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Presentation
Version 061309
THE SKELETON CAVE MASSACRE
By Kathy Block, APCRP Historian
The sparse entry for the Skeleton Cave Massacre Site
doesn't even hint at the tragic events that took place there. Here's an attempt
to fill in the details of this little-known story.
I. SCENE OF THE
TRAGEDY: SKELETON CAVE
Skeleton Cave is actually a rock shelter,
formed by an overhang at the base of a cliff, in lava. It is situated about
1,200 feet above the backwaters of Apache Lake, formed by Horse Mesa Dam, on the
north wall of a canyon west of Horse Mesa Dam. It is reached by a steep perilous
climb either up from below or down from above, to an elevation of about 2,450
feet. Skeleton Cave, which was also known as Apache Cave and Skull Cave, will
not be precisely located in this article. The Forest Service, which manages the
area, has indicated that they are under no obligation to give out coordinates
for the cave because it holds sacred significance to the local Native Americans.
The cave is roughly semi-circular with the
open side of the circle facing southwest. Looking into the cave, the left side
is deeper than the right. The height of the ceiling descends steeply from a
maximum height of 25 feet at the entrance to less than a foot along the back
wall. The maximum depth from front to back is about 40 feet. Width from corner
to corner is 118 feet. On the right side is a sloping platform about 30 feet
long, 12 feet wide, and 8 feet higher than the floor in the center. Above the
platform is a small area 12 feet by 12 feet which would have been the most
protected position within the cave. The floor is covered with dirt and rock
deposits. Outside the cave are several large boulders that have broken from the
cliff above, with brush between them and the entrance. This area was the best
sheltered defensive position for the Yavapais. Beyond
the boulders is a steep boulder-strewn drop off down the drainage. There are
several natural paths leading to the cave along the cliff face.
Unfortunately, the cave has been looted, as noted in an
application for the National Register of Historic Places. Some relics and
artifacts shown in early photos of the cave taken when it was rediscovered by a
cowboy, Jefferson Davis Adams, in 1906, were gone in later explorations; and in
the period 1905 to 1911 more looting occurred during construction of Roosevelt
Dam. In 1984 a Phoenix outdoor writer pictured material in his column taken from
the site. The dirt floor toward the back of the shelter has been dug down at
least 3 feet by illegal digging and screening. Apparently metal detectors have
been used also. The bones of the massacre victims were removed around 1933,
sixty-one years later, and reburied at Fort McDowell by the Yavapai.
Figure 1 - Entrance to Skeleton Cave
Looking into Skeleton
Cave, bones from massacre visible.
Figure 2 - Map of Skeleton Cave
II. MAIN PARTICIPANTS
IN THE SKELETON CAVE MASSACRE
Accounts of the events mention some key people. Here's a
description of who they were.
GENERAL GEORGE CROOK
George Crook was 9th of 10 children born
September 8, 1828 to Thomas and Elizabeth Crook of Taylorville, Ohio. His father was a farmer who had emigrated from Maryland
to Ohio after the war of 1812. He had been described as having a taciturn,
self-confident, phlegmatic character. He was prepared to be a farmer and was
seen as academically undistinguished. He graduated from West Point, U.S.
Military Academy, in 1852, ranking near the bottom of his class,
graduating 38th out of 43! He was considered by the Academy as slow to pick up
on concepts, but he never had to relearn them once mastered. Upon graduation,
Crook was known as self-assured, unflappable and emotionally remote. One of the
few friends he made was Philip H. Sheridan and their careers crossed many times
in the next 40 years.
Here are a few highlights of Crook's long military career,
1852 to 1890. Crook began his career with the 4th US Infantry as Brevet 2nd
Lieutenant, serving in California 1852-1861. He fought against several Native
American tribes in Oregon and Northern California and was severely wounded by an
Indian arrow in 1857 in the Pitt River Expedition.
After the Civil War, Crook fought in more Indian wars. In
1872 just before the Skeleton Cave Massacre, Crook was appointed Brigadier
General in the regular Army, a promotion that passed over and angered several
full colonels next in line for promotion to general.
After the massacre, he served against the Sioux during the
Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. By 1882 Crook was back in command in Arizona.
In his later years, George Crook apparently had an
unorthodox appearance. He had great cotton-candy mounds of gray muttonchops
sideburns that covered most of the lower half of his face, above which protruded
a strong, straight nose and piercing deep-set blue eyes. His main trademark was
that he almost never wore a uniform, but preferred overalls or a canvas suit. He
liked to wear a conical hat, such as that worn by a Japanese farmer at work in a
rice field. He carried a shotgun instead of standard Springfield Army rifle. He
preferred to ride a mule, named Apache, an animal he
insisted was far superior to a horse.
Crook spent his last years speaking out against the unjust
treatment of his former Indian adversaries.
Crook died of heart failure in Chicago on March 21, 1890,
still on active duty in the Army.
Figure 3 - General Crook on his mule.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM H. BROWN
Captain William H. Brown led 130 troopers from the 5th
U.S. Cavalry Regiment and 30 Apache scouts to attack the Yavapai men, women, and
children in Skeleton Cave. He also participated in later military operations
against the Apache.
CAPTAIN JOHN GREGORY BOURKE
Captain John Gregory Bourke was "first of all a soldier."
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 23, 1843 to Irish immigrant
parents, Edward Joseph and Anna Morton Bourke. He grew up in a comfortable "book
filled" home and early education included Latin, Greek, and Gaelic. The Civil
War began when he was 14 years old; at 16 he ran away and lied about his age. He
said he was 19 years old and enlisted in the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer
Cavalry as a Private. He served three years of Civil War action and received the
Medal of Honor for "gallantry in action" in Stone River, Tennessee.
Afterwards, Bourke graduated in June, 1869 from West Point
and placed eleventh in a class of thirty-nine. (In comparison
to General Crook.) He received his Second Lieutenants commission in his
lifetime regiment, the 3rd United States Cavalry.
After a brief interval at Fort Craig, New Mexico
Territory, he became General George Crook's aide-de-camp and served Crook as
adjunct and engineering officer in the actions against the Apaches for 16 years
from 1870 to 1886. He was known for his scholarship, powers of observation, and
writing ability. He was given time off from his field duties to live among and
study the Indians of Arizona. Because he was a skilled language scholar, he
learned the Apache language. He kept lengthy, detailed diaries of his
experiences, which he used for prolific writing during the last ten years of his
life (1886-1896) that added to knowledge of Native Americans and their customs.
His best known memoir is, "On the Border with Crook," 1891. (Often referenced by historians.) Another famous writer,
Sigmund Freud, wrote the preface for Bourke's "Scatologic
Rites of All Nations." Altogether, ten books were written by Bourke.
Just two weeks before his fiftieth birthday, on June 8,
1896, Bourke died from an aneurysm of the aorta in Philadelphia.
HOO-MOO-THY-AH ("Wet Nose"), later known as Mike Burns.
The story of Hoo-Moo-Thy-Ah has
become known by the recent publication of his autobiography, The
Journey of a Yavapai Indian: A 19th Century Odyssey, He had unsuccessfully
spent many years in the latter part of his life struggling to publish his
manuscript, which was stored in fragments in state archives until 2002. He
played a major role in the Skeleton Cave Massacre.
