To Cochise

MAY, 1934 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 5 Warriors Monument Marks Site of Geronimo SurrenderTablet to Cochise

By HARRY DUBERSTEIN OWN in the Dragoon Mountains of Southeastern Arizona there was dedicated on May 13 a monument to Chief Cochise, cruelest, wiliest and perhaps the most intelligent of the Apache warriors.

More than sixty years after he made peace with the white man following twelve of the bloodiest years in Arizona's history, a granite shaft ten feet in height erected by the National Park Service, has been placed as a memorial to the Indian leader whose name has been adopted by an Arizona county and attached to at least two outstanding points of scenic and historic interest in the state Cochise's Stronghold and Cochise's Head.

Cochise was born in the Chiracahua Mountains about the year 1815 according to Dr. Frank C. Lockwood, dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Arizona, in his volume, "Arizona Characters," and the reminiscences of J. A. Rockfeller, civil engineer prospector and author, who has lived in the vicinity since 1876, Cochise was head of the Chiracahua tribe of Apaches and for more than a decade, from 1860 to 1872, he and his braves ravaged a wide territory from the Gila River Valley far into Old Mexico and east to the Mimbres Valley in New Mexico.

The Apache chieftain had lived in amity with the white man until about his forty-fifth year. He had practically abandoned the nomadic customs of his tribe, had acquired some worldly goods and owned at least the nucleus of a cattle herd. Then came an incident which was to cause him to swear eternal vengeance against the white race, cost hundreds of lives of settlers, practically depopulated Southeastern Arizona of all except those of Indian blood and plunge the federal government into one of its most expensive campaigns to control the Redman.

his forty-fifth year. He had practically abandoned the nomadic customs of his tribe, had acquired some worldly goods and owned at least the nucleus of a cattle herd. Then came an incident which was to cause him to swear eternal vengeance against the white race, cost hundreds of lives of settlers, practically depopulated Southeastern Arizona of all except those of Indian blood and plunge the federal government into one of its most expensive campaigns to control the Redman.

Infantry, was assigned to the task of finding the band which had abducted the boy.

Cochise had been encamped at Bowie where he and his followers were engaged in supplying wood for the station of the overland stage. He had been of great service to the whites, bringing about the return of cattle stolen by marauding Indians and preventing attacks on white settlements by hostile bands of warriors. Then, in October of 1860, a group of Apache braves raided the ranch of Johnny Ward on the Sonoita River and carried off the son of a Mexican woman with whom Ward was living. Ward went to old Fort Buchanan, a few miles away, and asked assistance of the soldiers in the recovery of the child. A young West Point graduate, Second Lieutenant George N. Bascom, recently assigned to Arizona and not well versed in the ways of the Indian, with a platoon of the Seventh Cochise was known to be encamped near the stage station in Apache Pass, and thither the soldiers went in search of information. Bascom found the chieftain and called a conference with Cochise and his braves. Return of the Cochise was known to be encamped near the stage station in Apache Pass, and thither the soldiers went in search of information. Bascom found the chieftain and called a conference with Cochise and his braves. Return of the