Betrayal Led To A Decade Of Warfare With The Apache By Alexandra Simon/Feb. 6, 2021 1:53 pm EDT The life and death of Apache Chief Cochise would be one of the defining moments of the tribal group's history. The Apache lived and spanned throughout what's modern-day Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico. During westward expansion, white settlers and Native Americans across the U.S. were routinely at war with each other. This meant the Apache found themselves being pushed and challenged by not only by American soldiers, but Mexicans, too. Cochise himself headed the Chiricahua band of the Apache, who lived mostly in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. (Geronimo was leader of the Bedonkohe Apache, one of the Chiricahua Apache bands, per Biography.) And the Apache were no fans of the settler expansion that invaded their land and livelihoods. As a result, for much of the mid-1800s he firmly defended Apache territory. Cochise was a trained and skilled warrior. He was known for leading violent and successful raids — so much that he caused fear and distress for settlers in Mexico and the U.S.