OCTOBER 14:

October 14, 1880:  Victorio's Apaches are attacked by the Mexican army near Tres Castillos in Chihuahua, Mexico. Victorio will be shot and killed by a Mexican sharpshooter.  Many of his followers will be killed as well. The Mexicans will report killing seventy-eight men, and capturing sixty-eight women and children.

1754 Red Deer, Alberta - Anthony Henday shares a pipe and a meal with a Blackfoot chief; fails to persuade him to send his young men to York Factory on Hudson Bay to trade for guns, blankets and beads directly instead of through Cree middlemen; the chief says his young men cannot leave their horses, and have no experience with boats and paddles; besides, the Blackfoot get all they need from the buffalo.

1652 Montreal Quebec - Major Lambert Closse mobilizes inhabitants of Montreal, alerted by barking dogs, against a force of invading Iroquois; will beat back the Iroquois in a two day battle near Montreal. 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From the 2000 Council of Indian Nations webpage, at http://www.cinprograms.org/people/northern/victorio.html
 

Victorio was a Membreno Apache who served under Mangas Coloradas. Following the death of Mangas Coloradas in 1863, Victorio assumed the leadership of the Membreno Apache.

Victorio was a skilled strategist, known for his bravery. He and his men battled both the Mexicans and the Americans from 1863 to 1877.

In 1877 Victorio signed a peace treaty on behalf of the Apache. When the U.S. unilaterally broke the treaty after just four months, Victorio and his men kept on raiding, hiding in the mountains to survive.

Over the next couple of years Victorio signed more treaties, was captured, was indicted, and always managed to escape. In 1880 his band was cornered, and in a two-day battle most of them were wiped out. It is unclear whether Victorio was killed in battle or took his own life as the army closed in on him.

The Apache and their foes respected and admired Victorio for his bravery and tenacity against incredible odds.
 

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From http://www.buffalosoldier.net/BuffaloSoldiers&ChiefVictorio.htm
 

Victorio's War 1879-1880

Chief Victorio, is considered one of the fiercest of the Apaches. He and his Warm Springs Apaches left the hated San Carlos Reservation. He had done this twice before but had returned. When moved to Fort Stanton, New Mexico he fled again, but this time he said he would never return. Victorio reasoned that the arrival of the new judge and district attorney meant he would be tried for old killings and horse stealing. Another reason why he and his band left, was because the government would not give his people their promised food allotments, which brought them to near starvation. Before Victorio's breakout, the Ninth U.S. Cavalry had been given the task of returning Apaches who left their reservation. They also had to protect the Apaches on and off the reservation from cowboys and others, who often hunted and killed Indians for sport. Some whites even made a living selling Indian scalps to the Mexican government, who paid $50 for a male, $25 for a female and $10 for a child's scalp. At one time, the Apaches had been allowed to hunt, under the protection of the military, but the settlers didn't like seeing armed Indians, so the practice was discontinued. Colonel Hatch of the Ninth U.S. Cavalry, complained to General Sheridan that the Apaches were going to starve if they couldn't leave the reservation to hunt. Sheridan was not interested in Hatch's letter.

September 4, 1879: Ojo Caliente, Arizona; As Victorio became more and more hate filled, he began to mutilate bodies. Soon after breaking out of the San Carlos Reservation, Victorio and his men struck at Captain Hooker and Company E of the Ninth U.S. cavalry stealing forty-six of their horses. In the aftermath, five Buffalo Soldiers lay dead, with their bodies staked to the ground. They were Sergeant Silas Chapman, Privates Lafayerre Hoke, William Murphy, Silas Graddon and Alvrew Percival. Victorio and his band escaped.

September 10, 1879: By this time, nine settlers had been killed by Victorio's band. Other groups of Apaches joined in the fighting. All of the Ninth's Companies with Apache and Navaho scouts were in the field, always one step behind Victorio. Thousands of soldiers would continue this scenario for the next year, skirmishing Victorios' band over thousands of grueling miles in the worst of conditions.

