Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

In the spring of 1871, white men made contact with the Apache chief Cochise, and invited him to Washington, D.C. In 1861 Cochise had been ambushed by American soldiers and forced to order his warriors to return cattle they’d stolen from a white rancher. However, he escaped the soldiers, and then executed white prisoners in an act of revenge.

For the next ten years, the Apaches—led by Chief Cochise, as well as his father-in-law, Mangas Colorado—waged violent war against white men in the Southwest. They attacked wagon trains and mining towns. But as the decade dragged on, Mangas came to realize that his people could never defeat the U.S. military. He came to a military base, waving a truce flag. However, the soldiers took him captive, tortured him, and then murdered him and mutilated his body. The military report falsely stated that Mangas was shot while trying to escape.

After the end of the Civil War, the government made peace overtures to Cochise and the Apaches. Cochise refused to cooperate with a peace delegation. Apache fights continued to attack white settlers. In 1871, the government was more eager than ever to get in contact with Cochise.

Also in the spring of 1871, an Apache leader named Eskiminzin came to see Lieutenant Royal E. Whitman. He explained to Whitman that his Apaches had no home, since American soldiers were always shooting at them. He proposed a peace treaty. While Whitman claimed he had no authority to accept a treaty, he offered Eskiminzin’s men jobs harvesting and cooking mescal. Eskiminzin accepted, and within a few months, hundreds of Apaches had joined the mescal farm.

In April 1871, Apaches raided a town near Tucson and killed several white men. In retaliation, a group of white residents formed a small army of fighters and burned an Apache village to the ground, killing and mutilating women and children.

Whitman was concerned that the massacre would reflect badly on him, and he launched an investigation to bring the white killers to justice. In the ensuing trial, the killers were acquitted. Whitman’s crusade to punish the killers ended his career: he was court-martialed on trumped-up charges, and later resigned.

In June 1871, Commissioner Vincent Colyer met with Eskiminzin in order to persuade him to remain peaceful. Colyer was accompanied by General George Crook. Colyer promised that he would express Eskiminzin’s need for food to the president. Colyer met with other chiefs, but never spoke to Cochise. He arranged for a courier to find Cochise, but the courier failed to find him. Meanwhile, General Crook sent scouts to find Cochise.

After months, General Crook’s agents tracked down Cochise. By this time, Cochise was an old man. Crook’s agents offered to move to Apaches to a new reservation. Cochise angrily replied that he would never leave his ancestral land. On a later visit, Cochise negotiated with government representatives, who offered to move the Apaches to the Rio Grande, but Cochise refused. In the end, the government representatives said they were “won over” by Cochise’s “courtesy and direct simplicity.” They agreed to give the Apaches a reservation in the Chiricahua Mountains.

While Cochise’s agreement gave the Apaches good land, some of the Apaches continued to defy the U.S. military and attack white settlers. In the summer of 1873, Apaches killed an American lieutenant and then fled. For the next few months, General Crook tracked the Apache aggressors. Later on, two separate mercenaries presented Crook with a severed head supposedly belonging to the leader of the Apache uprising. Crook decided that at least one head must be the real one, and declared the uprising defeated.

In 1874, Cochise became ill. Without a strong leader, the Apaches were mostly confined to their reservations, or else fled into Mexico. “A forced peace” had been imposed in Apache country.