U.S. Army Completes the Conquest of Apaches

WHITH THE CHIRICAHUAS IN MEXICO and other Apaches in a bad mood, General Crook was reassigned to Arizona. He listened to Indian grievances. Considering the way they were cheated on rations, Crook thought the Apaches had been very patient. Corrupt government contractors were bribing Indian agents to sign for more food than was delivered to the Indian people. Crook let the Indians scatter to the more fertile lands on the reservation so they could farm and become self-supporting.

Meanwhile, Geronimo, Juh, and Nachez led the Chiricahuas in raids north and south of the border. Not until January, 1884, did the combined pressure of American and Mexican soldiers force all the Apaches to surrender and return to San Carlos. Geronimo was angry because all the horses and cattle stolen in Mexico were taken away. He waited for a chance to escape again and looked for an incident to convince his followers to leave with him. That incident came the following year.

In violation of a reservation rule, the Chiricahuas made some tiswin and drank it. Fearing punishment, forty-two men, including Geronimo, fled to Sonora, taking ninety women and children with them. They left a trail of death and burning ranches.

Crook stationed himself at Fort Bowie and sent cavalry and Indian scouts into Mexico to chase Geronimo. Finally Geronimo agreed to meet with Crook just south of the border. He agreed to surrender his band on the condition that they could return to the reservation after two years of imprisonment.

While Crook was returning to Fort Bowie, however, Geronimo and a small group of his warriors bought some mescal from a traveling peddler and got drunk. Then they took off for their hideouts in Mexico.

"Dutchy" was a Chiricahua Apache Indian scout for the U.S. Army.

General Crook sent cavalry and Indian scouts from Fort Bowie into Mexico to find Geronimo.

133

General Crook resigned his Arizona command in disgust and was replaced by General Nelson Miles. For better communication, Miles set up an expensive message relay system. Messages were sent by mirrors from station to station until they got to the destination.

Miles selected a force of about a hundred soldiers and Indian scouts to track down Geronimo. Late in August, Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood met with Geronimo under a flag of truce and secured his promise to meet with Miles. The final surrender took place in Skeleton Canyon north of the border. The Indians were taken to Bowie Station and put on a Southern Pacific train to Florida for exile. Then the peaceful Chiricahuas on the reservation were loaded on a train at Holbrook and sent to Florida.
---see pictures

Baldy Peak Heliograph Station shows how soldiers sent messages from camp to camp with mirror signals. (Painting by Francis H. Beaugureau)

Geronimo is featured in this poster advertising Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show.

Geronimo's Later Life

The Chiricahuas were never permitted to return to Arizona. In 1894 they were moved to Fort Sill in Oklahoma. Geronimo became a Christian for a while and confessed his many bloody deeds committed on the plunder trail. He urged his people to give up dancing and other worldly amusements and to repent for their sins.

Geronimo was in demand as a showman. The War Department permitted him to attend the St. Louis World's Fair. He sold the buttons off his shirt for a quarter apiece and carried a supply of replacements. In 1905 Geronimo rode with other Indians in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade. He died in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909.

Movies, novels, and television have made Geronimo a famous American. His name was
popularized during World War II by paratroopers who yelled "Geronimo!" after
they jumped from an airplane.

134

Allan Houser was a world-famous painter and sculptor. A Chiricahua Apache, he was born at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1915. He was a descendant of Geronimo. In this painting, Houser gives the viewer a feeling of motion and action. He captures on canvas the wildness of the fast-moving, high-stepping horses. You can feel the physical vitality and lively spirit of the Apaches in pursuit.

Wild horses were once free to roam the vast unfenced San Carlos Reservation. As cattle replaced horses on the grasslands, Apaches became known as the "Cowboy Indians of the West."

Like many Native American men, Apaches now wear Levi's, a brightly-colored shirt, boots, and a cowboy hat. They still love horses but are more likely to be seen driving a pickup truck. Peaceful and productive members of society, they work at a variety of occupations—cattle raising, mining, lumbering, tourism, and fighting forest fires. Apache cowboys, however, still ride wild horses at rodeos, a highlight of the annual tribal fair on the reservation.

135
---see maps

Points of Apache-Anglo Contact, 1870s and 1880s

Arizona Indian Reservations
---see picture

A Fort Apache summer shelter shows evidence of interaction with white settlers.

136

Chapter 7 Review

1. 
   What was President Grant's Indian peace policy? Why did many Arizonans object to this policy?
   
2. 
   Explain why the Camp Grant Massacre has been called one of the saddest days in Arizona history.
   
3. 
   Why was Sidney DeLong the only member of the Camp Grant Massacre expedition who was tried?
   
4. 
   Why was Vincent Colyer sent to Arizona?
   
5. 
   What was the most dramatic event of General Howard's visit in Arizona?
   
6. 
   What kind of army did General Crook train in Arizona? How was the army able to defeat the Apaches in the Battle of Skull Cave?
   
