Legends of the Old West - APACHE WARS Ep. 1 | “Red Sleeves”

Episode Date: May 27, 2020

Over the course of two centuries, the Apache rise to become the dominant raiding society in the land that will soon become the American states of Arizona and New Mexico. The Apache battle the Spanish empire, and then the new nation of Mexico, and finally begin a decades-long conflict with the United States. In the process, the first great Apache leader of the 1800s gains fame: Mangas Coloradas. Join Black Barrel+ for bingeable seasons with no commercials: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Clouds obscured the moon and stars as Geronimo spoke with 18 of his captains and warriors. A nearby river gurgled past them. Mexican gray wolves came to the river for water, and their howls echoed in the evening. Geronimo smoked and talked with his council until morning. As the sun threatened to rise over the terrace mountains, the great Apache warrior was wary of surrender. He was more than fifty years old and a formidable fighter and the most feared Apache on the planet.

His warriors had little strength left. They'd fought for years, and now they were tired and lonely. They wanted to surrender and rejoin their families, many of whom were already living on reservations. Geronimo and his people had little hope for survival on their own. Beyond the mountains, more than 5,000 American soldiers were in pursuit. That was almost a quarter of the United States Army. And the Mexicans, Geronimo's longtime enemy, sent an additional 3,000 soldiers. Against those odds, the fight seemed pointless to many. One of Geronimo's most trusted captains stood up and agreed with some of the other men.

One of Geronimo's most trusted captains stood up and agreed with some of the other men. He wanted to surrender. Geronimo considered his captain's words and then said, You have been great fighters in battle. If you're going to surrender, there is no use my going without you. I will give up with you. But Geronimo had surrendered before, and he'd always changed his mind and escaped. If he surrendered once and for all, it would end more than 25 years of nearly constant fighting. He'd followed in the footsteps and fought with leaders like Mangus Coloradus, Cochise, and Victorio.

But now they were dead or done fighting. Geronimo was the last. As the sun rose, his commitment to surrender was still in doubt, in spite of what he'd said. But the world would have its answer soon. It would know whether or not decades of fighting in the American Southwest was finally at an end. Fighting that was collectively called the Apache Wars. Apache Wars. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West.

I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this is a four-part series about one of the longest conflicts in American history, the Apache Wars. This is Episode One, Red Sleeves. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere. They have an all-in-one e-commerce platform and in-person POS system.

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Conditions may apply. See in-store for details. Much like the Lakota of the Northern Plains, the Apache did not choose the name that's been used as the label for their people for centuries. Many tribes of the Lakota were, and still are, referred to as the Sioux. But Sioux was the name used by the Lakota's enemies. It means little snakes. It was adopted by white settlers and has stuck with the Lakota ever since. The Apache called themselves simply Diné, like their Navajo neighbors. The word means the people. It was the Zunis who referred to these nomadic warriors as Apache, a word that was adopted and reworked into Apache. It means

enemies. Long before white settlements blossomed on the east coast of a continent that would eventually be called North America, the Apache migrated to the southwest of the landmass. They stretched from present-day Arizona to present-day Texas. But then a group of fierce warriors who would one day be called the Comanche drifted down from the mountains of modern-day Colorado. The Comanche pushed the eastern tribes of the Apache out of Texas, and so the Apache settled in the areas that are now the American states of Arizona and New Mexico. The Apache were a nomadic people, and in these pre-colonial times, they moved almost entirely on foot. They established themselves in the mountains and canyons and plains of the region.

