Sarci of southern Alberta, and to the Blackfoot of present-day Montana. Thus, the journey probably began in the Subarctic region of western Canada or eastern Alaska. Some of these early Athapascan speakers undoubtedly trailed the vast caribou herds, which once covered the northern interior, and they lived almost exclusively on a diet of meat. Other Athapascans fished the icy glacial waters of the Great Bear and Great Slave lakes or harvested salmon from the fast-flowing Mackenzie River in today's Northwest Territory.

According to one version of the scholarly story, Victorio's distant ancestors followed the caribou south as the migrating herds tried to escape the coming cycle of global cooling commonly called an Ice Age. Afterward, when the climate finally began to warm again, the caribou shifted back to the north, but not all of the Athapascan people followed them. Some, indeed, trailed the caribou herds north, but others continued traveling southward. Thus, never a united group to begin with, the Athapascans splintered even further.

Another story, however, suggests an entirely different triggering event. In about A.D. 700, a volcano erupted unexpectedly in the St. Elias mountain range along the Alaska and Yukon border with such intensity that massive quantities of volcanic ash spewed across the Yukon and as far east as Northwest Territory. The ash obscured the sunlight for weeks, maybe months. It choked off waterways and suffocated huge numbers of fish. It painted a thick blanket of grit across normally brown and relatively fertile earth. According to this scenario, the eruption and devastating aftermath forced many indigenous peoples to flee. Still other Athapascans began moving south between A.D. 950 and 1000, when a series of cataclysmic earthquakes rocked the Pacific Coast. Large numbers of them settled in the Great Lakes region and eventually became known as the Chippewa groups. Other bands stopped their migration in southern Alberta or Saskatchewan, Montana, or the Dakotas. These became the Sarci, Blackfoot, and Cree. However, those who came to be called the Lipan and Kiowa Apaches continued traveling. Somewhere around present-day Montana or Wyoming, they encountered buffalo herds and followed these animals onto the Great Plains.

Victorio's immediate ancestors progressed slowly down the spine of the Rockies, taking hundreds of years to arrive in the Southwest. Those who eventually became the Mescalero and Jicarilla Apaches probably remained east of the Continental Divide. The future Chiricahuas, Western Apaches, and Navajos perhaps followed a route that kept them west of the Divide. It is noteworthy that Victorio's people would always prefer mountains to flat regions, a trait that survived the long migration. They camped in high valleys whenever they could. They fled to the most isolated, rugged mountain ranges they could find when pursued, and they fought their enemies with a canyon wall or cliff at their backs whenever possible.

The final split between eastern and western Apaches probably occurred no earlier than about A.D. 1300. This would explain the large number of shared cultural characteristics. In many respects, therefore, Victorio's ancestors—the Chiricahuas, or more specifically, the Chihennes—were very much a people in-between because they found their sacred land midway between the Mescalero and the Western Apaches.

The Chiricahua Bands Separate

According to their stories, the Chiricahuas all originated at Warm Springs. More accurately, perhaps, this is where they became Apaches. The mystical, perpetually 110-degree mineral springs offered them great healing powers, and the surrounding canyons protected the people from outsiders. At these springs, they say, White Painted Woman and Child of the Water first handed down their lessons to the Indeh. Here they gave each band its own supernatural gifts of power. Indeed, it was at Warm Springs—which the Spanish called Ojo Caliente—where the people truly became Chiricahua. They never saw themselves as members of a larger or far-reaching nation or tribe, although they acknowledged a degree of kinship. They traded, intermarried, and occasionally—albeit rarely—fought among themselves. Having received their powers and instructions from White Painted Woman and Child of the Water, the various bands had simply departed for the land Ussen assigned them. All traveled to their own rugged yet beautiful environments. Each region was biologically diverse and teeming with delicious wild foods. In most areas, the river bottoms offered women, elders, and children the opportunity to grow corn, beans, pumpkins, and squash. Most important, the Guadalupe Mountains, where the Mountain Spirits resided, were central to all of the Chiricahua people.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Victorio by Kathleen P. Chamberlain. Copyright © 2007 University of Oklahoma Press. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations,
Series Editor's Preface,
Preface,
Acknowledgments,
1. In the Beginning,
2. The Warrior's Path,
3. Encountering the Americans,
4. The Civil War in Apachería,
5. Victorio and the Peace Policy,
6. "Hell's Forty Acres",
7. Victorio's War,
8. Massacre at Tres Castillos,
Bibliographic Essay,
Index,