b'APACHE PROPHETS MURDER The Aftershocks Nan-tia-tish focused on this group of easy-target It wasnt long before Carr and the officers andwhite horses on his trail, not noticing the troops troopers at Fort Apache became sharply aware thatfollowing on dark horses. The Apache leader felt with the arrest and murder of Nok-e-da-klinne was a majorthe advantage of the canyon, his small band would blunder and the more than 5,000 White Mountainwin the day. Chief of Scouts Al Seiber rode with Apaches surrounding the fort on the reservation wereChaffee, along with eight Tonto Apache trackers. They bent on avenging the death of their martyr. The firsteasily figured out the Nan-tia-tish ploy and apprised sign of trouble was the cutting of the telegraph lineChaffee of the situation.to the fort. The next was a barrage of fire from a large number of Apaches who had surrounded the fort.Colonel Evans then rode up on the scene, joining The volley wounded one lieutenant. It was a tenseChaffee and Converse. Chaffee placed a guard on the situation. Both the fort and its occupants were inpack train and deployed his troops. Converse and imminent danger of being overrun. his troops dismounted and crawled toward the brink of the canyon where they opened a heavy crossfire Major Gordon and his contingent of troops fromwith Nan-tia-tish and his warriors. Chaffee sent his Fort Thomas saved Carr and his troops, as well asforce and Sieber and his trackers to the east, looking their families. He arrived just in time with a largefor a spot to cross over the canyon. The rest of the number of reinforcements. Seeing this additiontroops were sent in the opposite direction along the to the force at Fort Apache, the Apaches retreatedcanyon wall. Engaged in the firefight with Converse to their homes, knowing they had no hope ofand his troops, Nan-tia-tish did not notice he was overrunning such a large force of troops. Whitesbeing flanked.caught outside the fort became the victims of the Apaches wrath. Three soldiers guarding the BlackNan-tia-tish and his band had been cut off from River ferry were killed. So were three freightersany retreat and Chaffees force moved in from all caught outside the fort and two civilians who had leftdirections with withering fire. Of the 54 Apaches in the fort against orders, as well as a rancher killed inthe Nan-tia-tish band, 21 died in the canyon battle his own ranch house and a mail carrier. Captain Adna R. Chaffee and five died later of their wounds. Few survivors escaped back to their homes on the reservation Trouble Spreads without wounds. Chaffee counted one trooper and At the crowded San Carlos Reservation to the south, afled across the border to the Sierra Madres in Mexico.one scout killed and two officers and five troopers month after Nok-e-da-Klinne was martyred, a band ofOne the way south, the Chiricahuas clashed with a 6thwounded. The White Mountain Apaches had lost Chiricahuas bolted the reservation when they learnedCavalry patrol and killed a sergeant and two soldiers.their desire to avenge the murder of Nok-e-da-klinne. of orders to move them from Camp Goodwin to FortA little later, the scouts that had mutinied during theWith Nan-tia-tish among the dead at Chevelons Fork, Apache, now a place tainted with the murder of aarrest of Nok-e-da-klinne were tried at a militarypeace returned to the White Mountain reservation. famed medicine man. The Chiricahuas made theirtribunal. Two of the scouts were sentenced to prison escape from San Carlos by killing Indian Police Chiefat Alcatraz Island. Three, Jim Deadshot, Dandy, and Albert Sterling and wounding assistant Indian AgentSkitashe were hanged at Camp Grant in March of 1882 Exra Hoag. making three more Apache who were martyred.The Apaches slit the throats of all their dogs so theKidnap & Murderbarking of the animals would not give away theirThen, four months later, fifty-four White Mountain escape, stabbed all of their old and disabled horsesApaches raided the San Carlos Reservation, and abandoned all unnecessary camp equipment, thenkidnapped more than a dozen squaws, and raided up the San Carlos Valley, killing as they rode. The band was led by Nan-tia-tish and Ar-she. They were White Mountain Apaches from the Cibicu areas, devout followers of Nok-e-da-klinne.The band killed J.L. Covig, known as Cibicu Charley, who was the new San Carlos chief of the Indian police, and seven of his Indian scouts. The band rode on north up the San Carlos Valley and across the Tonto Basin, killing six ranchers and burning thousands of dollars in property. In the Tonto Basin, they attacked the Sigsbee ranch, killing two whites. Fourteen companies of troops with strong groups of Indian scouts were dispatched to run down and capture the renegades.Deep Canyon BloodbathThe Chevelon River fork off the Little Colorado cut a deep canyon as it cut through the Mogollon Plateau169 E Wickenburg Wayeast of Camp Verde. With ten troops of cavalry ridingWickenburg, AZ 85390hard on his tail, Nan-tia-tish decided to set up an ambush of the troops in the canyon which was but928-684-6123700 yards wide at the top and 1000 feet deep. Nan-tia- Open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. DAILYtish led his band along the edges of the stream at the canyon bottom, purposely leaving a clear trail, then, once through the canyon, doubled back and placed his marksmen on the canyon ridge and high on the steep craggy walls. Captain Adna R. Chaffee and his white horse troop of the 6th Cavalry had been joined General Irwin McDowell the night before by Captain George L. Converse, who also commanded a white horse troop.ArizonaRealCountry.com July 2021 35'