The people as a whole separated into tribes, and each tribe settled in a different location. Like nearly all native tribes, Apache men trained to hunt for much of their lives. As children, they practiced with slings and toy bows. They could kill small game like pack rats until they reached manhood. Only as adults, when their power was strong, were they allowed to kill elk and deer. Some Apache tribes practiced limited farming, but it was nothing like that of their neighbors, the Pueblo. The Pueblo were successful enough in raising corn, beans, and squash that they could live continuously in one

place. They built massive structures out of milled stone in places like Chaco and Mesa Verde. Even today, people travel from all over the world to view these incredible dwellings. It was through these farmers, the Pueblo, that the Apache acquired the horse and became some of the most terrifying raiders in history. After the Spanish conquered Central America and much of South America, they moved north out of what is now Mexico to continue their conquest. They brought with them weapons of frightening power called guns, and strange animals called horses that allowed men to ride on their backs,

and a strange religion called horses that allowed men to ride on their backs, and a strange religion called Christianity. For almost a hundred years, the Spanish clashed with the native tribes they encountered in the soon-to-be American Southwest. These clashes built up to the event that gave birth to the Apache of Old West lore. In 1680, the Pueblo rose up in revolt. They tried to wipe out all semblance of Spanish society. As a part of that effort, they threw open the gates of Spanish corrals. Hundreds of horses galloped out into the landscape.

Those horses were the forerunners of the legendary wild mustangs of the American West. The Apache were the first beneficiaries. They captured some of these horses, and over the next 200 years, they evolved into a raiding society that was unmatched in the Southwest. Initially, raids were conducted solely for the purpose of acquiring goods for trade and staples for survival. They were mostly carried out by small, well-prepared groups who intentionally kept violence to a minimum.

But as the legions of Spanish continued to flood into Apache lands to build their presidios and settlements, Apache raids became more and more violent. Apaches intercepted supply trains and tortured men in spectacularly horrifying ways. They tied wagon drivers to their wagon wheels and burned them with coal and fire. They tied others naked to cacti and left them to die. Some, they flayed alive. But strangely, as these and other gruesome tactics became more common, the act of scalping did not. Ironically, it was introduced to the Apache by the white man. As Anglos moved west from American colonies and southwest from British and French colonies, they encountered the tribes of the plains.

Those tribes practiced the gory art of cutting the scalp off the head of an enemy, live or dead. Anglos soon used the same act in retaliation, and the custom slowly worked its way southwest. Apaches feared the dead and were reluctant to cut the scalps off corpses. But eventually, some Apaches adopted the habit and used the scalps in ceremonies. But they disposed of the scalps the moment the ceremonies ended. They didn't carry them as shrines the way some societies did. As the clashes between the Apache and the Spanish picked up, the Apache realized they had two great advantages, their weapons and their land. The Spanish relied on muskets that were devastating if they hit anything, but they were notoriously inaccurate and slow to load.

The Apache discovered the same thing the Lakota discovered on the northern plains. They could fire many arrows in the time it took a soldier to reload a musket. And then there was the land itself. Much of it was harsh and inhospitable, to the Spanish anyway. The Apache knew every inch, and they knew how to find and make food while the Spanish had to rely on supplies that had to be delivered to them. With the Apache's rapid-fire abilities and quick-strike capabilities and knowledge of the land, they

were a fearsome fighting force. They used these components to establish themselves as the premier raiding society of the Southwest. And as Spanish power declined in the region, the Apache began fighting the Mexicans, until the Americans arrived on the scene. Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808, and that prompted a withdrawal of Spanish troops from the Americas. Two years later, Mexico won its independence from Spain. So as the Apache continued their raids,

they now targeted Mexican farms and villages and businesses. The continuous raids forced some people to make deals with the Apache to leave them alone, but that system didn't last long. Soon, the Mexicans fought back by hiring mercenaries who quickly earned the label, scalp hunters. Mexicans offered $100 for the scalp of an Apache man, $50 for the scalp of a woman, and $25 for the scalp of a woman, and $25 for the scalp of a child.

And as white civilization moved west in the 1830s and 1840s, this bounty program attracted some of the lowest of the low. To fight these mercenaries, a powerful warrior rose up through the ranks of the Apache Society. The warrior was born in 1790 to the Chiricahua tribe in southwest New Mexico. He grew tall and strong, so his people took the Spanish word for strong and began calling him Flerte. He learned to hunt and make war, like all Apache young men. He may have attended a Spanish school, and in his settlement, he learned the traditions of his people. When he got married, he went to live with his mother's people,

as was the custom in Apache society. As he grew older, he became a fierce fighter. He led raids that crippled Mexican settlements, and he became known by the name we call him today, Mangus Coloradus. The nickname happened in the summer of 1837, when Fuerte was 47 years old. He led a series of successful campaigns against the Mexicans. The Mexican government would not let peasants own serious weapons, like guns, probably for fear of a revolt.

