Mingus coloradus and his interactions with u. S. Troops. His talk is about an hour and is sponsored by the kansas city public library. My name is eli paul. It is my honor to introduce our speaker, paul andrew hutton. In keeping with his profession as a university professor, we are going to have a pop quiz. One question, pass fail. Here is the question. What do jeff chandler, charles bronson, rock hudson, and the incredibly blueeyed Burt Lancaster all have in common . [indiscernible] i think i hear the answer, and the answer is all these men played Apache Indian leaders in the movies. Jeff chandler played cochise, rock hudson played the son of cochise. Bronson was a shadow chatto. For extra credit, answer this. What made those roles so attractive to these actors . Could it be the epic nature of their struggle . Keep those questions in mind. Also keep those names in mind. Maybe not the faces. The people may reappear as paul hutton tells us about our war with the apache tribes, americas longest. It all began with an apache rate and the kidnapping of an arizona ranchers boy in 1861 and lasted more than a quarter of a century. The fighting only ended with the 1886 surrender of geronimo, who by the way, was played by a real indian in the 1993 movie. Paul hutton looks back at this largely overlooked chapter in our history. This is an epic story by an accomplished narrator, a highly regarded professor of history at the university of new mexico and an awardwinning author and Television Personality who has been in more than 200 television documentaries. Pauls gift is his ability to navigate the two great rivers of western history and Popular Culture of the west. As the former executive director of the western History Association and the western writer of americas, he has roped in many students like me to help tell the story of the american west. Now he has done so himself and his magnificent book, the apache wars the hunt for geronimo, the apache kid, and the captive boy who started the longest war in American History. Please welcome paul hutton. [applause] prof. Hutton thank you so much. It is great to be in kansas city. With all due respect for the great state of texas, there is no better barbecue. [applause] prof. Hutton not just in the United States, not just in the world, but in the universe. [laughter] [applause] prof. Hutton i understand that there is a contention amongst the citizens of this fine city over which is the best barbecue. And i have very Firm Opinions on that myself, which i will keep to myself. [laughter] prof. Hutton since i am here to make friends. The story of the apache wars is a story in which it is hard to inject humor. And i do say that often when i speak, my talks tend to be humorous, but im afraid it is difficult to have humor in this particular story. The story im going to tell you is a particularly grim and tragic episode of the apache wars. Folks often ask me how i got interested in this topic. I am interested in a lot of western history, of course, and have been all my life. I got hooked in 1955 by walt disney, who converted a lot of children over to history. It was the program Davy Crockett that helps me and that hooked me. At the end of this program, i was thinking we could do all the verses of the song if you would like to. [laughter] prof. Hutton of course, that was the great heyday of the western imprint on television and film. One third of all hollywoods product were westerns in the 1950s and 1960s. Someone played a blueeyed geronimo in the 1960 film of the same name. A line western history was portrayed on the Silver Screen and on the television screen. And in writing. A lot of that writing was popular writing, so my challenge in writing the apache wars was different from what i had done in most of my career. I have done a lot of television. I have written for television, and a lot of popular magazine articles, but i had never written a book for a broad, popular audience, so this was a different journey that i went on. It was very challenging, took water years to research took four years to research and complete. It is doing well and im proud of it and relieved to have it done. I would say was story about that. I followed the numbers religiously, book sales, and i am waiting with bated breath for every review. I knew the wall street journal was going to review my book in their fabulous saturday book section, which i subscribe to come and it arrives at my door. So that saturday morning when i knew it was coming, i got up at 6 00 in the morning. The paper had not even been delivered yet. My bunny slippers on which i only take off to teach my classes. I padded out in my row in my slippers, got my cup of coffee, i was so nervous, i couldnt even open the paper. I saw the review was by s c gwynn, who has written a fabulous book about the comanches. In fact, the success of that book had gotten me my contract to write my book. He is a hero of mine and i often wanted to take them out. I have never met him, but i want to get him a steak dinner and im a few drinks and thank him. I start reading the review. It is a very positive review. I must say, all the reviews have been very positive, although the academic reviews are not in yet. But im reading it, and in his it is the third paragraph that begins, carrier like terrierlike, hutton follows every skirmish and battle. Four years of my life, i am not his and his i used to be. Four years, locked in a room all by myself, and im not really good company. And im compared to a small mammal. [laughter] prof. Hutton and it is worse, because at christmas, just the christmas before seven or eight months ago, we had acquired from the albuquerque Animal Shelter a little carrier terrier, who we named annie oakley. And she has cut a swather through every piece of furniture through our yard, through our irrigation system, through every possession we have, a swathe that would make attila the honda blush. So we have changed her name to chupacabra, the spanish name for double dog. Devil dog. So i had a clear sense of what it terrier