Apaches: the most desperate of the Indians (11 photos)

The Apaches are considered the best "guerrillas" in the world. The conquest of these Indians required the US Army to wage long and exhausting "Apache Wars" that began in 1849 and finally petered out only by the 1910s.





Apache, group photo, 1880s

The Apache tribes lived in what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, northwestern Texas, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. This was a territory where all the locals were regularly terrorized by the warrior squads of this tribe. Although the whites did not differentiate between a robbery raid and a major war, for the Apaches, a simple horse theft, even if accompanied by the murder of their owners, was not considered a war - just part of everyday life...

The Indians of the Great Plains formed three powerful confederations of tribes: the Blackfeet with allies in the north, the Sioux with the Arapaho and Cheyenne in the central part, the Comanches with the Kiowa - in the south. These were powerful peoples, whose camps could stretch for kilometers and consist of hundreds of wigwams. But their conquest did not cause the Americans even half the trouble that the Apaches could cause.



The Apaches went to work

Compared to their neighbors, the Apaches were poor. They did not have huge herds of horses, like the Sioux or Cheyenne. These Indians lived in the mountains in small tribal groups (of which there are about 30), on average 20-30 people. The fact is that the land that the Apaches got was extremely harsh even by Indian standards - a desert with rare rains and a small number of water sources, large groups simply could not feed themselves there. But this land produced excellent warriors!





Nalto - Chief of the Western Apaches. Arizona 1880s

How did such fearsome fighters grow up? Let's start with the fact that Apaches never beat children. A guilty boy could be forced to run to the top of the nearest mountain and back - and he would feel his mistake and train his endurance. However, not only a boy: Apaches made no difference in the upbringing of boys and girls until they were 10-11 years old. Then the boys began to learn hunting and war, and the girls — housework (however, Apache women could also take up arms if necessary).



If you train a fighter from childhood, there will be results!

In archery, they taught a teenager the ability to shoot seven arrows: when the first one hit the ground and the last one came off the bowstring, there should be five more in the air. Since the Apaches did not have hereditary leaders, they tried to instill in each boy leadership qualities and the ability to organize military operations, for example, a boy who found a wasp nest could gather a "war council" of his peers: "We heard that vile creatures live there, let's declare war on them!"



The knife on this squaw's belt is not for cutting bread...

However, life itself among their fellow tribesmen prepared warriors from Apaches. When an Indian from a hostile tribe, an American or a Mexican, was captured by them, the fate of the prisoner was sad: he was given with his hands tied behind his back to women who, even against the background of their merciless fathers, husbands and brothers, were distinguished by sophisticated cruelty. On the other hand, the return of a military detachment from a successful raid was a holiday: with dancing, songs and abundant refreshments.



A squad of Apaches returning from a raid

At 16, a young Apache was taken to war... as an apprentice. The first four campaigns he carried water, chopped wood, looked after horses, cooked food and made beds for the warriors, stood guard while the elders slept. And he learned. Travel at night (Apaches slept during the day at war), run dozens of kilometers with a small stone in his mouth (so that his mouth would not dry out), find water in the driest places, organize ambushes near fires lit in the prairie. After four "training" campaigns, the young Apache became a warrior, "the tiger of the human race" - in the opinion of the American General Crook.



Young Apache warrior

Apache tactics did not involve large battles. They were based on excellent individual training and the intelligent initiative of each individual warrior: any Apache was an "army of one." Apaches usually carried out a surprise raid, stole horses, slaughtered cattle, killed settlers, and burned farms. Their cruelty was beyond all bounds and was monstrous even by the standards of the Indians of the Great Plains, who were far from angels in this regard. Having attacked a traveler in the middle of the prairie, Apaches usually cut his tendons and left him to die. After which they demonstrated miracles of resourcefulness and ingenuity in escaping from pursuit by a cavalry detachment of the US Army or local militia.

When escaping pursuit, an Apache detachment would suddenly change direction, could drive or slaughter their horses in order to cross a mountain range on foot and steal new ones on the other side. The Apaches were also aware of the weaknesses of the American army: for example, dependence on a supply train. As a result, a common tactic was to go behind the pursuers, cut out and plunder the supply train, thereby forcing the soldiers to return - the Apaches themselves did not need supplies: anyone could even catch a rabbit or a rat in the desert, roast and eat it, and if not, well - an adult warrior could go without food for up to 15 days.



