General Crook & the Apache Wars

Ever hear of Charles Lummis? No. Well, he was the editor of The Los Angeles Times sent to Arizona Territory in the spring of 1886 to investigate the latest Apache war, sending dispatches back to the Times. This book is comprised of those dispatches from April and May, 1886. His interviews with General Crook provide an up close view of the General and his views. Lummis felt that Crook was under unfair criticism from some residents of the Territory, especially many in the Tucson-Tombstone area involved with the trader profit ring who wanted General Crook gone so the war would continue. Though miners, farmers, and settlers all wanted the Apache war ended, many traders and corrupt Indian agents most definitely did not. The War Department during the wars brought two million dollars per year into the Territory, at a time when the average wage for most was only a dollar per day. The Territory had little industry to raise money, so most were very happy and dependent on the $2,000,000 federal government monies. One of the worst traders, rustlers, & all around criminal, was a Swiss-American man named Tribolet, who is on record as saying "it is money in my pockets to have those fellows out". The 'fellows' of course were the raiding Apaches to whom Tribolet sold booze and other items thereby reaping large profits. He once even presented Geronimo with a free magnum of champagne. Tribolet also was the cause of this latest break away from Crook's forces, shortly after they had surrendered, getting the Apaches drunk he told them not to believe in Crook's promises. Frightened, the surrendered Apaches now fled in the reverse direction back to the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Crook began using Apache scouts in 1872 feeling only the Apache could equal another Apache. He felt too they had always given honorable service, and held the Chiricahua up as the best of the best where scouts were concerned. Although Crook also used the Tonto, Yuma, Mojave, as well as other Apaches such as San Carlos, White Mountain, and Warm Springs as scouts. Many citizens called for getting rid of these scouts, especially men such as "Buckskin" Frank Leslie, later chief of scouts for Crook, not because the Apache scouts weren't good or effective, but more practically the disenchanted whites wanted the Apache's jobs. There is so much more in this newspaper history of the last Apache war. For anyone interested in the Apache wars of Arizona Territory in 1886, this book would seem mandatory. Several years back another book from this time period also by Charles R. Lummis saw print by Dan L. Trapp: DATELINE FORT BOWIE. Both will afford the reader information on the Apache wars not available anywhere else. Recommended. Semper Fi.