Carson to the Rescue

General Oliver O. Howard arrived in Arizona in 1872 with orders to make peace humanely with the Apache.  A deeply religious man, Howard was respected by most men who met him, including Thomas Jeffords.  The two men went to meet Cochise together and a truce was reached.  Cochise even agreed to go on a reservation if Jeffords was appointed Indian Agent for the Chiricahua Apache tribe.  Terms were met and the war seemed over.  It had cost the United States 1000 men and $40 million.  Cochise lived out his days in peace and died on June 8, 1874 with Jeffords at his side.

Meanwhile the Apache weren't the only trouble the white settlers had in the Southwest.  The Comanche and Kiowa had always been allies against the white men and other tribes, and during the Civil War it intensified.  In 1864, while the US was dealing with Cochise, the Kiowa and Comanche attacked a wagon train on the Santa Fe Trail, taking five small boys as hostages.  Kit Carson, a Union Officer then, took off in pursuit with 350 volunteers and 75 Ute scouts. 

At Adobe Walls, an abandoned trading post in the Texas Panhandle near the Canadian River, some 1000 Comanche and Kiowa waited.  The Indian numbers were offset by the Union's two howitzers.  The volunteers made an orderly retreat after burning down a Kiowa village as a parting gesture. 
Carson claimed victory with 2 dead and 10 wounded, but later admitted he was lucky to have gotten his men out of the Canadian River Valley.

Navajo also menaced the white settlers and the peaceful Pueblo  in New Mexico.  When the US troops has withdrawn for the Civil War, their attacks became bolder until Colonel Kit Carson led 400 men against them in 1863-1864.  Carson destroyed the Navajo flocks and gardens, then invaded the Canyon de Chelly stronghold.  3000 Indians were marched 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico where they were held for four years before being moved to a reservation.  The end of another proud civilization...

Next time...Sioux in Minnesota
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 27, 1868, after being convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers earlier in the year in a military court, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year.  Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle massacring all of them.  Not a hero!