Hoo-Moo-Thy-Ah (hereafter referred to as Mike Burns), was
born into Yavapai family in Arizona, just before the establishment of Ft.
McDowell, built by the U.S. Government to subjugate Native American peoples. His
birthplace, around 1864, was near the Four Peaks Mountains, near Tonto Basin. In
his autobiography he remembered the time as of "great beauty and happiness."
However, when he was about 5 years old, his life was altered forever. His mother
was killed by soldiers out on a patrol. She apparently ran for her life and
crawled in a rock hole. She was pulled out and shot several times. After her
murder, his father became a bitter enemy of the "Hayko" (enemy) and would often go with friends to the Salt
River Valley just to kill any "Hayko" they could. The
young boy was left responsible for the care of his younger brother and sister.
Then, when Hoo-Moo-Thy-Ah was
about eight years old, he was sent by his father to accompany his uncle to Wipuk (in the Sedona country) to bring back a horse. They
were surprised by a patrol and the uncle deserted him. The terrified boy hid
himself in a hole in a rock while the soldiers camped nearby. It became night
and he almost froze to death, in a snowstorm, wearing only a G-string. They had
been camped near Four Peaks, about 7,645 elevation in
the Mazatzals. When he emerged the next morning, he
was captured by the soldiers, whom he considered true demons. The captors
remembered his valiant but vain struggle and after he lost, he was dragged over
the rocks "like a log." The capture was in the winter of 1872 and General Crook
was beginning his Tonto campaign.
The terrified child was taken to Captain James Burns, Six
days later he was forced to lead the soldiers and Maricopa and Pima scouts to
Skeleton Cave and witnessed the massacre of over 60 of his people, including his
father and siblings, grandfather, uncle and aunt. He was shown the body of his
grandfather, who had part of his head in a little rock hole.
The boy was taken back to Fort McDowell and given to Lt
.E.D. Thomas, who named him "Mike Burns", with the explanation that "Mickey"
would be at least one Irish Indian in Arizona! He was then given back to Captain
Burns, but when Burns died, in 1874, Mike was given to Captain Hall S. Bishop.
For the next 30 years, Hoo-Moo-Thy-Ah acted as scout
and interpreter for the army against Native Amerian
tribes of the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. But he was also educated, at
Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a controversial off-reservation school in
Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, operated 1879-1918, and Highland
University in New Mexico, where he was an outstanding student and trained as a
teacher. He also worked for a while on a farm in New York.
He returned to Arizona in the early 1900s and became a
rancher and woodcutter near Fort. McDowell, where he raised a
family who still live in the area. He died November 16, 1934 at Fort
McDowell, and is buried in the cemetery there.
THE APACHE SCOUTS
Most accounts of General Crook's campaigns in the Indian
Wars consider the use of "Apache Scouts" to be his most effect tool and
singularly responsible for his success and the end of the Indian Wars in
Arizona. Because the nature of the warfare near Skeleton Cave was of a hit and
run style, the Apache scouts were ideal, being used to attacking, when the least
risk to them was present, then leave with their spoils - usually livestock and
weapons. If they were pursued, they'd split up and link up later. They knew the
terrain, could move quickly, silently, and farther than their pursuers, and
could live off the land. The frontier Army was unable and ill-suited to use
these tactics of fighting.
Realizing the advantages of using these scouts, General
Crook began to actively recruit the unit that became known as his "Apache
Scouts". In actuality, there were scouts from many other tribes as well, such as
Pima and Maricopa. The scouts were best used according to their own concept of
scouting and tracking, not the Army's. Crook deliberately chose younger, junior
officers who would be more flexible in their outlooks and more successful in
leading this new type of soldier.
The best known Apache Scout recruited was named Alchesay, who was from the White Mountain Apache Tribe. He
would join Crook on many of his campaigns and served as a valued advisor. (The
White Mountain Apaches still hold him in high esteem today.) Another group of scouts were Arivaipa Indians. They worked with Captain Brown.
The Apache Scouts worked with the army by moving ahead of
the soldiers looking for signs of the enemy. Additional groups moved along the
flanks of the column. Often the advance guard would initiate and finish the
fight before the main body could get up to their location. Most of Crook's
columns would consist of the scouts, mobile infantry-cavalry units, and mule
pack trains. He'd direct these columns to remain in the field until they were
successful. His philosophy was to track the insurgents, and destroy them with
the overwhelming firepower of the columns. The men could stay longer in the
field due to the improved logistics provided by the mule pack train. The system
developed by General Crook eventually wore the insurgent Apache bands down until
they were forced to accept defeat. The conduct of these Scouts in the Skeleton
Cave Massacre will be discussed later.
The value placed on these Apache Scouts is seen by the
fact that in April, 1875 after the Skeleton Cave Massacre, ten of
the scouts were recommended by Crook to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor
for "gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches during the
winter campaign of 1872/73." Bourke gushed, "The names of many scouts, guides
and packers of that onerous, dangerous and crushing campaign (1872-1873) should
be inscribed on the brightest page in the annals of Arizona, and locked up in
her archives that future generations might do them honor."
The Scouts who received these honors had names such as: Alchesay, Jim, Elsatsoosn, Machoi, Blanquet, Chiquito, Kelsay, Kasoha, Nantaje, Nannasaddi. In March 1875, the
Medal of Honor was conferred and Arizona had the first 10 medals unofficially
accredited to the state. Why "unofficially?" Because for seven of the
scouts, either the enlistment information was lost or not
completed, and the place of enlistment for these men was not included in
their citations. According to the rules of the medal, without a verifiable
place
of enlistment, the medal is not "officially" attributed to that state. During
the Indian War Period (1866-1890), nearly 40 percent of all Medals of Honor were
for actions that took place in Arizona Territory!
Figure 4 - Apache Scouts.
Photo by C.S. Fly,
1870's.
THE APACHES AND YAVAPAI, CRUCIAL DIFFERENCES
BETWEN THEM
One of the great tragedies of the Skeleton Cave Massacres
is that the Yavapai were mistaken for Apaches, though there were crucial
differences between the two. Early settlers and military recognized some
differences between the groups. The southeastern or Ft. McDowell group was
simply called "Apache" as they seemed indistinguishable from the several Western
Apache bands. In the decades of Indian warfare in Arizona, the name "Yavapai"
faded into disuse and any raids by the Yavapai were blamed on "the Apaches". At
the time of the Massacre, books and magazines referred to the victims as
Apaches. Nineteenth century writers usually referred to the groups of
Yavapais separately until the name "Yavapai" came into general use. Mike
Burns, the captured boy, made it plain in his autobiography that his people were
Yavapai. (Confusing!!!)
To Whites in those days, they all looked alike, and an
Indian was an Indian, better dead than alive. The confusion in calling Yavapai
by the name Apache does not sit well with today's Yavapai, who feel it cheats
them out of a unique heritage. Many newspaper and magazine accounts in the late
1800s stated "the better dead than alive" phrases.
In rare books owned by the author Smithsonian Institute,
Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Handbook of American Indians North
of Mexico, Ed. by Frederick Webb Hodge, (1907 and 1910) misstatements about
these two tribes are perpetuated. The Yavapai are described as their name
coming from "enyalva" (sun) and "pai"
(people), i.e. "People of the Sun," and as a "Yuman
tribe, popularly known as Apache Mohave and Mohave Apache, i.e. "hostile or
warlike Mohave". The Apache, probably from "Apachu"
(enemy), the Zuni name for the Navaho, were designated "Apaches de Nabaju" by the early Spaniards in New Mexico. The name has
been applied also to some unrelated Yuman tribes as
the Apache Mohave (Yavapai) and Apache Yuma. The Apaches call themselves "N'de,
Dine, Tinde, or
Inde"(People).
