Courtesy of sharlotdotorg:
Scouts and trackers in 1800s Yavapai County: Part II
Posted on September 24, 2009
by Georgene Lockwood
(Ed. note: In 1866,
the U.S. Army implemented General Order #56 to recruit Indians into the regular
force as scouts. With their knowledge of the local terrain, languages and
tribal habits, the Indian scouts proved essential for the Army to pursue and
attack rival, uncooperative warring Indians. In Part I, Al Sieber, a white
civilian was contracted as a scout by General Crook and did not hold rank,
although he did have the title of Chief of Scouts. On the other hand, American
Indians were enlisted men and could even attain rank if they served repeated
enlistments. A civilian contractor scout did not receive discharge papers from
the military and was not eligible for a pension like the Indian Scout. Fifteen
Indian scouts between 1869 and 1890 were awarded the Military Medal of Honor.
K.Krause)
According to John Bourke’s book, "On the Border with
Crook," the scouts were made up of a variety of ethnic groups. Describing
one group that headquartered down south in the Tucson area, Bourke says on page
138, "The detachment of scouts made a curious ethnographical collection.
There were Navajos, Apaches, Opatas, Yaquis, Pueblos, Mexicans, Americans and
half-breeds of any tribe one could name. It was an ominium gatherum…the best
that could be summoned together at the time; some were good, and others were
good for nothing. They were a fair sample of the social driftwood of the
Southwest, and several of them had been concerned in every revolution or
counter-revolution in northwestern Mexico since the day Maximilian landed."
Many of these scouts were stationed at Camp Apache near
Tucson with Crook. When he was given the order to move up to Camp Verde, they
were discharged. No one of the remaining party heading north had ever been
there and they had to rely on themselves to navigate this unknown land. They
had a guide, Archie MacIntosh who was totally unacquainted with Arizona
Territory so the going was rough. Upon Bourke’s visit to Fort Whipple he
described it as "a ramshackle, tumble-down palisade of unbarked pine logs
hewn from the adjacent slopes; it was supposed to ‘command’ something, exactly
what, I do not remember, as it was so dilapidated that every time the wind rose
we were afraid that the palisade was doomed."
Many Indian scouts in Yavapai County were Apaches with only
a few coming from other tribes. Many served under General George Crook and were
stationed either at Fort Whipple or Camp Verde.
One native Army scout was called The Flying Fighter or
Oskay-de-no-tah in the Apache language. He enlisted in 1873 at Camp Verde along
with 19 other Indians. He described himself as previously "a renegade and
a broncho, but after enlistment I kept the faith with the government in every
way." He described how scouting was done entirely on foot and how various
tribes helped kill members of other tribes both they and the whites considered
"troublesome." He also described the use of "runners" –
Indians who could run long distances to carry messages between the fort and
various Indian chiefs. In addition to scouting, Flying Fighter signed onto the
San Carlos Agency Police force for a year. According to his account, "When
my year as a policeman was up, Al Sieber tried to get me to re-enlist as a
scout, but I felt I had done my duty and I wanted a rest; I now had five wives
to manage, which was a man’s job." Indeed!
Another well-known Indian Scout was Ma hoi na vie, a
full-blooded Hualapai. His name was changed to Jim Mahone when he enlisted in
the Army in 1873. According to his personal affidavit in 1924, he was unsure of
his date of birth, adding, "Indians have no way of keeping record of their
birth, like white people." Before he enlisted, he had a garden at Willows
and hunted deer and antelope using bow and arrow. Indians were trackers, man or
beast, and often supplied the troops with meat on their missions. He
remembered, "I enlisted as a scout before the railroad was built through
this country. Soldiers were located at Prescott, Ft. Rock (west of Seligman)
and Ft. Mohave (along the Colorado River south of Bullhead City), Arizona. A
man who was carrying money to pay the soldiers was killed by the Apaches
somewhere west of Prescott, and the soldiers called the Hualapai Indians to
trail the Apaches and to capture them."
One of his prized possessions was a written recommendation
signed by 1st Lt W. George Elliott. It read, "This, Jim Mahone of the
Hualapai Indian Tribe is a trustworthy and intelligent man. He is an old scout
having served under General Crook in the years gone by. Of him, the General
says ‘no braver man ever trod shoe leather.’" Jim carried it until it was
badly worn but still legible. Jim’s eyesight began failing his last years and
he was blind the last ten years of his life. There is a tale that he shot an
antelope illegally and someone told the game warden who, when he went to check
it out, found the hide on Jim’s mule. Jim explained that he could not tell the
difference between an antelope hide and a deer hide. His story was so
convincing that the warden wondered how he could see well enough to shoot it in
the first place!
The newspaper at Williams, AZ, 1949: "Famed Indian
Scout dies. Believed to be probably the oldest Indian known, Jim Mahone,
120-year-old scout who helped trail Geronimo, last of the outlaw Apache chiefs,
has been buried. He died August 6 at Peach Springs, was buried at Seligman
cemetery after he had been honored with both Indian services by his Walapai
brethren and military services in recognition of his services to the U.S. Army.
When General Crook was put on the trail of the warring Apaches with orders to
subdue them once and for all, he called upon Jim Mahone. Many other Indian
scouts had been captured, tortured and killed by the Apaches, but Mahone stayed
on the job until the last renegade band was brought under control. An old man
40 years ago, Jim had been for the past four decades a familiar figure about
the streets of Seligman, Ashfork, Williams and Prescott."
Sergeant William Al-che-say c.1880, a White Mountain Apache
scout under General Crook at Camp Verde, was cited for gallantry and awarded
the Medal of Honor in 1875. After his discharge from the military, he met with
three presidents: Cleveland in 1887, Roosevelt in 1909 and Harding in 1921 to
seek better conditions for his people. Alchesay High School in Whitewater, AZ
is named in his honor.
Full-blooded Hualapai, Ma-hoi-na-vie, known as Jim Mahone,
enlisted as a scout in 1873 under General Crook at Camp Verde.