was, and being compared to one wounded immediately. I still hope to take them out one day, but he is getting iced the tea. I became interested in the story of the apache is when i was a kid, not long after i became fascinated by David Crockett and started reading Popular Western history and childrens books on the west. The book that hooked me was by oliver debarge. I remember it so distinctly because it was october 1962, the height of the cuban missile crisis we had just returned from taiwan, where we had lived. My dad, a one word 2 bad, had retired from the air force. My dad, a world war ii vet, had retired from the air force. They had lost all of our furniture and goods and had failed to process the old mans retirement, and he needed his money because he had a big thirst and needed to fuel that at all times. And of course, it was the cuban missile crisis. It was that october that kennedy had put the embargo on the russian ships, and as a child, i could sense the anxiety of the adults who thought perhaps indeed that the whole world was going to be blown to smithereens that october. Also, we were just in progress. We had no money we were just impoverished. We had no money, no furniture. We were living in a big empty farmhouse. My mom cannot afford anything for my birthday present, so she went to the kokomo public library. Isnt that funny, how what has it been . 40 years, and it is still a top story to tell. She checked out that book, cochise of arizona, and wrapped it, gave it to me. Of course, we had to take it back. [laughter] prof. Hutton but it is the best gift i ever got. And of course now i have a beautifully inscribed edition of that and later learned that the author was a pulitzer prizewinning author on indians and thought my bone copy bought my own copy for my collection. Cochise was the soninlaw of the great chief of all the chiricahua, and his name was mangus coloradus, red sleeves. They say the name came from how he his enemies blood covered his arms cured arms. The apaches had been fighting the spanish and mexicans for hundreds of years. And when he met they make common war against a common enemy. The mexican government, which only rolled over the south what is now the american southwest for some 20 years, was very fragile. It really could not control its northern provinces. To do so, they had hired bans of scalp hunters, many of whom were americans, who roamed throughout the southwest taking apaches as slaves and killing them and selling their scalps to the mexican authorities. The apaches, who were great people for vengeance, had a great score to settle. Before he died at the beginning of the last century, they asked the geronimo if he had any regrets. He said, no, except that i did not kill more mexicans. So these were not folks who were forgiving and forgetting. The apaches were recent newcomers to the american southwest compared to the pueblo people of the Rio Grande River valley, compared to other tribes in the area. And in fact, for the western apaches, they may have reached what is now western arizona about the same time that the spanish did. They were raiding people, they prayed on their neighbors. They are the vikings of america. They made no apologies for this, and i dont believe historians should make apologies for them. If we can celebrate the vikings and what they did, we can certainly celebrate the great warrior tribe of the apaches. There were 8000, 9000 at the most. They lived in a harsh, unforgiving environment, and they knew it like they knew the back of their hands. They are not force indians horse indians, they are Mountain People. They looked upon the forces of the spanish as food as much as transportation, but they did use them to carry their worriers deep into mexico for their rates raids. By 1862, Mangas Coloradas, the great chief of the chiricahuas, who unlike any other chief had united all the people together, he had grown weary of war. Since 1846, he had tried to keep the peace with the americans, but the americans had the trade that piece. In 1861 when a Raiding Party of aravaipa from the north after cochise had been called into a peace conference and portrayed an apache pass, a young boy had been kidnapped from a ranch. He is the through character that runs through my whole book, and his kidnapping set in motion this great war that goes on for 25 years. He is in the war the entire way, first as an apache warrior than an army scout. He was half irish, half mexican, redheaded, freckle faced, one i, quite eccentric and dangerous character. The is the only manager on a no ever feared. The only man that geronimo ever feared. Smart was sent to demand that cochise return the boy. Cochise said he did not have the boys but would find them. They tried to take cochise prisoner. He took his all family with him, and he managed to cut his way out and escape, but his brothers, nephew, and several other apaches were captured. A series of events followed in which bascom eventually hanged those apaches. So this set in motion 25 years of war, unrelenting, brutal war, i were so brutal that in 1861 as union troops were withdrawn from arizona and new mexico to meet the federal confederate invasion of new mexico, arizona was completely to populated and the american frontier was thrown back, one of the few times in history that ever happened. As cochise and mangus waged a great war against the americans, soon more american troops came. They came from california under general James Carlton and they fought a great battle at apache pass, and the soldiers might have been destroyed except a soldier made a fortunate shot and shot Mangas Coloradas out of his horse. It took them, who is nearing 70 years old, a long time to recover from that wound. And he retired. And he was tired more. As one gets older, one does get tired of these adventures. He wanted to make peace. He went to new mexico and sent out peace overtures to general carlton, but peace was the last thing carlton wanted. He had arrived with 2000 troops to late to fight the rebels, so he was determined to fight