ROUNDUP

10 NOTABLE CHIRICAHUA APACHES

1 Cochise: Historians have variously described the great Apache chief of the Chokonen band as honest, cruel, intelligent, feared, dignified and truthful. Exhibiting near total control over his people, he epitomized everything an Apache chief should be. Though he’d demonstrated fearlessness in battle against both U.S. and Mexican troops, his 1872 peace treaty with Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard was a commitment he took to his grave, even instructing his sons, Taza and Naiche, from his deathbed to always live at peace with the whites.

2 Geronimo: Though the Bedonkohe leader remains a household name 112 years after his death, his life remains shrouded in controversy and legend. Historians debate whether he was primarily an Apache freedom fighter or a lying opportunist. He features in scores of films, and publishers regularly release biographies about him, yet the public still largely believes he was a chief (he wasn’t). While Geronimo rode in Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural parade, he remained a prisoner of war at his death in 1909.

A chief of the Mimbreño (Chihenne) band, he projected such power that Apaches of other bands willingly followed his lead. While the average Chiricahua man stood around 5-foot-5, Mangas was well over 6 feet tall. He frequently aligned himself in battle with son-in-law Cochise, with devastating results to the enemy. Recognizing the futility of resisting the flood of whites into his homeland, Mangas walked into Fort McLane, New Mexico Territory, on Jan. 18, 1863, seeking peace. Instead, he was murdered by soldiers, who decapitated his corpse and sent it to a New