Book Synopsis
At the time Arizona Territory was created in 1863, new settlers to the region were very concerned about their safety among many hostile Indians. This concern had developed steadily as Mexican and American settlers pushed deeper into the vast lands occupied by numerous bands of Native Americans known as Apaches. As early as 900 A.D., bands of these Athapascan speakers had migrated from Northwest Canada and occupied a wide region across West Texas, Southern Colorado and Kansas, New Mexico, Southeastern Arizona, and the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. The area became known generally as Apacheria. Of the bands that occupied Southeastern Arizona and Southwestern New Mexico, perhaps one of the most prominent and hostile were the close-knit Warm Springs and Chiricahua Apaches. For three centuries before the arrival of Anglo-Americans in the Southwest, these Apaches had dominated the region striking terror into the hearts of the Spanish, Mexicans, and Anglo-Americans.