Ethnological writings describe some major differences
between Yavapai and Apache peoples. Even sympathetic military personnel, who had
opportunities to observe differences, recorded in their diaries that they were
two separate peoples. Yavapai were described as taller, of more muscular build,
well-proportioned and thickly featured while the Tonto Apaches were slight and
less muscular, smaller of stature and finely featured. The Yavapai women were
seen as stouter and having "handsomer" faces than the Yuma in the Smithsonian
report. Another difference, which could probably not have been noticed at long
range, was that the Yavapai were often tattooed, while Apaches seldom had
tattoos. Painted designs on faces were different, as were funeral practices. In
clothing, Yavapai moccasins were rounded, whereas the Apaches had pointed toes.
Both groups were hunter-gatherers, but were so similar here
that scholars are seldom able to distinguish between their campsites.
Linguistically, at first two distinct languages were
spoken. Bourke, General Crook's aide, recognized during campaigns of 1871-1874
(remember he learned Apache and was a skilled linguist), that they were dealing
with separate tribes, but even then they mixed considerably. He said most of
them spoke both languages, and the headman of each band usually had two names,
one from each tradition. The language difference was the most definite
indication that these are two distinct people. By 1965, when a study was made by
David M. Brugge, tracing names used in the two
languages as they were spoken in central Arizona Indian communities, he was able
to tell the amount of mixing that had taken place. He suggested that the Yavapai
were already there when the Apaches moved in and mixing began. The Apaches
dominated Yavapai culture as they moved into the Rim Country westward. Over the
generations the Yavapai adopted Apache clan systems and their material cultures
became identical. One exception was the Tonto Apaches, who have a dialect
different from the other Western Apaches. This slight "Yavapai" accent led other
Western Apaches to call them "Foolish" or "Tonto" because their dialect sounded
foolish to them! (Origin of name "Tonto" for that area of Arizona?)
The people killed in the Skeleton Cave Massacre were Yavapais, though identified by early accounts as Apache.
That's because, according to one account, they sometimes joined in raids with
Western Apaches and thus were often thought to be Apache themselves. A common
term for them in the Nineteenth Century was "Apache-Mohaves".
As noted, they spoke a language entirely different from any
Apachean
dialect. They weren't even part of the same large family as Apaches, being a Yuman people rather than Athapaskan.
Unfortunately, these differences were "beyond the understanding of Crook and his
soldiers."
FORT McDOWELL
Fort McDowell was established on the west bank
of the Verde River in 1865. It was
also called Camp Verde or Camp Green and was deep in Apache and Yavapai country.
The Fort was renamed after Major General Irwin McDowell, made famous for his
loss of the first large-scale battle of the Civil War! It was considered one of
the finest and most solid posts in Arizona Territory, despite the fact that it
proved so hot in the summers that soldiers carried their beds outside to sleep
under the stars. The McDowell Mountains are two miles to the east. Because of
its location nearly a day's ride from Arizona's main overland route, the Army
had excessive freight costs and unreliable transportation. An experiment was
attempted in 1866 to build a half-section farm with a four-mile irrigation
canal. An unintended consequence was that the produce supplied most of the
post's needs and civilian farmers were hesitant to settle nearby, fearing they
couldn't compete. In 1876 the
Quartermaster concluded the farm was a mistake but crops were already in
production in the Salt River Valley. Furthermore,
Jack Swilling had organized a canal
company to provide irrigation for Phoenix's ever-expanding farmland.
Fort McDowell did play a useful role in General Crook's
1872-1873 winter campaigns. Its purpose was to control the local tribes: the
Yavapai and Apache Indians. It did not earn the status of a "fort" until 1878.
With the Indians pacified, Fort McDowell closed in 1890.
After abandonment, its 25,688 acres were allocated by the
Department of Interior for an Indian School, and to the Fort McDowell
Mohave-Apache Tribe, now known as the Yavapai Tribe. Most of the old post is
gone, except for melted adobe foundations. The tribe has recently constructed a
library, museum, and archive to preserve the history of the Yavapai people. In
June 1892 the military graves at the post cemetery were disinterred, and the
remains shipped to the Presidio in San Francisco for reburial. One civilian
grave remained, that of George Kipper whose simple
marble marker can be seen today among the Indian burials. Dr. Carlos Montezuma,
cousin of Mike Burns, became a medical doctor and outspoken leader for Indian
rights, and was buried there in 1923, as is Mike Burns, in 1934. Some of Crook's
Apache Scouts are buried there, including Alchesay.
The remains of many from the Skeleton Cave Massacre have been interred there
with a monument to mark the tragedy. Fort McDowell is located on Indian Route
off AZ 87, north of Phoenix.
Figure 5 - Fort McDowell in the 1870s.
III.
PRELUDES TO THE SKELETON CAVE MASSACRE
A long tangled history of clashes between
Native Americans and Whites in the area led directly and indirectly to the
Skeleton Cave Massacre. Diverse accounts and viewpoints make it difficult to
sort out the "facts" in the chain of events during the conflicts.
A list of Cavalry actions versus Indians in
1832 thru 1898 includes the fact that after the Civil War the United States
concentrated on reconstruction of the Southern cities. But the Army had to
continue to engage in battle with Indian tribes, who remained hostile and wanted
to keep their lands free of encroaching settlers. Supposedly, the Indians "swept
down in hordes, showing little compassion, ravaging settlements or ranches,
torturing captives, scalping and mutilating the dead, stripping corpses and
using them for target practice." The Cavalry was brought in because the Infantry
was unfamiliar with the territory. The primary focus of their battles were the Apaches. One example was the
murder of 14 miners who attempted to cross Apache Pass in 1861. Cavalry
approached from the opposite direction and although they were ambushed, were
able to hold out with artillery fire until reinforcements arrived. The "shooting
wagons", as the Indians described them, were able to kill 60 warriors with only
4 Cavalry casualties. Apache Chief Mangus
Coloradas was gravely wounded.
Indian incidents around Prescott became so bad
that the January 22, 1870 Prescott Miner published a list of the dates
and locations of 300 whites killed in the area!
News accounts of Cavalry actions fueled
anti-Indian sentiments and retaliatory raids and attacks on sometimes peaceful
Indian settlements by miners and settlers. An example such inflammatory news is
this account from May 18, 1871, about a year and a half before the Skeleton Cave
Massacre. Entitled WAGON TRAIN MASSACRE, it reported an incident near Salt Creek
Prairie, Texas; the Apaches allowed a small wagon train to pass thru safely,
then attacked the larger train that followed. A teamster who escaped
described what happened to a wounded teamster as, "Tied his head down on wagon
wheel, ripping out his tongue and built a fire under his face,
then took axes, cutting him to pieces.