September 16, Black Range Mountains, New Mexico: Lieutenant Colonel Dudley with Captain Dawson's B Company and Hooker's E were ambushed and trapped by Vicrorio's warriors. They were rescued by Captain Beyer and Lieutenant Hugo of Companies C and G. After a day of fighting, the soldiers broke off the engagement. Five soldiers, three scouts and thirty-two horses lay dead.

November 1879, The Candelaria Mountains, Mexico: Victorio and his warriors ambushed and killed fifteen Mexican citizens from the little village of Carrizal, who were looking for cattle thieves. Later, eleven more citizens were killed while searching for those who had not returned. The Mexican government telegraphed the U.S. commander in the area, to inform him that they were after Victorio, which would drive him back into Texas.

January 9, -May, 1880: Major Morrow, who had assumed command of operations in Southern New Mexico, sent the Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth against Victorio's band many times during this period. In most of these cases, Victorio's war party fought off the soldiers. Sometimes the fighting ended quickly. At other times, it lasted for days.

May 1880: General Sheridan assigned Colonel Grierson's Tenth U.S. Cavalry to assist in the capture of Victorio. Instead of going into New Mexico, he felt Victorio would come to Texas to raid. Grierson also decided to change his strategy in confronting Victorio. Instead of his men chasing Victorio across the desolate countryside, he would post them at the canyon passes and water holes he thought they would use.

May 12, Bass Canon west of Fort Davis: Eight Mescalero warriors attacked a wagon train killing two settlers and wounding two. Captain Carpenter of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry with Company H pursued them to the Rio Grande. He was convinced they were on their way to join Victorio.

July 1880 Eagle Springs, Texas: Lieutenant Henry Flipper was the first black officer in the U. S. military and the first to graduate from the West Point Military Academy. He as in charge of three troopers who rode 98 miles in twenty-one hours to inform Captain Gillmore that Victorio's advance guard had been spotted. This information was forwarded to Colonel Grierson who thought Victorio and his warriors would head for Eagle Springs. His men marched sixty-eight miles in twenty-four hours to get there ahead of Victorio's band. To their disappointment, Victorio had turned northwest, headed for Rattlesnake Springs. That same night, they marched sixty miles more to Rattlesnake Springs.

August 6, 1880, Rattlesnake Springs, Texas: Captain Viele was placed in charge of Companies C and G of the Tenth as they waited for Victorio's approach. At mid-afternoon their long wait was rewarded. Slowly, Victorio's warriors advanced unaware of the ambush. Seconds before the signal to fire was given, Victorio sensed the danger and halted his men. The troopers opened fire. The warriors swiftly withdrew out of range. Needing water and believing there were only a few soldiers, Victorio attacked. Carpenter and B and H companies counter attacked, temporarily halting the Indians advance. Meanwhile, a strong unit of Victorio's band struck at the army wagons that were in route to the springs. They were beaten off. Victorio's warriors repeatedly charged the troopers to reach the water. Finally, in near darkness, one last attempt was made to reach the spring. It failed, Victorio fled with the troopers in pursuit. The chase ended without further contact. By then, all mountain passes and water holes were covered by the troopers.

August 9th Victorio's supply camp was discovered. His guards retreated, leaving twenty-five head of cattle, dried beef and pack animals.

August 11, 1880: The Buffalo Soldiers with Captains Carpenter and Nolon found Victorio and his warriors. They gave chase. The horses in Carpenters Company gave out, leaving Nolon's troopers to continue the chase. Victorio's warriors crossed the Rio Grande River into Mexico before Nolon's troopers could catch them. Victorio, like many times before, had escaped. Soon after his return to Mexico, its government gave the U.S. military, permission to cross into Mexico with the expressed intention of capturing Victorio dead or alive.

