| OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 39 this purpose I returned to this post Saturday last to secure transportation and an es-cort. I propose to go west first to the neighborhood of Ojo Caliente, ( Hot Springs,) twenty miles north of Canada Alamosa, thence northwest to the Tularosa Valley and River, which has been recommended to the Department as a suitable place for a reser-vation, ( see, report of the board, 1870, page 108.) After we had started from the agency on our way back, the head chief present rode rapidly after us and asked us to return, saying that two Indians from Cochise's band had just arrived, and he wished me to hear what they had to say. We immediately returned, and had an interview with the two men. They were light, sorry- looking, half- starved men, and very cautious in what they communicated. The chief, however, made them tell as much as this : that they were two of a party of forty or more mostly women and chiklren who had left Co-chise's camp twenty- five days before in the mountains of Sonora. Cochise had a fight while he was sick, his baud were whipped, and had got scattered ; he had retired up to the inaccessible part of the mountains, having first killed his horses and taken them up with him for food. Some five or six of the Apaches had been killed. They were Papagos or Mexican scouts who had attacked them. We had heard some time since that the Mexican government had offered a large price for Apache scalps ; the people hereabouts have it as high as $ 300 in Mexican currency, or even more, but if it amounts to ;-:;() in gold, it is probably as much as they will get. As I said, the two Indians were very reticent, and left the impression on us all that they knew more than they were Avilling to communicate of Cochise's whereabouts. We arrived here at midnight on Saturday night, 19th instant. At 4 o'clock, Sunday morning, 20th instant, we were awakened by a courier who had ridden all night over from the agency. He came with a letter from Agent Piper saying that a brother of Cociiise had arrived with eighteen more Apaches, twenty days from Cochise's band, who said that Cochise had sent them, saying that " they would find a good peace here with us," and that they must come and stay. Last night, 21st instant, another courier arrived from Canada Alamosa. He came to inform us that a Mexican named Troero, whom Superintendent Pope, a week before I arrived, had sent out to find Cochise, had returned with the information that he had been ordered back by General Crook, with a reprimand. ( See Agent Piper's letter herewith inclosed, marked A &. No. 14.) V. C. [ Third letter.] OJO CALIENTE AND TULAROSA VALLEY, NEW MEXICO. CAMP APACHE, ARIZONA TERRITORY, September 6, 1871. Since my last letter, dated August 22, 1871, I have the honor to report that, in com-pany with Nathaniel Pope, superintendent of Indian affairs in New Mexico, John Ward as interpreter, and Philip Gonzalez as guide, with an escort of twenty soldiers under a sergeant of the Fifteenth U. S. Infantry, Company K, we left Camp Craig, New Mexico, on the 23d of August, 1871, with fifteen days' rations, for the Apache Indian country, in New Mexico and Arizona, to inspect the upper valley of the Canada Alamosa, beyond the mountains, at Hot Springs, " Ojo Caliente," and the Tularosa Valley, to ascertain their suitableness for an Indian reservation. After a very interesting ride of three days, traveling about twenty- eight miles a day and camping at night, we arrived at noon of the 25th at Ojo Caliente. We here met, by appointment, 6. F. Piper, esq., agent for the Southern Apaches, who, in company with Senor Trojero, alcade of the Mexican village of Canada, his nephew, and Sergeant Stackpole, Fifteenth United States Infantry, had ridden on horseback over the mountains which run between the Canada proper and the Springs. They also brought with them Loco, one of the Apache chiefs, who had been in company with Sefior Trojero over to Arizona in search of Cochise, under the direction of Superintendent Pope, who has already forwarded to the Department an account of their expedition, and of its failure, owing to Trojero's having fallen in with General Crook, commanding department of Arizona, and being, as he says, ordered back and forbidden to pursue his errand further. We examined the neighborhood of Ojo Calieute ( Hot Springs) carefully, and finding the area of land capable of being cultivated far too small for the neces-sities of a tribe so large as this baud of Southern Apaches, we were very reluctantly compelled to seek further. Its proximity to C? nada Alamosa, though separated by high hills or mountains, and, like that valley, it being a favorite place of resort of the Indians, made us hope to find it suitable for a reservation. Trojero, the scout, said that the Mexicans employed by General Crook, whom he met at his camp, were among the worst villains in Mexico, and the Indians were part of |