A famous early explorer and prospector named Pauline
Weaver apparently got along with most Indians. He taught them to say
"Pauline-Tobacco" to indicate they were friendly when approaching whites. But,
when the area near present day Stanton and Rich Hill became overpopulated with
newcomers, who were unaware of the custom, killings began. Even Weaver wasn't
immune and was attacked by a war party and badly wounded. He'd performed a
"death song" when attacked by Yavapais. They believed
he was insane and left the scene immediately. Weaver was able to return home and
recover. The Yavapais supposedly made inquiries for
months afterwards about their friend "Paulino."
Another viewpoint of events leading to the tragedy is from
the Wickenburg area. The discovery of gold by Henry Wickenburg and the
establishment of the Vulture Mine drew miners and ranchers and farmers, who
built homes along the Hassayampa River. As the number
of settlers, both American and Mexican, grew near Wickenburg, founded in 1863,
they encroached on the Yavapai Indians, who lived, farmed, and hunted along the
Hassayampa River. These settlers staked out mining and
water-rights claims, raised livestock (mainly cattle) that damaged vegetation
and springs, and drove out native animals which the Yavapais used for meat. The settlers decided to eradicate
the Yavapais and initiated a series of planned raids
against them. The Yavapai fought back. Approximately 1,000 Yavapai Indians and
400 settlers died in the so called "Indian Wars" during 1860-1869. The U.S. Army
convinced the Yavapai to resettle on a permanent reservation, but because the
government supplied inadequate rations, the Yavapai began to raid stagecoaches
and wagon trains and isolated settlers and miners. The historic Wickenburg Massacre,
November 5, 1871 (a little more than a year before the Skeleton Cave Massacre,)
was west of Wickenburg, not far from the Date Creek Reservation where nearly
1,000 Tonto Apache and Yavapai Indians had settled. This became a "flash point"
for a war that had been brewing for years as incoming settlers clashed with
people who had possessed the land for generations. (See
APCRP) The discovery of gold along Lynx Creek by the Walker party in 1863
brought more miners. Fort Whipple and Prescott were built to the north.
Prior to this time, another widely publicized incident was
the Oatman family massacre in 1851, in which a band of
Indians identified as Yavapai ambushed the family as they traveled en route from
Missouri to Yuma on the Gila River Trail. Royce Oatman
and his wife and four of their children were killed,
one son Lorenzo was left for dead but survived, while sisters Olive and Mary Ann
were later sold to Mohaves as slaves. The sisters were
forced to watch as their captors killed their parents. Five years later Lorenzo,
after a frustrating campaign to find and rescue his sisters, was able to ransom
Olive from the Mohave Indians. (Oatman
Massacre)
A well-known proverb reflects increasing anti-Indian
sentiment of the 1870s and earlier: "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." The
history of the origins and growth of this proverb and its use by prominent
politicians and generals shows that this saying became very widespread in the
United States and even Canada. Very briefly, in one famous incident, Old
Toch-a-way, a chief of the Comanche’s in January 1869 said, "Me, Tock-a-way; me
good Injun.:" General Philip Sheridan set those standing by "in
a roar" by saying, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." General
Sheridan (1831-1888) repeatedly denied making such a
statement, reported by eyewitness Captain Charles Nordstrom and reported in
Edward Ellis in The History of Our Country: From the Discovery of America to
the Present Time, 1895. But Sheridan was known as a bigot and Indian hater.
He had been a lifetime friend of General Crook.
An even more blatant example of the attitudes of some of
the politicians and government agents was stated not many years before the
Massacre by Representative James Michael Cavanaugh from Montana on May 28, 1868
during debate, in the U.S. House of Representatives, on an "Indian Appropriation
Bill." Excerpts tell the story: "I will say frankly that, in my judgment, the
entire Indian policy of the country is wrong from its very inception. In the
first place you offer a premium for rascality by paying a beggarly pittance to
your Indian agents......I like an Indian better dead than living. I have never
in my life seen a good Indian (and I have seen thousands) except when I have
seen a dead Indian.....I believe in the policy that exterminates the Indians,
drives them outside the boundaries of civilization, because you cannot civilize
them. Gentlemen may call this very harsh language, but perhaps they would not
think so if they had had my experience in Minnesota and Colorado. In Minnesota
the almost living babe has been torn from its mother's womb; and I have seen the
child, with its young heart palpitating, nailed to the window-sill....I have
seen women and children brought in scalped. Scalped why?
Simply because the Indian was 'upon the war path,' to satisfy the devilish and
barbarous propensities.
The Indian will make a treaty in the fall, and in the spring he is again 'upon
the war path.' The torch, the scalping-knife, plunder, and desolation follow
wherever the Indian goes,,,,"
Brief mention should be made, also, of Cochise, a strong
six-foot tall chief of the Chiricahua Apaches. He had
a special hatred for the white man. In 1861 he was unjustly accused of stealing
a small boy from a ranch near Fort Buchanan. The boy, later known as Mickey
Free, had actually been kidnapped by Pinal Apaches. A Lt. George Bascom, of the Seventh Cavalry camped near Apache Pass,
tried to force Cochise to return the boy by trying to capture him when he came
to Bascom's tent to talk. Cochise escaped, gathered
his followers, and captured several white men as hostages. The exchange was
never made, and three Indian hostages were hanged. Cochise began a war and said, "I was at
peace with the whites, until they tried to kill me for what other Indians did;
now I live and die at war with them." He is known to have burned 13 white men
alive, tortured 5 to death by cutting small pieces from their feet, and dragged
15 to their death at the end of a lariat! Cochise made a temporary peace in
September, 1871, with General Gordon Granger at the Indian agency at Canada
Alamosa. He was promised a home, but refused a reservation offered at Tularosa.
Then, on April 30, 1871, the
Camp Grant massacre
occurred, a prelude to further massacres and violence. After Apaches at Canada
Alamosa were removed to Tularosa valley in the Mogollon Mountains, despite
objections from Cochise, the Chief (one of Crook's main enemies and targets) and
his warriors went back to their home in southern Arizona. Other Apaches who
sought peace left their rancherias
in the wilds and came in to Camp Grant for protection. In February 1871 Eskiminzin, chief of the Arivaipa
Apaches, with 150 followers came to Camp Grant. They were poor, they said, and
hungry, tired of being hunted and killed. They wanted a place to live in peace.
Lt. Royal E. Whitman, commander at Camp Grant, believed them and gave them a
place near the post on land which had once belonged to the Apaches.
Settlers in nearby Tucson were alarmed and spoke of Indian
raids in the vicinity, for which Eskiminzin
was unjustly blamed. The infuriated civilians focused on this peaceful Apache
village in retaliation for an Apache raid on American settlers. When the Army
had refused to help, on April 28, 1871, a party of 6 Americans, 48 Mexicans, and
92 Papago Indians gathered in
Pantano
Wash, east of Tucson. Two days later the mob, armed by the Adjunct-General of
Arizona Territory, attacked the unsuspecting camp of
Arivaipas. Most of the warriors, including the chief, were off in the
mountains, hunting. Women, old men and children were left to be killed. In a few
minutes 128 helpless people (some accounts say 144 people, all but 8 of the dead
being women and children) were massacred. Twenty-nine children were taken
captive and sold as slaves by the Papagoes in Sonora,
or kept as servants by the residents of Tucson. All the dead were buried by the
Army around the camp. White participants in the massacre were later tried in
Tucson and acquitted. To murder an Indian was no crime under the laws of Arizona
Territory. Camp Grant was located on the west side of the San Pedro River where
Aravaipa Creek meets the San Pedro River, between Mammouth and Winkleman. Today the
site is used by Central Arizona College.
