In the Days of Victorio by Eve Ball

Author:Eve Ball [Eve Ball]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 2015-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

My Uncles

Regardless of where an atrocity was committed it was attributed to Nana. When these events occurred simultaneously in different areas, Nana had divided his forces, but was responsible. Some of these reports were true, some not. Reports of his killings were exaggerated as were those of Victorio’s. No living person knows better than I that both exacted lives in retaliation for those of my people who were killed, but not many know the provocation they had for revenge.

Thomas Cruse, later a brigadier general, was a lieutenant at the time of the Victorio campaign. In Apache Days and After, he wrote “The Government ignored Victorio’s just grievances and forced him to the warpath. The ultimate cost was millions in money and over a thousand lives of white men, women and children.” Gatewood, who knew the circumstances, always said that any man of discretion, empowered to adjust Victorio’s well-founded claims, could have prevented the bloody and disastrous outbreak of 1879.

That statement I believe true. Unfortunately, the few who possessed the knowledge had not the power to act. Nana, deeply and sincerely wanted peace, but he wanted his own country, his freedom, and that of his people to enjoy living in their own land. Aged and infirm, he fought for people, land, and freedom to the inevitable, tragic end. If he were ill or weary, only he knew it. His endurance seemed endless, his patience effortless. No young man in the tribe could spend more hours in the saddle without rest than he. I am sure Mother realized that he was often weary and discouraged, but she did not speak of it in my presence. He continued to set the pace for the young men, always taking upon himself whatever hazards had to be met. If he depended upon anyone it was Kaytennae.

After we turned south, Nana took half the warriors with him and put Blanco in command of the others who were to take the noncombatants to Sonora. Two of the women who accompanied him were highly skilled in dressing wounds, and while not as expert as Lozen, were efficient fighters. These were exempt from cooking and other chores usually done by the wives who accompanied their husbands, or the young boys in training as warriors.

Our group went by Ojo Caliente, deserted by the soldiers. Blanco stationed guards to warn us of the approach of an enemy and for two days we stayed near the warm spring. How good it was to lie in that water! If we had been able to bathe it had been in cold mountain streams. On the desert where even drinking water was difficult to obtain we had rubbed our skins with fine sand. We lay in the cleansing pool and enjoyed its beneficent water for hours.

We left by Monticello and turned south toward Fort Cumimngs. We were to go west through Cook’s Pass. Nana made a feint at attack to lure the cavalry toward the Floridas so that Blanco could take the emigrant wagon road west from the fort.

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