The Mescalero Apache tribe and Lipan Apache tribe opened their arms in welcome to members of the Chiricahua Apache tribe 100 years ago, when more than two thirds of the remaining members of the tribe, 183, chose to accept their invitation after being freed from 27 years of imprisonment at the hands of the U.S. government.
Last weekend, they celebrated the centennial of Chiricahua freedom - brothers, mothers, sisters and fathers by choice and by blood - with two days of ceremonies, dances, feasts and goodwill meant to "honor their survival" and remind the world of their previous confinement, Mescalero President Frederick Chino Sr. said.
The Chiricahua Apache, including noted warriors Geronimo and Naiche, were imprisoned in 1886 when they at last laid down arms after years of fighting the U.S. government.
The conflict originated with misunderstandings and altercations between the area tribes and the ever-increasing influx of Anglo settlers to the area as settlers and Apache traded insults, then blows.
Outright conflict erupted after several incidents involving a respected chief, Mangas-Coloradas, who was first tied to a tree and whipped by miners in 1851 as he sought a peaceful resolution to the territory conflict then murdered in 1863 by American soldiers as he entered a tent to negotiate peace, according to David Roberts' book, "Once They Moved Like the Wind," an account that bears close resemblance to the history recorded by the Chiricahua tribe at www.chiricahuaapache.org.
Other conflicts and atrocities, such as a cannon ambush during a trading deal, further fueled the division.
From then on, Geronimo and other leaders felt obligated to fight the invading U.S., engaging in guerrilla warfare through their home mountains in the Southwest.
The fighting lasted for 23 years before a U.S. General, Oliver Howard negotiated a peace that lasted until 1877, when the tribe was relocated to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, Roberts writes.
According to the tribe's website, Geronimo said that Howard was the only honorable soldier he had met, and that a true peace could have been achieved if all men in the U.S. Army followed his example.
A later account of the tribe's treatment at the hands of soldiers and government workers is not so kind. Poor treatment, incomprehensible arrests of chiefs and other tribal members, the execution of a medicine man and other conflicts incited several Apaches to take up raiding. The resistance lasted for a short time, ending with the surrender of the final 34 warriors in 1886 and nearly three decades as prisoners of war. They were transferred between prisons, first in Florida, then Alabama and finally Oklahoma before their eventual release. Most of the tribe accepted an invitation to return to the Southwest, though 78 remained in Fort Sill, Okla., the website stated.