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OldWestMagazine.com presents..."The Apaches Are Coming" January 30,1886
"The Apaches Are Coming" - Frederic Remington's 1886 sketch courtesy McLelland Collection
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Harper's Weekly - January 30, 1886
The Apaches Are Coming
"A New-Mexican "ranch" is generally little more than a cattle station, and all its appointments are of the rudest and most primitive order. Its proprietor may or may not be the owner of the spot upon which he puts up his one-story shelter of "adobe," or sunburnt brick. Such a site is selected with reference to the grass land in the vicinity, and to a supply of water. Where no reliable run or spring can be found, a successful well determines the latter question. A further requirement is that no ranch shall be so near as to interfere with cattle-herding or dispute the range. isolation is sought, therefore, rather than avoided.
A lonely mining enterprise among the mountains is not by any means so exposed, in case of attack, as one of these ranches. From the very ruggedness of its surroundings, the mine can generally be more easily defended, with the added advantage that its fighting males are kept together by their occupation, in constant readiness for united action. The properties of a mining outfit, other than the scalps of the hard-fighting miners, offer less temptation to an Indian marauding party than does the quadruped wealth of a cattle ranch. Horses and mules are here, as well as horned beasts, while the human beings in charge of them are rarely all at home to receive either friends or enemies.
No man in his senses runs upon an evident peril of being murdered. the regions ventured into by the settlers are vast, and the Indians are few. Each separate venture is made under an impression that reasonable safety from savage inroads has been attained. The most dreaded bands are understood to have been broken up by the cavalry, or are securely corralled upon government reservations, or have been driven across Mexican border to stay.
The chiefs of the predatory bands of Apaches are not prone to run risks of meeting armed white men in force. Their mission is to the unsuspecting, unready, unprotected outreachings of civilization. Their errands are devised before-hand, and they will ride hundreds of miles to strike a blow planned long months before.
Life at the ranch goes on from day to day in the utter peace and quiet that induce carelessness. Indians come and go, friendly enough in appearance and conduct, and suggest no cause of alarm. One or more of them were of GERONIMO'S or some similar band, in search of "business" for their chief and kindred. Nobody at the ranch ever knew their errand. One day long afterward a cowboy with one of his herds, whose business it was to have his eyes about him, saw enough to send him racing ranchward at the utmost speed of his fleet mustang. His terrifying shout "The Apaches Are Coming!" was given but little before they came. It was too late for the escape of women and children or such men as despairingly staid to defend them. The best-mounted cow-boy did what he could, and then rode his horse to death in bearing the news to the nearest settlement. All the rest fell into hands of the utterly merciless."
courtesy OldWestmagazine.com
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