Not long after the Camp Grant massacre, General George
Crook (a Lt. Colonel at the time) was sent to replace General Stoneman as commander of Arizona Territory on June 4,
1871.General Stoneman had been partly blamed for
actions leading to the Camp Grant Massacre. President Grant ordered a
two-pronged program to end the Apache wars. Crook tried peace, using a one-armed
Civil War officer named General Oliver Howard, who would negotiate treaties with
the tribes. Howard was able to negotiate a tentative peace with Cochise, partly
through the aid of Tom Jeffords, superintendent of a mail line and a man who'd
become friendly with Cochise. But, General Howard was unable to make peace
treaties with the Yavapai and Tonto Apache in the central mountains, who
defiantly rejected the peace proposals. President Grant then had no choice but
to order General Crook into battle, and his winter
campaign of 1872-73 began, leading to the tragic Skeleton Cave Massacre.
Clashes between settlers, the Cavalry, and Indians
continued to escalate after the Camp Grant Massacre. Battles followed battles.
The year of the Skeleton Cave Massacre, 1872, there were a series of clashes.
May 23, the U.S. Cavalry engaged the Tonto Apaches at Sycamore Canyon, Arizona.
July 13, during a fight between the U.S. Cavalry and hostile Indians at
Whetstone Mountains (near Kartchner Caverns), Private
Michael Glynn singlehandedly fought 8 Indians, killing or wounding 5, and
driving the rest away. August 27, Sgt. James Brown, in command
of a detachment of 3 troopers, defeated a larger force of hostile Indians at
Davidson Canyon near Camp Crittendon, Arizona.
General Crook became convinced that only a decisive
military defeat would force the Apache to settle permanently on reservations.
Crook apparently looked for an excuse to launch his comprehensive war of
attrition. He learned of a plot to kill him when he visited the Date Creek
Reservation (where on September 8, during this visit, in a clash with the
hostile Indians, a Sgt. Frank E. Hill, despite his severe wounds, captured a
hostile Apache chief and received a Medal of Honor for his heroism.) A group of
about 100 warriors and their families fled, fearing retaliation as Crook sought
the conspirators. They fled to Skeleton Cave, seeking refuge in the shelter that
had been used by generations of Yavapais, which became
their tomb in the Skeleton Cave Massacre on Christmas Day, December 28, 1872.
Date Creek Reservation was near
Camp Date Creek.
This camp, originally known as Camp McPherson, had been established in 1867 by
the Army to guard the road between Prescott and La Paz. It had moved several
times. The name came from the abundance of yucca or wild dates in the area. An
Army report in 1868 criticized the soldiers because they spent more time fixing
buildings and prospecting than fighting Indians. In early 1871 it was
established as a reservation for about 225 Apache-Mohave Indians, and was known
as a "feeding station". Due to difficulties in supplying the Reservation with
food, these Indians were transferred in June 1871 to Camp Verde. Camp Date Creek
closed in 1874. It was located 60 miles S.W. of Prescott, north of U.S. 89 in
Date Creek.
In conclusion, a series of raids, attacks, battles between
various settlers, miners, military, and Indians (both Apache and Yavapai), and
an increasingly anti-Indian sentiment reflected in news accounts, magazines, and
speeches, set the events in motion that led to the Skeleton Cave Massacre.
IV. THE BATTLE AT
SKELETON CAVE
An apt quote about history is: "History, though we seldom
so think of it, is not really the story of what happened; history is necessarily
the story of what is preserved in the record." The Battle at Skeleton Cave was
recorded by Captain Burns, John Bourke, and General Crook in diaries and in
official Cavalry reports. These reports stressed the role of the scouts and
soldiers and their military tactics. A more intimate, human view was offered in
the posthumous autobiography of Hoo-moo-thy-ah. An
article on one web site stressed the use of the Sharp's rifle. Later historians
in magazine articles and books attempted to condense and coordinate information
from many sources. Readers of accounts, often far removed from the scene in the
East coast, had varied and often negative reactions to what they perceived
happened in far-off Arizona in a remote cave. Here's a generally agreed-upon outline of
events of the Battle at Skeleton Cave.
General George Crook made a decision, based partly on
false information that another Apache chief he sought, Delche,
a hostile anti-reservation chief, was hiding in the cave with a band of
warriors. The military had been aware of reports that there was a hidden rancheria somewhere in the Salt River Canyon. When the
frightened child, Hoo-moo-thy-ah, uncertain of his
fate among the soldiers, was first captured, he pointed out to Captain Burns the
location of the cave, by taking him to a ridge and telling him what he wanted to
know.
The evening before the attack, Companies L and M, Fifth
Calvary, commanded by Captain William H. Brown, accompanied by 30 Apache scouts,
struggled through the snow-covered Superstition Mountains to join Company G of
the same regiment, from Fort McDowell, with their 100 Pima Indians. This
combined group was in the heart of hostile Apache country and "looking for a
fight:" They were camped at the mouth of Cottonwood Creek on the Salt River. The
native scouts, commanded by a half-breed named Archie
MacIntosh, went ahead to look for this rancheria supposed to be in the Mazatzal
or Four Peaks area, where Delche was possibly hiding.
An Apache scout, named Nantaje (known to the soldiers
as Joe), working with Major Brown, could lead the white men to the hiding place
of the peoples. The plan was to surround and surprise the people in Skeleton
Cave and bring an end to the attacks and powers of the chiefs and warriors. That
night, the Apache scouts skinned a mule and feasted in anticipation of the
fight.
At dawn, on a snowy Christmas Morning, December 28, 1872,
the 130 man force led by Captain William H. Brown and Nantaje,
used techniques learned from the scouts, and crept towards the cave with their
moccasins stuffed with dry grass (instead of heavy Cavalry boots). Their
footsteps were thus muffled as they worked their way on hard rocks towards the cave. Soldiers carried only bacon, bread,
and a little coffee, and their guns and ammunition. Mules and surplus equipment
were left behind.
Nantaje and MacIntosh led a detachment
of six of the best shots under Lt. William J. Ross along a rough trail down the
canyon of the Salado. A fall would have meant instant death. As they rounded a
turn, there was the shelter on a shelf above the canyon, protected by great,
smooth boulders that had fallen from the cliff. The soldiers fired on a small
party, supposedly just back from a raid, who were hunched around a small fire in
front of the cave. They hit many of their targets, who were silhouetted by the
fire, killing at least six. Then, yells of surprise and hatred answered the
soldiers from warriors inside the cave, who shot arrows in the general direction
of the attack, but Ross and his men were safe behind rocks and he quickly rushed
some of the men to rocks on the other side of the entrance.
Major Brown called on the supposed Apaches, who were
actually Yavapai, to surrender. In defiance, one warrior supposedly climbed to
the top of a rock some distance down the canyon and gave a yell of defiance and
bared his buttocks. A blacksmith named John Cahill had his Sharp's rifle in
position "like a flash" and shot the Indian. Another version is that the warrior
had begun his war-whoop and 20 carbines were gleaming in the sunlight, 40 eyes
were sighting along the barrels....Immediately the resounding volley had
released another soul from its earthly casket, and let the bleeding corpse fall
to the ground as limp as a wet moccasin." Bourke records that when the
Yavapais were told to surrender, "The only answer was a shriek of hatred
and defiance, threats of what we had to expect, yells of exultation at the
thought that not one of us should ever see the light of another
day.,,,They
seemed to be abundantly provided with arrows and lances, and of the former they
made no savings, but would send them flying high in the air in the hope that
upon coming back to earth they might hit those of our rearguard."