Ambush in the mountains - a favorite Apache tactic

If the pursuit caught up, the Apaches went into the mountains. No one risked fighting them in the mountains. In 1885, during the pursuit of Chief Geronimo's 11-man detachment, a detachment of 30 Navajo scouts, boldly pursuing the Apaches across the prairie, categorically refused to pursue them into the mountains. For them, there was no punishment more terrible than what the Apaches would have inflicted in the mountains.

And the Navajo's actions were completely justified: the Apaches were at home in the mountains. They were excellent at organizing ambushes in gorges - bullets would start flying from both sides of the gorge at a detachment that carelessly poked its head into the mountains, and an ambush awaited the soldiers retreating from the trap at the entrance. Incidentally, the Apache morality in matters of retreat was very... flexible. They never accepted a fight with superior forces if they had the opportunity to escape. But at the same time, having caught an enemy who decided not to accept a fight with superior Apache forces, they tortured him like a coward - a typical "this is different!"

The US Army, having suffered a sufficient number of failures while acting against the Apaches "according to the regulations", began to form mobile units to fight them, equipped "in the Indian way" - without a supply train, with a small supply of water and food on pack horses. These units often included scouts from other Indian tribes, but... There was little sense in this. The use of the old principle - "divide and conquer" allowed them to achieve victory. They set their fellow tribesmen against hostile Apache groups: fortunately, wars between Apaches themselves were commonplace and it was not easy, but very easy to find those willing to defeat the enemy with the help of palefaces. Moreover, many tribes hated them for their boundless cruelty: torture, robbery, collective murder of prisoners.



A wandering coyote is a US Army scout from among the Indians.

The process went especially fast after some of the groups were placed on reservations. The Americans played on the Apache warrior culture. The Apaches placed on reservations received food from the US authorities, who tried to make farmers out of the "tigers of the human race", whom the "tigers" openly despised. But when American officers offered the Apaches living on reservations to take part in a military event, there was no end to the volunteers! After all, only in war could a young warrior gain glory, without which his position in society was nothing.



Equestrian portrait of Geronimo

In 1886, Geronimo himself surrendered to the mercy of the authorities. After that, Arizona and other areas of Apache activity experienced peace. Relative, of course: it is impossible to wean people who have lived by robbery for centuries from this fascinating activity quickly. Therefore, individual episodes of antisocial behavior on the part of the Apaches occurred until the beginning of the 20th century. But these episodes clearly did not qualify as "Apache wars" - they were ordinary crimes.

What was the Apache's strength? Oddly enough, it was their weakness and disunity. Large tribal confederations, capable of fielding thousands of horsemen, were easier to defeat on the battlefield, but most importantly... The chiefs who smoked the peace pipe with the palefaces tried to keep the agreements they had reached. And their authority was enough to ensure that their fellow tribesmen did not question the decision made by the council of chiefs. The Apache lived in small tribal groups, and there was simply no one to conclude an agreement with: having concluded peace with the informal chief of one group, one could count on the fact that he would personally fulfill the agreement, and this was in the best case.

From a military point of view, the problem was to track down small bands that left no traces, abandoned their horses, and made several thousand miles of marches across the desert on foot (Geronimo's detachment once walked 2.5 thousand miles in 8 weeks). And in case of danger, they dissolved into the mountains, which they knew like the back of their hand.



Apache.

The history of the Apache Indians ends sadly - on reservations. Back in 1863, the US Congress approved the "Indian Removal Act". But reservations were often created in places unsuitable for agriculture. In 1868, General Sheridan uttered his cannibalistic aphorism "a good Indian is a dead Indian". It immediately became the slogan of the American army, "liberating" the Wild West from its native inhabitants.

Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov wrote in their book "One-Story America": "The governments that destroyed the Indians are now trying to preserve their small offspring. The Americans are even a little proud of their Indians. The director of the zoo is proud of a rare specimen of an old lion. The proud beast is very old and no longer dangerous, his claws have become dull, his teeth have fallen out. But his skin is beautiful."