October 4,1880: Ten companies of the Tenth U.S. Cavalry were placed inside Mexico at the Rio Grande to stop Victorio from returning into Texas. The Tenth and Colonel Jaoquin Terraza's Mexican forces located Victorio and his band. Five days later, the Mexican government informed the American forces their presence in Mexico was no longer needed. The Buffalo Soldiers left under protest. Colonel Grierson asked General Sheridan for permission to return to Mexico, permission was denied. October 14, 1880: Tres Castillos Mountains, Mexico; Colonel Terrazas and his Mexican troops surrounded Victorio's camp and attacked. Before the morning was over, Victorio lay dead, with sixty warriors, and eighteen women and children. Sixty-eight women and children were taken prisoner.

Death rode with Victorio, as silently as a shadow, when he and his warriors returned to Mexico. With Victorio's War at an end, the Trans-Pacos area was somewhat at peace. Colonel Grierson reported that during "Victorio's War", the Tenth U.S. Cavalry lost three troopers and saw three wounded. He also reported trooper Private Wesley Hardy as missing in action.
 

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From http://www.zianet.com/snm/victorio.htm

Victorio and the reservation system - a prescription for disaster By James W. Hurst

Victorio, Warm Springs Apache Chief, 1825(?)-1880

The policy was not really new, having had its origins in the earlier nineteenth-century Jeffersonian policy of removing Indians in the path of white westward expansion to territories west of the Mississippi River. There, it was hoped, the Indians would learn the arts and crafts of "civilization," and by the time the westward movement of European immigrants caught up with them they would be ready for assimilation into Jefferson's dream of a rural republic of independent yeomen.

As the plans for the Apaches developed by 1870, six areas were considered for reservations: Fort Apache in Arizona; the Santa Lucia reserve along the Gila River; the Mimbres River near Pinos Altos; along the Alamosa River at Ojo Caliente; an area east of the Rio Grande near Fort Stanton; and the valley of the Tularosa River. Vincent Colyer, secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners, was charged with the task of recommending a suitable area from among those considered, and he quickly established criteria for a viable reservation: arable land, good water, remote from white settlements, surrounded by mountains not easily crossed, and an abundant supply of wood and game. Colyer would soon learn that it was easier to establish criteria than it was to get the Southern Apache bands to accept them.

W. F. M. Arny, former Indian Agent, acting in 1870 as United States Special Agent, issued in November of that year a report that included his estimate of the number of Southern Apaches. The bands mentioned above, plus the Mescaleros, Arny estimated at 3,638 men, women and children (of whom 910 were warriors). These were the Apaches who, according to Arny, were "the most savage, barbarous, and uncivilized Indians on this continent. Their exploits in the way of murder, robberies, and torture are unparalleled in the history of any other tribe of Indians: they have robbed mails, burned Stage Coaches, have torn out, cooked and eaten the hearts of some persons, and have burned at the stake stage passengers and other prisoners . . . and [have] retarded the mining operations of one of the richest portions of the United States." The years of warfare, Arny believed, had made these Indians ready for peace if suitable area could be found for them.

In the fall of 1870, a large number of Southern Apaches were living at Ojo Caliente, in the valley of the Alamosa River, fifteen miles northwest of Canada Alamosa (present-day Monticello). A dozen miles south of Canada Alamosa, at Cuchillo Negro, Cochise was camped with perhaps 150 of his band. Special Agent Arny envisioned a reservation here that would commence "two miles north of the Hot Springs and running thirty miles down the valley, and twenty miles in width." Arny believed this area, minus the few settlers who were there and who could be removed at minimal expense, would be sufficient to support the entire Southern Apache population. The area was a favorite of the Mimbres band (often called the Warm Spring Apaches), and was claimed by their great leader, Victorio, as their ancestral homeland. The failure to recognize this claim would, in the near future, have disastrous results.

By the spring of 1871, some twelve hundred Apaches were located in the Canada Alamosa Valley, their first reservation. While they were generally pleased with the area, the meager weekly rations were insufficient to maintain them, and they began to forage on their own. They were quickly blamed for every depredation in the surrounding area, many, if not most, of which were the work of the Mexican contrabandistas located at Canada. In August, Vincent Colyer recommended the removal of the Apaches from Ojo Caliente to the Tularosa Valley, some seventy airmiles to the northwest.