7. 
   For what three reasons was General Crook popular in Arizona?
   
8. 
   List four things John P. Clum did for the Apaches that earned their trust.
   
9. 
   Why were many Apaches discontented on the San Carlos Reservation?
   
10. 
    Where were the Chiricahua Apaches sent after Geronimo surrendered? Then what happened to them?
    
11. 
    How was Geronimo made famous?
    
12. 
    What are some things about the Apache man's life that Houser depicts in his painting? What feelings does the painting express?
    

Families who follow the old customs, and can afford the expense, take part in a "Coming of Age" ritual for their teenage daughters. The purpose of this ceremony, called the Sunrise Dance, is to ensure that the girl will enjoy good health, many friends, and a long life.

137

Economic Growth

Water, Mining, Ranching, Lumbering, and Transportation

chapter 8

THE TIME

1863-1912
PEOPLE TO KNOW
Jack Swilling

William Hellings

William Hancock

William J. Murphy

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt

Jacob Hamblin

Ed Schieffelin

Lesinsky brothers

Henry C. Hooker

Dr. James Douglas

Juan Candelaria

Edward E. Ayers

Riordan brothers

Pearl Hart

Albert Steinfeld

P. R. Tully

Estevan Ochoa

John Wesley Powell

Wickenburg

Pipe Spring

Tombstone

Clifton

Morenci

Douglas

Jerome

Apache County

Flagstaff

Casa Grande

Maricopa

Benson

Little Colorado River

transcontinental

opportunist

cultivate

unproductive

divert

glen

integrity

polygamist

supplement

assayer

overproduction

profitable

agitator

consolidate

obsolete

notoriety

teamster

tandem
---see timeline pgs. 138 & 139

Jack Swilling completes an irrigation ditch in the Salt River Valley.

John Wesley Powell explores the Colorado River.

Ranchers overstock the open range with cattle

William Hancock surveys the Phoenix townsite.

Mormons begin farming towns in Arizona.

Ed Schieffelin discovers the Tombstone Mine.

E. Ayers builds a sawmill in Flagstaff

Santa Fe Railroad finished across Northern Arizona.

Arizona Canal is completed.

Brand registration is required by law.

Judge Kibbey decrees that water belongs to the land.

Copper miners at Clifton and Morenci go on strike.

Construction of Roosevelt Darn begins.

Roosevelt Dam is completed.

139

Go West!

GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, and grow up with the country!" said Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune. Settlement of the West was a major trend in American history after the Civil War. The frontier disappeared forever as the West experienced a rapid increase in population and economic development. Within one generation, the West was carved into territories and states.

During the time Arizona was a territory, its non-Indian population grew from about 4,000 to 200,000. The new residents built towns, developed rich mines, irrigated farms, and filled in the open range land with livestock. Lumbering, Arizona's first major manufacturing industry, got a good start by sawing railroad ties.

Two transcontinental railroads were built across the territory. Branch rail lines and dirt wagon roads connected copper mines and farming communities to the main lines. At the beginning of the territorial period there was not even a stagecoach to ride. By 1912 Arizonans owned more than 1,800 automobiles. Airplanes were beginning to fly overhead.

THOUGH UNOCCUPIED FOR CENTURIES after the Hohokam left, the Salt River Valley finally got some attention after the Civil War. In 1865 the U. S. Army established Fort McDowell and hired a man to cut hay for horses at the fort. He spotted some tall grass on the Salt River floodplain near present-day Sky Harbor Airport. After setting up a hay camp, he had a chance to visit with Jack Swilling, a red-headed giant of a man.

Swilling talked excitedly about the remains of old Hohokam canals. Plans for a modern irrigation system were taking shape in his mind. An opportunist, he could foresee a great farming future for the Salt River Valley. He knew that the miners at Wickenburg were screaming for locally grown farm products. Grain and vegetables were expensive when hauled in by wagon from California.

Swilling went to Wickenburg to drum up enthusiasm for a canal company. He returned with some strong-backed workers and mule teams. The Swilling ditch was dug out of a Hohokam canal on the north side of the Salt River. Water flowed to freshly cleared land. In a few years, farmers cultivated and irrigated several thousand acres of wheat, barley, corn, beans, pumpkins, and other crops. More canals were dug as newcomers poured into the "garden of the territory."
---see pictures

The Phoenix (Painting by Paul Coze in the Phoenix Air Terminal)

Jack Swilling had visions of turning the Salt River Valley into a prosperous farming community by building canals to bring water for irrigation.