As a result, most people in poor villages had nothing but homemade spears for protection. They were easy prey for the Apache. The Apache swooped down on the outmatched villages and inflicted great damage. During the raids in the summer of 1837, Fuerte became known as Mangus Coloradus, which was Spanish for red sleeves. Some said the nickname was a reference to the red shirt he liked to wear in battle. Others thought it was a reference to something more vivid and visceral, the blood that covered his arms after a fight. It was because of these raids, and many others, that Mexicans began to offer bounties for Apache scalps. And Mangus Coloradus didn't just target defenseless villages. He and his men went

after copper mines that were beginning to spring up in southern New Mexico and Arizona. After raiding parties basically shut down operations at one of the mines, the owners called in help. They sent for an Irish immigrant named James Kirker. Kirker was born in Ireland and moved to New York as a teenager. He fought with the American armies in the War of 1812 and later moved west to become a trapper and fur trader. He drifted to the southwest and took a job with a copper mine in southwestern New Mexico.

The copper mines in the area and their hordes of miners and employees invaded the homeland of the Chiricahua Apache, which of course made them prime targets for raids. James Kirker earned a reputation as a skilled fighter during one of these raids. He was riding with a wagon train that was transporting copper ore when a group of Apache attacked. Kirker and the other men in the wagon train successfully fought off the raiding party. This was a rare win for white or Mexican agents, and now Kirker could sell his services as a security expert. Soon, he signed multiple contracts with the governor of the state of Chihuahua in northern Mexico

to fight and kill Apaches. But it didn't take him long to fall out of favor with the Mexican government. He quickly learned that the safest and easiest way to secure passage through Apache lands was to simply bribe the Apache. He started trading weapons for safe passage and the ability to hunt furs in the area. A short time later, he was all but banned from Mexico because of his double dealings. But then Mangus Coloradus attacked the Santa Rita copper mine in southwestern New Mexico, and the owners of the mine came calling.

They offered James Kirker about $100,000 in today's money to come back to the area and fight the Apache. Kirker knew the area well, and he accepted the assignment. He assembled a ruthless team of cutthroats and got ready to deal with Mangus Coloradus. James Kirker's first mercenary selection was a man called Spybuck. He was a mixed-race Shawnee tracker. Spybuck was strong and tall and covered in scars from years of fighting. Spybuck was strong and tall and covered in scars from years of fighting. All told, Kirker hired about 50 trappers to make up his quasi-militia unit.

They all happily accepted the pay, and they were eager for the challenge. They used an age-old tactic to lure the Apache into a trap. They set up a meeting to talk about peace. The meeting took place in a town called Galeana in northern Mexico. A group of Apaches sat down with a group of local Mexican leaders to discuss a stop to the raids that terrorized villages and hurt businesses. While the meeting happened, James Kirker and his mercenaries hid in the area. The meeting ended with a good result, and the delegates celebrated with dancing and whiskey. And that's when Kirker and his men attacked.

They killed 130 Apaches that day. Kirker's first recruit, Spybuck, oversaw the scalping operation. The mercenaries scalped the dead, and then salted the scalps to preserve them until they could be presented to collect bounties. The Mexican population celebrated the slaughter with a parade and a fiesta. Afterward, the priests in town adorned their churches with the Apache scalps. While the Mexicans celebrated, Apache chiefs and key warriors of three tribes met to discuss vengeance. Apache chiefs and key warriors of three tribes met to discuss vengeance. Mangus Coloradus joined the council and so did his son-in-law Cochise. In time Cochise would become a great leader in his own right but for now he was a key warrior

in the attack on the town of Galeana and Cochise was not the only soon-to-be famous leader in the group. An experienced warrior named Golokla joined the group, though he would rise to prominence under the name Geronimo. After the meeting, the men returned to their homes and prepared to fight. They made weapons from their local resources. Bows, arrows, and lances remained their weapons of choice, but they also had a couple muskets. As the Apache prepared to retaliate for the Galeana Massacre, they found an unlikely ally.