On November 20, General Sheridan ordered the creation of the reservation: It was to extend thirty miles from the headwaters of the river and to spread ten miles inland from either bank. By April, 1872, an agency was established, and in early May the first Indians began to move. By the first of June perhaps four hundred and fifty Apaches had arrived; the rest had simply taken to the mountains and disappeared, many of whom joined their Chiracahua cousins in Arizona. Among those on the new reservation, discontent grew when in the fall, word reached them of the creation of a new reservation in the Chiracahua and Dragoon Mountains of Arizona for Cochise and his band.

With the coming of summer in 1874, Tularosa <rictula.htm>  was abandoned, and the Mimbres were allowed to return to Ojo Caliente. Some four hundred and fifty returned, and the following year the Army built a Post along the Alamosa River near the warm spring and not far from the entrance to Canada Alamosa. The next year saw increased contact between the Indians and nearby settlers, the most unsettling result of which was the development of a trade in whiskey and corn for tizwin. Drunkenness and its accompanying violence became a major problem.

Unknown to the Mimbres was a growing sentiment within the Army, the Indian Bureau, and among settlers in Southern New Mexico and Arizona for a new version of the removal policy: concentration of all Southern Apaches at San Carlos, Arizona. In 1876, the Chiracahua reservation was closed in favor of San Carlos, and many of the Arizona Apaches, rather than follow Taza, son and successor to the deceased Cochise, to the hated area, joined their kinsman at Warm Springs. There the renegades found numerous allies for their raids, and it soon became evident that Ojo Caliente had become a nest of brigands. In May 1877, the removal of the Warm Spring Apaches to San Carlos began. The prescription for disaster had been prepared.

Early in September 1877, Victorio and perhaps three hundred followers, Warm Spring and Chiracahua alike, fled the reservation and began three years of intermittent depredation, mayhem and violence, the likes of which the Southwest had never seen. Victorio wanted a return to Ojo Caliente, and for a brief time in 1878 he returned, only to flee again when informed he and his people were to be transferred to the Mescalero Agency. He returned to the Mescalero Agency at the end of June and took up residence only to flee again in the late summer of 1879. His raids continued, and on September 4 he attacked the Ninth Cavalry guard at the Post at Ojo Caliente, inflicted a number of casualties, and fled toward the Black Range.

The late winter and early spring of 1880 found Victorio in the mountains from which he continued his raids, inducing a large number of Mescalero warriors to join him. Pursued diligently by the Army, he made his way to Mexico, crossing the border by early June. He had eluded two thousand cavalrymen and several hundred Indian scouts. He had lost a number of his men, his son included, inflicted heavy casualties on the Army, and hoped that the wilderness of Chihuahua would provide shelter and sustenance for his weary band. He had perhaps one hundred warriors, not all fit for the rigors of combat, and four hundred women and children. Victorio's trail of life was about to end.

On October 15, 1880, Joaquin Terrazas and his troops located Victorio's band making its way to Tres Castillos. Aided by Mata Ortiz and his men, Colonel Terrazas attacked the outnumbered Apaches as evening drew near. The fight lasted through the night and into morning, ending at about ten with the death of Victorio and nearly seventy of his men. Seventy-eight scalps were taken for the bounty, one report claiming that the state of Chihuahua paid fifty thousand dollars for the grim trophies. A triumphal march was held in Chihuahua City, the scalps displayed on lances for all to see, and the prisoners marched to jail to the sound of playing bands and cheering populace. The next day the children were distributed among those who wanted them, the adult captives were later sold into servitude, and Colonel Terrazas, promoted to full colonel, is said to have earned $27,450 from the scalps and prisoners he personally claimed.

Victorio and his followers paid a horrible price for their bid to escape the reservation system designed for them by the American government; a price, paradoxically, they had inflicted on hundreds of men, women, and children in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. The clash between the Euro-American cultures of the United States and Mexico on the one hand and the Indian cultures on the other seemed always to be played out in the context of classical tragedy: Even the apparent winners lost.