According to an article about Sharp's carbines, Brown
positioned his force so that "one-half was in reserve behind the skirmish
line...with carbines loaded and cocked and a handful of cartridges on the clean
rocks in front...the men on the first line had orders to fire as rapidly as they
chose, directing aim against the roof of the cave, with the view to having the
bullets glance down among the men, who had massed immediately back of the rock
rampart." This plan worked "admirably", and the shots were "irritating the
Yavapais to the degree that they no longer sought shelter, but boldly
faced our fire and returned it with energy, the weapons of the men being
reloaded by the women." These weapons were possibly Henry and Spencer rifles
like those used in the Wickenburg Massacre.
The ricochets caught the victims huddled inside. Cries of
wounded, and wails of frightened children showed the indirect fire was
effective. Suddenly a death chant began. The Apache scouts warned, "Look out,
there goes their death chant, they're going to charge." Charges followed from
inside. The defenders were driven back with bloody losses, but the death chant
continued. It was described as a "strange, haunting sound, half wail and half
exultation, the frenzy of despair and the wild cry for revenge" by Captain
Bourke.
At one point in the battle, a 4-year old boy ran to the
mouth of the cave "and stood thumb in mouth, looking in speechless wonder and
indignation at the belching barrels," wrote Bourke. "Almost immediately a bullet
glanced off his skull, knocking him to the ground. Nantaje rushed forward and dragged the boy to safety amidst
the cheers of the soldiers who stopped firing momentarily,
then resumed with redoubled intensity."
The end of the Yavapai's brave
resistance came when Troop G of the 5th Cavalry appeared on the overlook above
the cave and rained rocks and bullets upon the Indians hiding out in the
drainage below. A vivid account narrates how "screams of the dying pierced the
dust, rising high in the air. Only echoes responded. The death chant was quiet.
No rifle spoke. The cave was the house of the dead."
Figure 6 - Soldiers firing down at the
cave.
Sketch, "Ross's Attack" by Frederic
Remington,
for
Century Magazine, March, 1891.
Bourke wrote that the soldiers advanced to
find a ghastly scene of slaughter. "There were men and women dead or writhing in
the agonies of death and with them several babies, killed by our glancing
bullets, or by the storm of rocks and stones that had descended above."
Hoo-moo-thy-ah (Mike Burns) poignantly wrote
about the end of the slaughter. "My people thought that they were strongly
protected and could not see to shoot the soldiers. But the soldiers were ordered
to shoot down volleys of buckets of lead behind those big boulders, so that the
walls of the cave would scatter the glancing bullets into the people beneath.
The showers of lead simply shattered the people so completely that they could
not be recognized as humans. The war songs ceased."
"It happened that only one was left alive. As
he had only one shot left, he killed one Pima Indian at noon. He might have
killed more, but when he reached out with the barrel of his gun to reach a bag
of gunpowder, a bullet or two struck the gun so that it bent nearly double. He
was left in a hole helpless. Finally he was shot. He was my brother-in-law. He
was never known to have ever missed a shot. He was the last one to be killed,
and he was killed like a man."
The Pima and Maricopa scouts rushed into the
cave after the last shots were fired and announced all the men were killed, but
actually those who were still alive had their heads crushed in with rocks by the
Pimas-traditional enemies of the Yavapais. Any surviving women and children were saved by
some of the Apache scouts and given to the soldiers. One badly wounded woman,
who could not sit on a horse, was left behind and given food and water. But,
when the soldiers were out of sight, some Pimas went
back and "smashed her head to jelly." Apparently the Pimas and Maricopas wanted to kill
the Apaches, too. The Indians stripped the cave and the dead of many weapons,
baskets, household goods, anything they could carry
away. Any weapons they didn't take were stacked and burned, so they couldn't be
reclaimed later by other fighters. The survivors were taken to Fort Grant.
One survivor who later went on to fame as a
doctor and leader of the Yavapai people was a small Indian baby who was almost
suffocated under the body of his dead mother. He was adopted by a Maricopa woman
and later taken in by a wealthy easterner and educated. He is known by his
assumed name, Dr. Carlos Montezuma, and was a cousin of Mike Burns.
Then, Brown and his men put away their deadly
carbines (Sharp's) and left the dead where they lay. The total battle had lasted
about four bloody hours. Three months later the dispirited
Yavapai tribe surrended to the U.S. Forces at Camp
Verde. The skeletons lay unburied in the cave for almost a half century.
Supposedly the name "Skeleton Cave" was given to this cave due to the terrible
smell that emanated from the cave for many years and the piles of bones filling
the cave. Sixty-one years later a visitor to the cave testified, "the
bleached and crumbling bones of the slain still lay in and around the cave."
Even today, accounts differ on the number of Yavapais killed and the number of survivors. On an
application form for the National Register of Historic Places (entry that began
this article), it states that "the lop-sided casualty ratio justifies the term
'Massacre' in the name of the nomination." Their figures are 54 dead and 20
captured. There were six young girls and an old woman who had left the cave
before the attack to examine a great mescal pit down in the canyon and determine
whether the food was ready for use, so they survived also. An article in the
February 1959 Arizona Highways magazine lists 76 men, women, and children
killed outright, another 18 mortally wounded and left to die, while about 35
wounded were taken prisoner. A National Park Service description of the Massacre
states there were 75 total killed. An Army report, by Bourke, listed the same
numbers as the application form. Another writer said there were 76 dead and 35
survivors. Another author lists 30 survivors. Finally, another historian says
there were 66 "Apaches" dead and one warrior who escaped alive was killed soon
in another battle at Turret Butte. The application form disputes this, saying,
"less probably, a wounded man hid beneath the corpses and later walked to
safety." The Yavapai Nation at Fort McDowell, on their web
site, states, in one place, that 100 Yavapai men, women and children were
killed. But another site claims 75 dead and 25 wounded. "Yavapai consider
this the most horrible massacre in their history."The only casualty on the other
side was one Pima scout killed and one Pima scout wounded.
Remains within Skeleton Cave
V.
AFTERMATH OF THE MASSACRE OF SKELETON CAVE
The Massacre at Skeleton Cave had far-reaching effects on
many people - General Crook, the Yavapai and Apache peoples and their chiefs,
and later-day visitors to Skeleton Cave.
In Skeleton Cave, the bones lay virtually undisturbed from
December 28, 1872 until January 1908. A rancher named Jack Adams led a group of
friends to the cave. They found it strewn with the skeletal remains of the
fallen Indians. They had a photographer named Lubken
with them who took photos of the remains of at least 8 individuals and broken
baskets, pottery, metates, hand-stones, fragments of
clothing, leather, and blankets within the cave.
