Page 251 - Confronting Race Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815 - 1915

FRONTIER PRODUCT: D I F F I CULT LEGACY

Soon, Victoria took Mangas Coloradas's place as leader of the
Mimbres Apaches. He led his f o llowers to reservations like New
Mexico's Bosque Redondo, only to see them starve and die there. He
then urged his fo llowers to escape fr om such reservations as Arizona's
San Carlos. In between, Mimbres Apaches, along with Mescaleros and
Chiricahuas, lived by raiding stock and trading in Mexico. Although
white citizens were outraged at the loss of animals and of white lives,S
U.S. troops-white and black-could not outwit the master strategist
that Victoria had become.
During these decades A paches scattered. Some oNictorio's people
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sought refuge at the Indian agency near Fort Stanton, where they lived
with Mescaleros. Other Apaches, including Mescaleros, f o ught with
Victorio in onslaughts that took many lives, white and Indian. 6 In 8 7 9,
1
Vic to rio proclaimed that he would never sign another treaty nor go to
another white reservation. Because he knew that a number of white
men, some in official positions, advocated reservations or genocide, he
1
decided to fight, launching the Victoria W a r of 8 79-1880.7Victorio's
resistance to things white terrorized white settlers and decreased the
number of Apaches. During these years, Apaches could not protect their
loved ones, who might disappear at any time fr om death or capture.
Apaches also lost ownership of their bodies, which became fighting
machines, and even their minds, which had to f o cus on white oppo­
1
nents and on danger rather than on Indian concerns. By the f a ll of 8 80,
Victorio's f o rce was diminished, demoralized, and nearly out of supplies.
Victorio and his people fled to Mexico, where fighting ended with
Victorio's death at Tres Castillos in Mexico. Although a Mexican sol­
dier claimed that he shot Victorio, the Mescaleros who retrieved the
bodies said that Victorio had taken his own life rather than be killed by
despised Mexicans.
Even though the Victorio War was over, Indian "wars" in the
Southwest continued to rage, taking a heavy toll not only on Indian
men, but on thousands of women and children who starved, fe ll ill, or
died. e t hundreds of Apaches preferred, as had Victoria, to die fighting
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rather than f r om malnutrition or disease. After an aged Mimbres chief,
Nana, took Victorio's place as chief, he organized an attack on white
settlers in New Mexico T e rritory to avenge the deaths of Victoria and

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