America was at war with Mexico over the state of Texas. In the process, the United States wanted to take another huge portion of the continent. continent. As a part of this fight, Christopher Houston Carson traveled to present-day New Mexico to meet with the Apache leader, Mangus Coloradus. Kit Carson was already a famous adventurer and fur trapper, and at the moment, he needed fresh mules for the war effort. Carson brokered a deal with Mangus Coloradus. He said the Apaches and the Americans should work together to fight the Mexicans, or at least they shouldn't work against each other. As long as the Apache didn't attack the Americans, the Americans would not stop the Apache from raiding the Mexicans.

The bands of the Chiricahua Apache agreed, and they set up the attack on Galeana. In the winter of 1846, the Chiricahua all but leveled the town. Then Mangus Coloradus, Cochise, and Geronimo led their warriors to two nearby Presidios. The soldiers in the Mexican garrisons were so scared that they abandoned their positions. The Apache completed their revenge, but they didn't get the man who was largely responsible for the Galeana Massacre. When war broke out between Mexico and America, James Kirker switched sides. He stopped working for the Mexicans and enlisted in a company of American volunteers from Missouri. He was their guide and interpreter.

After his betrayal, the Mexicans put a price on his head, and he thought it was wise to leave the area. He followed the gold trail west to California and settled near San Francisco and died of old age. Kirker's escape was well-timed, and not just because he was a wanted man. The Apache tribes thought they'd found an ally in the Americans, but they were sorely mistaken.

The Americans merely became the newest enemy. After the United States took control of the area that is now the American Southwest, it began 30 years of warfare with the Apache. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo gave much of the Southwest to the United States, and much of that land was the Apacharia, which was the name given to the Apache homeland. The Apache had to adjust to yet another territorial government. First it was the Spanish, then the Mexicans, and now the Americans. And worse yet, the Apache were asked to abide by new international boundaries that cut directly through the land they'd raided for years. Mangus Colorados was confused when he was visited by a United

States Boundary Commissioner. The Commissioner told him to stop making raids into Mexico. Boundary Commissioner. The Commissioner told him to stop making raids into Mexico. The Apache leader didn't understand the change in the American's position. A couple years ago, during the war, they told him he could raid into Mexico all he wanted. Now they told him to stop. Unbeknownst to him, the request was part of the agreement between Mexico and America. And it was made more difficult because there was now an invisible line between Mexico and the United States. It was aggravating enough to be told that he couldn't raid into Mexico, but now there was a very specific place where Mexico stopped and the United States started. Like all native tribes, the concept of formal boundaries was

strange and foreign, and the Apache had an additional problem with the Americans. The Americans took away Mexican captives that had been collected by the Apache. The U.S. Commissioner tried to compensate the Apache in the form of trade goods, but it wasn't enough. And then the fragile peace between the Americans and the Apache took another hit when an American killed an Apache after an argument. The US commissioner tried to dispense justice, but again it fell short of Apache expectations. The relationship between the two groups was off to a rocky start, and it only got worse. And then the Mexican army inserted itself into the mix, and tensions in the southwest

turned into an undeclared war. Mangus Coloradus made a pact with his neighbors, the Navajo. He married some of his daughters into Navajo bands, and the Navajo agreed to fight with him. He led a combined force of Apache and Navajo on raids across New Mexico. They attacked travelers along the Rio Grande and ambushed companies of U.S. cavalry. For a brief moment, the Apache had the United States on its heels. But then Mexico sent 500 soldiers against the Chiricahua, and Mangus Coloradus quickly realized he couldn't wage war against the U.S. and Mexico at the same time. Mangus Coloradus met with Lieutenant Colonel