the indians and destroy the apaches and the navajo once and for all. He would be successful against the navajo, but not so against the apaches, despite the event im about to describe. Carlton was determined to end Mangas Coloradasrule over the southwest, and so he sent out a message to one of his colonels, a man named joseph west. He said, Mangas Coloradas sent me word he wants peace, but i have no faith in him. In response to mangas peace overtures, carlton ordered west to organize next position organize and exposition against the apaches, who lived in the land which is now southwestern new mexico right around where silver city is in new mexico, just to the north of lawrenceburg. Mangas coloradas had been born in those mountains. And he told colonel west to launch a campaign against mangas chiricahua was, and it was to be a black flag campaign. Women and children were to be no women and children were to be taken women and children were to be taken prisoner, but all males were to be killed. Before colonel west could get 250 troops up, the sports had all been abandoned at the beginning of the civil war when the troops had been withdrawn to fight the rebels. And while he was there, he sent him out a message to find a man named jacks willie who carlton had taught him about. West assured carlton thats willing was at this over minds. And he was available for service. Jack swilling was a georgia native, a veteran of the mexican war. Had migrated to texas in 1850s, but after deserting his family there, leaving a wife and baby behind, he had come west and got work with the butterfield stage company. Butterfield was one of the founders of the American Express companies, still in business today. He got the mail contract to run a mail route between the states and california. And the butterfield overland mail was critical to Holding California in the union. And cochise and mangas and their worriers shut down the butterfield mail and ended up new occasion with california. Ended all communication with california. He then followed the gold rush into the mountains of southwestern new mexico and had opened a saloon. One of his partners with judge roy beam, who would later become famous down in texas. The man who laid out the town was named anton mills, and he would later become a famous officer in the indian wars. At that time, he was a surveyor from indiana. And one of his brothers worked for the butterfield stage line and would be killed by the apaches during this time. Well, swilling prospered in the minds, but the apaches made life difficult for the miners, so they formed what were called the arizona guards, and these men were indeed is the scouting for apaches and trying to protect the settlements, but also soon joined up with the confederates. They went forward and met up with the yankees, who were coming from california. And in a daring move, swilling managed to capture the captain, who was in charge of the yankee advance guard, and he was taking him back to new mexico, which was unoccupied by rebel troops. And to tucson was also occupied by rebel troops at this time. As they are going back, they are dogged the apaches all around them, just like in a hollywood movie. He actually gives the captain back his gun and says they have to fight their way through, and they become pals. By the time they get to the city in new mexico, the rebels are in retreat and the union army has won a big victory in the past. Swilling very wisely switches sides and becomes a dispatch writer and a scout for the new victorious union troops. And so he is there just when colonel west needs him. And so west hires swilling, who is a big guy with a real swagger to him, were a big summer arrow a big sombrero, long black hair, a real swashbuckling character. He is hired to meet with Mangas Coloradas. He sends them up, west sends a swilling up to penal zone those and there he made a Remarkable Group of adventurers were camped there. These men are gold hunters led by joe walker, who had led 20 men into new mexico in hopes of reaching central arizona, where everyone suspected there was a mountain of gold. It was briefly the capital of territorial arizona. The only territorial capital ever named for a historian in the United States, which brings a tear to my eye. Walker couldnt make it into arizona with his men, because the apaches were everywhere. Every pass through this rough, broken country was started by apache warriors. They were like ghosts. You could sense them, but they were all around you. All he could see was there Smoke Signals, and Smoke Signals were not really a means of communication, but it was a signal you sent up to say, i am here, calm come. Visa signals were all around the men as they tried to get through the passes. They camped near the arizona line at a place called cooks canyon. They saw some nearby fires, and so they made their way over to them. They thought maybe they were signals and that the apaches wanted to talk, but the apaches had left a calling card for walker and his bold adventurers. Three white men were called hung upside down gruesomely by their ankles, their heads just a few inches above the smoldering fires that had been used to cook their brains. This caused even these tough characters to decide they would retreat back to pinos altos. This was a little too rough even for these guys. They attempted to find passage over the mountain, and each time that they were met with more scenes of horror. Joseph walker was a Living Legend on the frontier. He came from an adventurous tennessee family. One of his brothers was killed fighting here in missouri, another was killed at the alamo. It was a tough family, and he himself had become one of the Great Mountain men, a companion of jim richard, broken hand fitzpatrick. And he had gone with carson and the captain on two expeditions to california, and he had stayed there. But even though he was in his late 60s, he decided on this one last adventure, he knew there was gold in arizona, if only he could find it. He was trying one last time. So now, swilling jo