A newspaper account of the time has many factual errors,
but offers some insight into early reports about Skeleton Cave and the grisly
finds in it. A few quotes may be of interest. "Grim and ghostly was the sight that met the eyes of Adams......the whitened skeletons
of 200 Indian men, women and children." (Notice exaggerated number of
skeletons.) One of Arizona's bloodiest Indian fights is recalled by this
important discovery - bloody for the Indians, all of whom were caught like rats
in a trap and remorselessly shot to death by Captain John Barnes and his command
of soldiers in 1872.....The skeletons found by Adams are lying on the floor of
the cave in all sorts of shapes, in heaps and singly. They are male and females
from the age of six up.......Jeff Adams (Jack in other accounts) had been a
resident of McDowell for twenty-eight years, and since his coming to Arizona had
heard of the cave, but never knew its location. He was led to it by first
stumbling across the old trail, and by following it. No more terrible massacre
of Indians had ever taken place in Arizona.... "
As for the bones, beginning in the 1920s, the bones were
removed to the Fort McDowell Cemetery and buried. They were scraped up by
Yavapai tribal elders and archeologists, accompanied by a deputy sheriff.
Fragments were still being recovered in the 1930s and later. On Memorial Day in
1985, there was a service at the Fort McDowell Presbyterian Church and a
tombstone was dedicated over their mass grave. Norman Austin, Fort McDowell
tribal president at the time, said the record has never been set straight and
that he didn't know what prompted the massacre, but the victims were Yavapais, not Apaches. He laments that "Yavapai youths seem
particularly apathetic about inaccuracies in history." He assumed that "their
parents didn't tell them about what had taken place some years back.....I was
told by my grandfather and grandmother about how the Yavapais came here to Fort McDowell. We're trying to let
them know what our people had gone through at that time-how we came about and
how many things were sacrificed for we who are living today." .....and later,
"There was a lot of punishment and a lot of killing and a lot of massacres. We
want to let youths know what our people did for us and have respect for them and
respect for ourselves." During the ceremony, John Smith, a tribal elder,
chronicled the events that led to the massacre. Smith's parents lived about a
mile from the cave at the time of the killings and he witnessed much of the
relocation process. The service also included prayers, songs and other tribal
ceremonies. The memorial's goal, according to Austin, was "to provide a little
back history...about our land. We're all part of it and let's have respect for
one another."
Figure 7 - Memorial Plaque at Fort
McDowell
Drawing by Luis Tomas in Arizona
Highways magazine, May, 1991
General George Crook and his Cavalry were
involved in more skirmishes and massacres after Skeleton Cave. One, on March 25,
1873, 3 months after the Skeleton Cave Massacre, was called "Turret Peak" on the
Verde River north of Horseshoe Lake. Another battle between the 5th Calvary
and the hostile Indians occurred nearby two days later. He instructed his
soldiers to stay in the field until they had located and subdued the last
Apache." In a macabre effort to capture Delche, whom
Crook had erroneously believed to be hiding in Skeleton Cave, he offered rewards
for heads of important hostile chiefs. Delche had an
especially high price on his head. A famous drawing by Frederic Remington,
entitled "The Head Delivered", shows a head being brought by Indians to Crook's
camp. He paid the reward three times - a different head each time! None of the
heads belonged to Delche.
Finally, a Peace Treaty was signed with the
Apaches at Camp Verde, Arizona. The Treaty gained Crook the rank of Brigadier
General. The warfare was too much even for the Apaches. They concluded that
peace on the Reservation was better. On April 27, 1873, the last of the Apaches
surrendered at Camp Verde. An Apache-Mohave chief named
Chalipun
approached the General and explained, supposedly, "You see, we are nearly dead
from want of food and exposure - the copper cartridge has done the business for
us. I am glad of the opportunity to surrender, but I do it not because I love
you, but because I am afraid of the General."
Crook's old enemy, Delche,
surrendered also. His 125 warriors had been reduced to 20 after six months of
warfare. He complained, "There was a time when we could escape the white
soldiers. But now the very rocks have become soft. We cannot put our feet
anywhere. We cannot sleep, for if a coyote or fox barks, or a
stone moves we are up - the soldiers have come."
As the soldiers took their captives back to
Camp Verde, accounts say "an unprecedented thing began to happen. Each
procession was joined by hundreds of 'wild' Apaches. In twos and threes they
quietly slipped among the marchers, uttering only the word 'Siquian
- my brother' to the scouts who had hunted them. When Crook counted all the
hostiles who had come in, he found that he had 2,300 captives."
Crook, according to Bourke, then told the
leaders in "his firm paternal way" that "if they would live at peace on the
Reservation, he promised he would be the best friend they ever had. " Most of the bands agreed to move onto a reservation at
Fort Verde.
Following his great success, Crook was
transferred out of Arizona in 1874 as Commander of the Department of the Platte
from 1875 to 1882, with headquarters at Fort Omaha, Nebraska. He began to speak
out on behalf of Native American rights.
Crook returned to Arizona in 1882. The last
Apache battle was fought in Arizona at Big Dry Wash, a few miles north of
General Springs on the Mogollon Rim. This battle, on July 17, 1882, marked a
major Apache uprising. That September, Crook was recalled to Arizona to bring in
Geronimo. In March,1886 there was an incident where
Geronimo met with Crook and agreed to surrender at Canon de los Embudos. But, convinced Crook would kill
him,
Geronimo gathered a few warriors and slipped away. When the General of the Army,
Phil Sheridan (Crook's friend from West Point), questioned
Crook for placing too much trust in Geronimo, Crook resigned. He was replaced by
another seasoned Indian fighter named General Nelson Miles, apparently an
egotistical and politically ambitious soldier, who took false credit for the
eventual capture of Geronimo and used it to advance his career. Politics had
ended Crook's career in Arizona.
Also, as an aftermath of the Skeleton Cave
Massacre, according to Charles Lummis, an early reporter for the Los Angeles
Times who covered the final days of the Apache War, Crook was "reviled by
many Arizonans at the time. Though earlier in his career, he had developed a
reputation as a ruthless Indian fighter, in the waning days of the Indian wars
he had grown increasingly sympathetic toward his erstwhile enemies."...."And
once a group of renegades was cornered, Crook or his officers would approach
unarmed, and after convincing them to turn themselves in, he would let them keep
their weapons." The Tombstone Epitaph ,
in particular, "hated him for his 'soft' approach, and even national papers grew
critical as months passed and Geronimo remained on the loose." Crook's
"suspicious affinity" for his Apache charges, and his "curious refusal to go for
the kill when his troops seemed to have the renegades boxed in" suggested to the
paper that the "veteran Indian fighter had fallen dangerously under the sway of
'hypocritical kid-gloved philosophers ' of the East. New England humanitarians
believe-or profess to believe-that the whites are the aggressor. When the
Indians kill whites, they intimate in as many words, that it serves us right for
maltreating their pets. If it were only possible for Geronimo to go on one of
his murderous raids in the eastern states, the Indian problem would soon be
solved."
Finally, near the end of Crook's career, the
San Francisco Chronicle was less hysterical but no less critical, reflecting
a growing consensus about Crook's performance in 1886, 14 years after the
Skeleton Cave Massacre: "His mismanagement of the Apache campaign has cost him
not only advancement in rank but a large share of his reputation as an Indian
fighter."
