Who were the Civilized Ones?

In the Southwest, guerrilla war between the white settlers and the Apache had become long and bloody in the 1860s.  Cochise and Mangsr Coloradas had allied together and with 700 of their warriors, ambushed and ravaged the Southwest until the Gila River country in southern Arizona was cleared of all ranchers - except for one.  Pete Kitchen turned his hilltop adobe ranch house into a fortress and dealt out punishment and grief to the Apache raiders until they left him alone. 

There was another idea - Thomas Jeffords dealt with the problem by talking.  Jeffords was a six-foot New Yorker with a flaming red beard.  As superintendent of mail between Fort Bowie and Tucson, he had lost 14 drivers in just 16 months.  He had had enough.  He rode alone to Cochise's mountain stronghold where the only reason he wasn't killed was because he startled the Apache by his confidence.  Jeffords dropped his guns and requested to speak to Cochise.  Cochise was a courageous kind of guy and found the same in Jeffords.  They formed an immediate friendship with Jeffords staying on with Cochise for several days.  After that, the Apache never again attacked one of Jeffords drivers. 

The war between whites and Apaches went on however.  Mangas Coloradas was weary of battles and certain of coming defeat when we went to talk with General Joseph West in 1863.  He wanted peace - what he got was murdered.  Cochise doubled his raids, yet wanted peace as well.  The adds against him were too great.  In 1871, 128 unarmed Apache were massacred by a mob of Arizonans.  Humanitarians in the East wanted a stop to the slaughter on both sides.

Who were the uncivilized???


Next Time - Was peace possible?
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Today on Pioneer History: "On November 20, 1843,  the growing community along the banks of the Missouri River adopts the more impressive St. Joseph as its name. It was established as the Blacksnake Hills trading post in 1826, and as with many early western towns, St. Joseph began as a fur trading post.