140

Mill City was one of the names for a settlement that grew up near Swilling's ditch in present-day Phoenix. William Hellings built a flour mill there with expensive machinery purchased in San Francisco and hauled by wagon from the steamboat landing. Hellings produced six tons of flour every day. He fed the by-products—wheat germ, bran, and some flour—to hogs. Soon he had the first meat packing business in Arizona. Hellings sold smoked ham, sausage, bacon, and lard to stores all over the territory.

In 1870, prominent pioneers selected a townsite on higher ground where downtown Phoenix is located today. William Hancock, called the "father of Phoenix," surveyed the land. Mexican laborers hacked away desert growth to make wide streets. Sixty-three lots were sold at an average price of $40.

A year later, the Phoenix townsite was chosen as the county seat of newly-created Maricopa County. The first election for county officers turned to disaster when one candidate for sheriff killed his opponent following a violent argument.

The Arizona Canal

A large part of the Salt River Valley was still unproductive desert until William J. Murphy finished the Arizona Canal in 1885. Unlike other canals in the valley, this one did not follow Hohokam canal beds. Murphy had to construct a dam upriver to get water flowing at a higher elevation. His crew dug a thirty-five-mile canal to Scottsdale, Glendale, and other northern areas of the valley.

As the saying goes, "Where water flows, Arizona grows." Sure enough, many new settlers came to enjoy the advantages of what promoters called "a modern irrigation system in the agricultural capital of the Southwest."

Linking the past and the present

If William J. Murphy got his wish to see Arizona after "a hundred years" (right now), what do you think he would say?

Arizona Portrait
William J. Murphy

(1839-1923)

William J. Murphy clerked in an Illinois hardware store and fought with the Union army during the Civil War. In 1881 he came to Arizona to level a section of roadbed for the Atlantic and Pacific (Santa Fe) Railroad.

Near Flagstaff, which was then a rowdy construction camp, he built a log cabin for his wife and children. They rode into town from New Mexico atop a wagon loaded with sacks of grain.

Two years later, Murphy was awarded the Arizona Canal contract and he and his family settled permanently in Phoenix. He bought sections of land north of downtown Phoenix to split into subdivisions and for vast citrus orchards. With an eye to beauty, he planted hundreds of ash trees to shade the streets.

Looking to the future, Murphy often said, "I would like to come hack a hundred years from now and see this country."

141

Phoenix—A Flourishing Trade Center

By 1889 Phoenix was growing rapidly. Good dirt wagon roads ran in every direction. A railroad connected the town to the Southern Pacific Railroad. Clang, clang, clang went the trolleys on the streets. Phoenix was lighted by gas and electricity. Businesses included four banks, two ice plants, and good hotels. Residents had a choice of three daily newspapers—the Republican, Gazette, and Herald.

The town had three public elementary schools with 450 students. The people were thinking about a high school, but that was six years away. There were serious plans, however, for an Indian school north of town.

Real estate agents were advertising Phoenix as the "future metropolis of the territory." The legislature in Prescott must have been listening. The members voted to move the capital to Phoenix. The governor signed the bill as soon as it reached his desk.

It's time for a chat on a quiet day in Phoenix. The style for women in territorial days was a long skirt and tight-collared blouse. Men on business wore a jacket and tie. Both men and women always wore hats in public.

Today the Salt River Valley has a big city population, swimming pools, and rich fields of alfalfa and cotton. Can you imagine that farmers were once troubled by an uncertain water supply—alternating disasters of flood and drought?

In 1891 water was plentiful—so plentiful that the Salt River overflowed its banks. At some places the river spread out eight miles wide. Raging waters washed out the Tempe railroad bridge, cutting Phoenix off from rail transportation. The flood gouged a new channel
into a low section of Phoenix, forcing people to evacuate.

The great flood was followed by dry years in the 1890s. The Salt River could not fill all the canals that had been built. Armed, desperate men patrolled the canals to protect their water rights. At least a third of the farmland was forced out of cultivation. Livestock died. Orchards

142

became firewood. Families packed and left, expecting Phoenix to die. Then the rains came. A flash flood destroyed the dirt darns. The water rushed on to the Gulf of California, wasted for all purposes except to dramatize the need to control water in the Salt River.

Today the Salt River usually has a dry riverbed. Before Roosevelt Dam was built, however, water flowed through Phoenix. Early settlers saw "salmon" three or four feet long going upstream to spawn.

In the 1870s, fishermen in the Salt River sometimes used blasting powder to kill a lot of fish. People in Phoenix could hear the rumble of explosions from the river. The territorial legislature passed a law to forbid this method of fishing.

The dam for the Arizona Canal diverted some of the Salt River water for irrigation. Most of the river formed a beautiful foamy waterfall as it spilled over the dam and flowed downstream.