VI
CONCLUSIONS; HISTORIANS DO NOT AGREE
This article has presented emotional accounts
by one survivor, Hoo-moo-thy-ah (Mike Burns), the boy
who led soldiers to Skeleton Cave and witnessed the massacre of his people;
writings by Captain John G. Bourke, an aide de camp glorifying his General;
excerpts from a graduate thesis for the U.S.Army
Command and General Staff College in 1978 about General Crook and his strategies
in warfare; writers Daniel Joseph Bangs and Donald Bangs, for Arizona
Highways magazine of February 1959, and a subsequent briefer article in
Arizona Highways magazine in May 1991 by Jim Schreier,
newspaper accounts of the Apache warfare of the times, and several historians
writing in books and in articles on the Internet. Who has all the facts? Who is
truly telling the story of the Skeleton Cave Massacre impartially? Writers about
the event, as noted, disagree on many "facts", even the number of victims.
In my opinion, based on much research, the
Arizona Highways article of 1959, written before all the known "facts"
emerged through the mists of time, has the most errors. For example, the Yavapai are consistently
referred to as Apaches. Details about the actions of the scouts, who were Pima
and Apache, and their murders of some of the survivors are omitted.
The account by Mike Burns in his
autobiography, published in 2002 long after his death in 1934, was apparently
written in hard-to-read English and was read only by a few historians. His
intense emotion at seeing his family murdered understandably colors his account.
Yet, it would be valuable as a first-person witness to events.
General Crook's aide, Bourke, by all accounts
was very devoted to his General, and wished to present events in a light most
favorable to him. And a much, much later account of successful use of tactics
written for the graduate thesis at a military college, obviously glorifies the
Cavalry's success. So does an internet account on use of the Sharp's rifle in
the battle.
Most of the other historical accounts
available in history books, i.e. Marshall Trimble's Arizona: A Cavalcade of History (1989) and on the Internet, tend
to build on each other to form a fairly similar story of the Skeleton Cave
Massacre.
Still, who can really know all the events and
motivations of the tragic Skeleton Cave Massacre so long ago on Christmas Day,
December 28, 1872? They followed a general pattern of battles between military
and civilians and Native Americans of the late 1800's. As Arizona developed into
a state, the Skeleton Cave Massacre that turned a shelter cave into a graveyard
should not be forgotten.
VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This author, Kathy Block, wishes to credit the
thought-provoking article by George A. Brunson, "Some Thoughts About History" on Arizona Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
(APCRP) web pages for inspiring this attempt to tell the tragic story of
the Skeleton Cave Massacre. Also, a big "thank you" to Mr. Tom Guilleland of
Tucson, Arizona for supplying Xeroxes of important source materials and
reviewing this article, and also to Allan Hall and Bonnie Helten of
APCRP for their thoughtful suggestions. Finally, my appreciation to my husband, Ed Block, for his
proofreading and patience while I worked many hours researching and writing.
Any errors in interpreting materials are my own.
VIII BIBLIOGRAPHY
Because this was not a formal research paper for
publication in commercial media form, I did not use annotated footnotes and
references to some materials quoted or paraphrased in this article. Occasionally
I indicated direct sources, such as Bourke. Sometimes Internet articles had no
author.
I often combined materials from many sources in one
paragraph or even sentence.
Main Books Used for Information:
Martin F. Schmitt and Dee Brown. Fighting Indians of the West.
Bonanza Book, New York, 1968. Chapter "The Conquest of
Cochise", pp.91-94. The detailed, vivid account consistently referred to
the Yavapai as Apaches.
Marshall Trimble. Arizona: A Cavalcade of History.
Treasure Chest Publications, Tucson, Arizona, 1989. "Chapter
8: Turbulent Times," pp.116-118. General, but sparse,
outline of events.
Smithsonian Institute. Bureau of
American Ethnology. Bulletin 30. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Ed. Frederick Webb Hodge. Part I, 1907, pp.63-68; Part 2,
1910, p.994. Useful for insight into ethnological viewpoints
of the time.
Other Sources of Information:
Daniel Joseph Bangs and Donald Bangs, "A Trip
to Skeleton Cave," Arizona
Highways magazine, February, 1959. Detailed information on the physical
location of the cave, interesting historical photos, but some inaccuracies,
also. Called the victims "Apaches".
Jim Schreier, "The Skeleton Cave
Incident", Arizona Highways magazine, May 1991. Focuses on Hoo-Mo-thya
(Mike Burns) and his life and thoughts from his autobiography, which had not
been published from his manuscript at this time.
Mike Burns. The Journey of a Yavapai Indian: A 19th
Century Odysey. Random House,
2002. I did not quote directly from this book, but rather from long
excerpts from it on the Internet.
"The U.S. Cavalry Versus
the Indians, 1832 through 1898," Seniram
Publishing, Inc. Glenside, PA. 1989. From excerpts printed on the Internet from
"A Portrait of Stars and Stripes" which may be used and reprinted by students
and for non-commercial use by the individual. Very useful as a
guideline to battles and events involving General Crook and the 5th Cavalry.
Application for National Register of Historic Places by
the National Park Service, 1990, Prepared by Norm Tessman
and Alan Ferg of the Arizona State Historic
Preservation Office. Generously supplied by Tom Gilleland of
Tucson, Arizona. Offered much basic information about
the cave and the Massacre.
Wikepedia web sites for biographies of General George Crook and
Captain John Bourke, information on the Yavapai people, Fort McDowell, and the
Skeleton Cave Massacre in general. These were supplemented from other Internet
materials.
Stan Brown, "Back when the Yavapai Indian Reservation was
Established," Payson Roundup, Oct.21, 2003, Internet Article.
Mark Thompson, "Lummis and the Apache War,"
2001.
Article from the Internet.
Bill Heidner, "Apache Scouts
Lead Army to Success in Arizona." 2005. Article from the Internet.
William Gruaberg,
"General Crook and Counter-Insurgency Warfare," Master's Thesis, U.S.Army Command and Staff College, 1978, pages 5-6 and
46-47, Article from the Internet. A good view of military strategy from a military viewpoint.
"The Skeleton Cave Massacre," Desert USA,
2006.
Focuses on use of Sharp's carbines in the Skeleton Cave Massacre and other
battles, from viewpoint of their effectiveness and technological advantages.
"The Only Good Indian is a Dead Indian," from
Answers.com. on the Internet.
Wiccan site, "The Arizona Ghost Searchers," article on
Camp Grant. Internet Article.
Legends of America web site: "Fort McDowell-in the Midst
of the Apache Wars." by Kathy Weiser, Jan. 2009.
Peter Aleshire, "Scenic Wonders,
tragic history," Payson Roundup, Oct.22, 2008. Internet Article.
Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, "Fort McDowell Yavapai
Nation," Internet Article.
National Archives Learning Curve web site,
"George Crook."
Internet Article. Details about General Crook's life, with comments from
various individuals he encountered in his lifetime.
National Park Service web site, "Soldier and Brave: Survey
of Historical Sites and Buildings." "Salt River Canyon (Skeleton Cave)
Battlefield, Arizona." Internet Article.
also, from same site, "Camp Verde, Arizona."
Bill Heidner, "Apache Scouts
Lead Army to Success in Arizona," Yuma Proving Ground web site, Dec.7, 2005.
Internet Article.
David Roberts, Once They Moved Like the Wind: Cochise,
Geronimo and the Apache Wars. Barnes and Noble, 1994.
From excerpts published on the Internet.
Arizona
Pioneer & Cemetery
Research Project
Internet Presentation
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WebMaster: Neal Du Shane
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