Dragoons in Apacheland Anglo-Apache Relations in Southern New Mexico, 1846-1861 by William ...

183 Pages·2011·4.24 MB·English

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
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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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U.S. Military Area of Operations, 1848-1861

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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,
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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.

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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.

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