Dragoons in Apacheland Anglo-Apache Relations in Southern New Mexico, 1846-1861 by William Kiser A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Approved February 2011 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Donald Fixico Christine Szuter Jannelle Warren-Findley ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY December 2011 ABSTRACT During the 1850s, Indian policy objectives pursued by the civil and military branches of government in New Mexico would have a lasting impact on future relations between the two cultures. Many later policies originated in this antebellum period, but often receive only a summary analysis by scholars who focus on the more popular post-Civil War period. Debates over proper policies and enforcement would proliferate in the 1850s as military and civil officials vied with one another over their own perceived authority. Many officials pursued viable policies, but did not remain in office long enough to ensure their implementation. Additionally, personal egos and stubbornness often undermined interagency cooperation. An overall cultural misunderstanding regarding Apache tribal structure and the inability to distinguish between subgroups exacerbated the conflict. Anti-Indian sentiments prevailed in the military, which often contradicted the more humanitarian approach advocated by the Indian Department. As a result, a contention for power and prestige emerged on three separate fronts: civil government leaders, military leaders, and within the Apache tribe. This thesis offers a contextualization of events that transpired during the 1870s and 1880s by demonstrating how these three entities contended amongst each other for power, undermining policy objectives in the antebellum era. Americans sought to conquer and control—to exert authority and power— over all components of the western landscape in order that they might realize its full economic potential. The Apaches formed a part of this landscape much the same as lofty mountain ranges, raging rivers, and parched deserts. All of these i required conquering before that nineteenth century American dream could be fully imbued in the Southwest, and over the several decades following Kearny’s arrival countless individuals streamed westward in torrents intent on accomplishing just that. The Apaches, like all western tribes, thus fell into an unstoppable cycle of conquest driven by an insatiable Anglo-American obsession with exerting control. Just as swarthy lawyers challenged claims to gain legal dominion over western tracts of land; just as engineers constructed dams and sought ways to manipulate streams and rivers; just as the plow tilled millions of acres of raw lands; just as the miner’s pick slowly chipped away at formidable peaks; so too did the United States Army subdue the Apaches, all of these being a means towards a common end for the American West. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my committee members, Dr. Christine Szuter and Dr. Jannelle Warren-Findley, for their continued support and advice. I would especially like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Donald Fixico, who reviewed numerous drafts and dedicated himself wholeheartedly to ensuring the scholastic quality of this thesis. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION….…………………………………….……………….1 1 THE SOLDIERS…………………………………………………………10 2 THE APACHES..……………………………………….……………….31 3 THE EARLY YEARS OF MILITARY OCCUPATION……………......45 4 THE WOES CONTINUE……...………….…………………………..…83 5 THE MILITARY CAMPAIGNS OF 1856-1857……………….……...120 6 THE DRAGOONS’ FINAL YEARS…………………………………..146 CONCLUSION..………………………………………………………..163 BIBLIOGRAPHY….…………………………………………………...168 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. U.S. Military Area of Operations, 1848-1861……………………………vi 2. Rio Grande Valley of Southern New Mexico, 1857………..……………50 3. Col. Edwin V. Sumner…………………………………….………….….63 4. James S. Calhoun………………………………………………………...63 5. Fort Fillmore, 1854………………………………………………………69 6. Fort Fillmore, Modern-Day………………………………………….…..70 7. William Carr Lane……………………………………………………….84 8. Dr. Michael Steck………………………………………….…...………100 9. David Meriwether………………………………………….…………...103 10. Fort Thorn, 1856…………………………………………..…..………..110 11. Ojo de Lucero…………..………………………………………………154 v U.S. Military Area of Operations, 1848-1861 vi INTRODUCTION The administration of federal Indian policy in New Mexico during the 1850s has commonly been given short shrift among scholars and historians in favor of later policies and events during the 1870s and 1880s. It is during the 1850s, however, with New Mexico in its infancy as a United States territory, that the roots of later Indian policy can be found. Indeed both federal and local Indian policies throughout this time period deserve an in-depth analysis. Continuous conflict existed between civil and military leaders regarding proper policies, their implementation, and their enforcement. As a result, a contention for power and prestige emerged on three separate fronts: civil government leaders, military leaders, and within the Apache tribe. This thesis examines both the civil and military governments in New Mexico throughout the 1850s, demonstrating how these two entities worked with and against each other, including the overall effect that their actions had on relations with the Apache Indians. Previous scholarship has examined, in detail, the relationship between the Apaches and the United States government in the post-Civil War era, often focusing on either Cochise, Victorio, or Geronimo in mostly biographical analyses of their roles as Apache leaders. Renowned Apache historian Dan L. Thrapp published extensively on the subject, becoming the foremost authority on Apache history. Thrapp’s most well known work, entitled The Conquest of Apacheria, outlined the entire history of the Apache wars in the Southwest, beginning in 1846 and extending through Geronimo’s surrender. In so doing, 1 Thrapp provided only a superficial examination of the antebellum era and instead focused the majority of his monograph on the post-Civil War period. Another of Thrapp’s works, entitled Victorio and the Mimbres Apaches, served as a biography of that famous leader. While providing the academic community with an invaluable piece of Apache scholarship, this work once again highlighted the 1870s and 1880s. By emphasizing the roles of such leaders as Victorio and Geronimo, it only briefly analyzed pre-Civil War occurrences that led to those later conflicts. Similarly, historian Edwin R. Sweeney has published three excellent books about the Apaches, including Mangas Coloradas, which represents the most comparable secondary source to this manuscript. In his work, Sweeney outlined the relationship between the Apaches and the Mexican army and government in tremendous detail. By conducting considerable research in the Mexican archives to tell that portion of the story, Sweeney pioneered Apache- Mexican scholarship. Sweeney therefore provides a unique insight into that component of the conflict, but, in so doing, his work omits many important occurrences in the 1850s between the Apaches and the American government. This thesis offers a detailed analysis of this early period in Apache and Anglo- American relations, from 1846 to 1861, in order to contextualize the more well- known events of the 1870s and 1880s, when such leaders as Cochise, Victorio, and Geronimo rose to prominence. 2 The implementation of United States Indian policy in New Mexico can be traced back to June 1846, when General Stephen Watts Kearny1 departed Fort Leavenworth, Kansas en route to New Mexico with a command of 1,586 United States troops, collectively christened the “Army of the West.”2 This military force acted in conjunction with two other equally large commands, the “Army of the Center” and the “Army of Occupation.” Together, the three armies marched towards Mexico in a war that would come to perpetuate the Manifest Destiny ideology. Kearny’s “Army of the West” had orders from the secretary of war to travel through New Mexico and take possession of that Mexican province in the name of the United States. A temperate man emanating from a prevalent New England family, Kearny enlisted in the New York militia prior to the War of 1812 and spent the rest of his life serving in the U.S. Army. By the time he led the Army of the West during the Mexican War, Kearny already boasted more than three decades of military experience. Kearny and his troops marched westward along the Santa Fe Trail, entering New Mexico during August, 1846. As the command approached the New Mexican settlements they remained wary of a possible attack; after all, the locals perceived them as hostile invaders. 1 Stephen Watts Kearny was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 30, 1794. He joined the United States Army during the War of 1812, and served with distinction throughout his military career. He was wounded twice at the Battle of San Pasqual on December 6, 1846. In 1848, he served as civil governor of Vera Cruz and Mexico City. Kearny died in St. Louis on October 31, 1848. 2 Howard R. Lamar, The Far Southwest, 1846-1912: A Territorial History (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993), 52. 3