Edwin Sumner to discuss a peace agreement with the U.S. Sumner was about the same age as the Apache chief and maybe just as tough. Years earlier, he'd picked up the name Bullhead for supposedly surviving a musket ball shot to the skull during the Mexican-American War. shot to the skull during the Mexican-American War. The U.S. commander and the Apache chief sat down to negotiate. Sumner asked Mangus Coloradus to stop his raids into Mexico. Again, the Apache warrior was confused. He couldn't understand why the Americans were so fascinated with these imaginary lines.

Nevertheless, he knew that cooperation with the Americans would yield compensatory goods. But the tangible thing that probably spelled doom for the relationship between the U.S. and the Apache was the Gadsden Purchase. Six years after the Mexican-American War, the United States completed its southern border by buying nearly 30,000 square miles from Mexico. by buying nearly 30,000 square miles from Mexico. This included the bottom third of the modern state of Arizona and the southwest corner of New Mexico. In essence, the U.S. bought everything from Yuma, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico. But in essence for the Apaches,

the U.S. had just bought the homeland of the Chiricahua, the land of Mangus, Colorado, Cochise, and Geronimo. One of the many incidents that led to 25 years of open hostility in the Southwest was the unfortunate killing of Henry Dodge. He was an Indian agent for the Navajo, and he seemed to be one of the few who was genuine and honest. He loved Navajo culture, and he learned the language and married a Navajo woman. Henry hailed from a successful Missouri family. His father was a general, and his brother was a U.S. senator. And in November of 1856, Henry Dodge was killed by Apaches.

He'd been riding with a column of cavalry when he split off to go hunting. He was never seen again, but tracks in the area indicated he'd been swarmed by Apaches. His remains were discovered two months later. News of his death spread across the country. News of his death spread across the country. Six months later, in May of 1857, vengeful American soldiers mounted an incursion into New Mexico. As they got close to the Gila River,

the soldiers saw that the woods were engulfed in flames. Mangus Coloradus had set the forest on fire and then taken his people to Mexico. So the soldiers found a different target. They came across a chief named Cuchillo Negro, which was Spanish for black knife. The chief was driving sheep up from Mexico when he was attacked and killed along with a handful of his warriors. More reprisals happened near Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona. In less than an hour, three companies of cavalry killed 24 Apache fighters. The soldiers took 26 women and children prisoner. Shortly after these events, an army camp was built at the base of Mount Graham that was eventually designated Fort Grant.

Almost exactly 20 years later, a young runaway named Henry McCarty killed his first man, and it happened at Fort Grant. Almost exactly 20 years later, a young runaway named Henry McCarty killed his first man, and it happened at Fort Grant. Within three years of the killing, he'd be one of the most famous outlaws in America, and known by the name Billy the Kid. Four years after the murder of Henry Dodge and the Army reprisals, an Apache leader led a raid against a ranch in southern Arizona. The Apache found plenty of horses and mules, but no adults to defend the land. Only a young boy guarded the field. When several cowboys rode out to engage the Apaches, one of the warriors grabbed the boy and took off. The cowboys chased the warriors in a desperate bid to save the boy, but it was too late. The Apache were gone.

The next day, the boy's father went to the American military for help. The commanding officer assigned to find the missing boy was George Bascom, a recent West Point graduate. Almost immediately, the young soldier made a mistake that led to more than two decades of war between the army and the Chiricahua Apache. At the center of these early stages of fighting was the young warrior Cochise. He rose to lead the Apache and became an even greater warrior than his father-in- West, Mangus Coloradus meets a tragic end while searching for peace. Cochise goes to war

to save his family, and the Apache are drawn into the American Civil War as the North and the South fight over roads through the West. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. This season was researched and written by Jason Strykowski. Script editing by Christopher Markakis. Audio editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. I'm your co-writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, Black Barrel Media, for more details. And join us on social media.

We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Thanks again. We'll see you next week.