Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/490



THE SIERRA MADRE CAMPAIGN AND THE CHIRICAHUAS—"CHATO'S" RAID—CROOK'S EXPEDITION OF FORTY-SIX WHITE MEN AND ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE INDIAN SCOUTS—THE SURPRISE OF THE APACHE STRONGHOLD—THE "TOMBSTONE TOUGHS"—THE MANAGEMENT OF THE CHIRICAHUAS—HOW INDIANS WILL WORK IF ENCOURAGED—GIVING THE FRANCHISE TO INDIANS; CROOK'S VIEWS—THE CRAWFORD COURT OF INQUIRY—"KA-E-TEN-NA'S" ARREST ORDERED BY MAJOR BARBER—TROUBLE ARISES BETWEEN THE WAR AND INTERIOR DEPARTMENTS—CROOK ASKS TO BE RELIEVED FROM THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS—SOME OF THE CHIRICAHUAS RETURN TO THE WAR-PATH.

When the Chiricahuas did break through into Arizona in the early days of March, 1883, they numbered twenty-six, and were under the command of "Chato," a young chief of great intelligence and especial daring. They committed great outrages and marked their line of travel with fire and blood by stealing horses from every ranch they were enabled to cover not less than seventy-five miles a day, and by their complete familiarity with the country were able to dodge the troops and citizens sent in pursuit. One of their number was killed in a fight at the "Charcoal Camp," in the Whetstone Mountains, and another—"Panayotishn," called "Peaches" by the soldiers—surrendered at San Carlos and offered his services to the military to lead them against the Chiricahuas. He was not a Chiricahua himself, but a member of the White Mountain Apaches and married to a Chiricahua squaw, and obliged to accompany the Chiricahuas when they last left the agency.

Crook determined to take up the trail left by the Chiricahuas and follow it back to their stronghold in the Sierra Madre, and surprise them or their families when least expected. "Peaches" assured him that the plan was perfectly feasible, and asked per