But there was no fish ladder over the dam. Fish swimming upstream to spawn jumped into the air, trying in vain to climb up the waterfall. In 1888 the Phoenix Herald reported that "the river below the dam is filled with dead fish."

Big carp were plentiful in the irrigation canals. In 1892 a Gazette writer said, "The farmers who live next to the big canals say they never saw the like of fish coming down the canals. In irrigating, large numbers are left in the fields after the water soaks away. Small boys and Indians gather great tots of them and bring them to town. There are many fine large German carp."

A huge storage dam was needed upstream to control flooding and to secure a dependable water supply for everyone. An organization of landowners, now known as the Salt River Project, pledged their land as security for a federal loan. Then the U.S. Reclamation Service began what would be the world's highest darn.

Much preliminary work had to be done. About 112 miles of access roads were built. The most important was Roosevelt Road, now called Apache Trail, from Mesa. Most of the construction machinery and supplies were hauled over this narrow, dangerous route in freight wagons pulled by twenty-mule teams. Work crews dug a 500-foot tunnel through solid rock to divert the river around the main dam site. Hot springs in the tunnel raised the temperature to as much as 130 degrees. The heat made work difficult.

A town called Roosevelt was built so construction workers would have a place to live. People who moved in knew that the town would be under water once the dam was completed.

A better location for Roosevelt Dam could not have been chosen. Today, the darn arches between steep canyon walls on a tough sandstone foundation. The 284-foot-high dam is 170 feet thick at the base and tapers to a 16-foot roadway at the top.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the dam. People made the rough trip to the ceremony on horseback, in buggies, on bicycles, and in automobiles.

The Salt River flood of 1891 washed out the Tempe railroad bridge. Phoenix was without train service for several months.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt (beside driver) was photographed on his way to dedicate Roosevelt Dam, 1911.

The first stone of the Roosevelt Dam was laid in 1906. The dam was completed in 1911 at a cost of $10 million.143

143

IN THE SUMMER OF 1869, Major John Wesley Powell led eight men in wooden boats down the Green and Colorado Rivers. This dangerous thousand-mile expedition took three months.

Major Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran and former Illinois science teacher, became a hero after he reached the west end of the Grand Canyon. His exciting journey erased the word "Unexplored" from early maps of this region.

Major Powell tried to learn as much about the geology as possible. A brave scientist, he climbed one steep cliff after another to observe the rock structure and to measure elevations. Once he got trapped on a wall, unable to move up or down. "I dare not let go with my hand," he shouted. "If I lose my hold I shall fall to the bottom!" At this critical moment, an ex-soldier in his group pulled him to safety by using a pair of long underwear as a rope.

Powell found only one major gorge which had no rapids. He named it Glen Canyon because of the cool green glens in the narrow side canyons. For a week, Powell and his men glided between the red and orange sandstone walls, some decorated with Indian pictographs. Here and there, they found the ruins of ancient Indian shelters.

The men marveled at the towering monuments, mossy alcoves, and water-carved spires, buttes, and rock overhangs. Powell wrote in his journal:

A few days later, the Powell expedition began running the dangerous rapids of the Grand Canyon. "We rode the back of the Dragon," is the way one of the boatmen put it. Their wooden boats were overturned, taught in the whirlpools, and battered against the walls. The men ported the boas around.the waterfalls or guided them down with ropes. By the time they got nearly a mile deep in the canyon, most of their food had been washed away.

Finally, all nine men reached a sandy shore where a clear creek emptied into the Colorado. Happy to be there, Powell named the creek Bright Angel. At this point, three of the river runners could endure no more. With Powell's blessing, they climbed out of the canyon, only to be killed later by Shivwits Indians.

Powell and five other men ran the remaining rapids to the mouth of the Virgin River, where Lake Mead is located today. The terrible ordeal was over. Powell had conquered the "Great Unknown"

144

wilderness along the Colorado. He had learned much concerning the geology of the earth's crust.

Two years later, Powell began another scientific trip down the Green and Colorado Rivers. That time he rode in a chair strapped to his boat. While in the West, he also traveled overland to explore and map the Colorado Plateau region. With the help of Jacob Hamblin, he got acquainted with Indians in the region and learned to speak words in their languages.

Powell later continued his Indian studies as director of the Bureau of Ethnology in Washington, D.C. Under his leadership, the main job of the bureau was to classify all the American Indian tribes and their languages. He also headed the U. S. Geological Service for a while.

One of Powell's greatest achievements was to get the slow-toact government interested in the conservation of land and the controlling of the limited water resources in the arid West. He said much of the land in the region should be left in its natural state. However, he wanted the federal government to build dams to store water, control flooding, and distribute irrigation water to farmers.

Powell posed for a photograph with a Paiute man after his 1869 expedition. The story goes