Apacheland

Apacheland ARIZONA'S FINEST CATTLE RANCH

BY VIVIEN B. KEATLEY PHOTOGRAPHS BY RAY MANLEY Calva, Arizona, is only a dot on a road map. Even as you drive along U.S. Highway 70, between Globe and Safford, you'd never see it, for Calva consists entirely of cattle pens.

That October day brilliant sunshine was on hand at Calva-and so were cattle buyers from seven states; Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Silent-faced, broad-brimmed hats slanted over their eyes, the buyers moved slowly about the pens, examining more than a thousand head of Herefords.

As nine o'clock approached the buyers clambered up the five foot fence around the selling pen. Gunter Prude, auctionneer, adjusted and tested his microphone, glanced at his watch. There was a sudden, almost tense silence.

"Gentlemen," Prude announced in his resonant voice, "You all know the conditions of this sale. If there are no questions, we'll begin." He waited a moment, then called out, "Bring in the first lot!"

The big gate was flung open, and, with Apache Indian cowboys rattling strings of tin cans to hurry them along, 80 dehorned yearling steers entered the pen. A single mounted horseman kept them in order. George Stevens, Apache "Boss" of the Slaughter Mountain Association, was in the pen with the yearlings. And so was Hiram A. (Hy) Brown, U.S. Stockman, and Arthur E. Stover, Superintendent of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.

Because this was a San Carlos Hereford Feeder Sale, one of seven held each fall at which over $1,000,000 in Apache-owned cattle are sold, bringing the top prices of all Arizona-bred cattle and attracting buyers from more states than any other sale in the Southwest.

The San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Central Arizona was once described by Owen Wister with considerable eloquence. He said, "The Creator did not make San Carlos. It's a heap older than Him. When he got around to it after slickin' up Paradise and them fruit-trees, He just left it to be as He found it, as a sample of the way he done business before He came along. He ain't done any work around that spot at all, He ain't . . ."

But the Apaches have. They've taken the reservation given them, some say, because everybody figured the land was so worthless the Indians might as well keep it, and turned it into Arizona's finest cattle ranch. It produces superior grade and registered Herefords by the most extensive and scientific artificial insemination breeding program in America. From one great sire alone (Painter's Domino C. 366th) the Apaches got 2500 calves in seven years.

All this got off to a walking start back in the 80's, about the time the last of the Apache renegades, Geronimo, was deciding whether to quit fighting the white man. The father of R-14, a White Mountain Apache, didn't kill and eat the government's issue of beef-an old black cow. Instead, he cannily kept and branded the critter. His brand was R-14, the "name" assigned his oldest son by soldiers when the family came to the reservation as prisoners of war.R-14's father left him rich. He inherited 12 head of cattle -the biggest, and probably the only herd of Apache-owned cattle in the world during the 80's. R-14 ran this into 7,000 head by the time he died in 1937. He is still regarded as the most successful Indian cattleman who ever lived.

The present-day cattle project, by and for Apache Indians at San Carlos, is something else again. No "old black cows" have any part in it. The finest blood-lines in all Herefordom dominate the Apache herds.

But as late as 1923 most of the San Carlos reservation was the range of cow outfits owned by white men, not Indians. Apaches, still on rations, buckled their belts a notch or two and watched the white men prosper by leasing their land -at $1 to $2 per head. Cattle were paid for by the roundup count-usually about 50,000 head were paid for, but cowmen were running at least 100,000 head of livestock on the reservation.

In 1923, when James B. Kitch became Superintendent of San Carlos, the Apache Tribal Council, which governs all tribal affairs, found a friend. They convinced him they were capable of running cattle for themselves. It took a long time to cancel all the white men's leases, but by 1934 the Indians had taken over their grazing land, and were running their own cattle on their own reservation.

Today over 700 Apache families own cattle; more than 900 different brands have been recorded in the agency office. The reservation is divided into 13 different districts, or associations, two grazed by tribally-owned cattle, the others operated by individual Indian cattle owners organized into an association. An association, usually a sort of family or clan affair, may run anywhere from 600 head to 7,000, depending on its membership. Under tribal regulations, no individual Apache may own more than 70 breeding cows. Each association operates under its own rules, established by an elected board of directors. Individual Apaches have their own brands, receive the proceeds from the sale of their cattle. This means keeping a sharp eye out during an association's roundup, and "mothering up" each calf properly takes a lot of extra time, and makes it impossible to use branding chutes. Calves are found with their mothers, roped and brought to the branding fire by the roundup boss. He calls out the mother's brand. "ID" is the holding brand for all Indian cattle, goes on the right hip of every calf. The individual owner's brand goes on the side or shoulder, and the Association brand is placed usually near the ID brand. Mavericks are branded for the association, and proceeds from their sale go into the association's fund. This is supplemented by the $5 fine per head for each calf branded in a cowman's brand, if that cowman fails to report at roundup time. The association's fund is used to buy roundup supplies, salt, and pay for general range improvement.

There's a roundup fee of $5 per head for cattle over six months old, and $2 for those under this. This fee is paid by the individual owner into tribal accounts, and the money is used to hire stockmen and line riders. A sort of "workmen's compensation insurance" deal is the ten cents a head charged on all cattle sold. It is used to provide medical care and unemployment payments for all workers injured during roundup or while riding the range.

Since American Indians have, until very recently, been deprived of all social security benefits, the Apache's private solution for their problem has been quite unique. In addition to this "workmen's compensation" levy on their cattle, the tribe also has set aside a herd operated solely for the benefit of tribal members too old to earn a living, or unable to do so for some other reason such as physical disability. This is their "Social Security Herd." It has a separate range, and was made up, originally, of surplus cows from the registered herd and select young cows donated by the various private associations. In 1949 over 700 steers, cows, and calves were sold from the Social Security Herd. So the Apaches are one tribe who've never had to ask for charity for the less fortunate among them.

But of course the backbone of the Apache cattle business is the registered herd. It produces fine bulls for the range. These bulls are owned, as is the registered herd, by the Tribal Council; i.e., by all Apaches. But they are furnished the associations free of charge, used on the range, and then, when finally sold, revert to the funds of the Tribal Council's registered herd. Approximately 300 purebred yearling bulls are turned on the range each year, and around 125 registered cows are sold from the herd at the general auction sales. These registered cows are not sold with individual papers. however. This is to prevent their being shown as "individual specimens by their purchasers, to compete at shows with individual cows from the same famous blood-lines. Because the blood-lines of the registered herd are those of the famed Wyoming Hereford Ranch, and the remarkable Apache cattle program has been made possible largely because of the cooperation of this famous ranch. The Apaches have no intention of "competing" with other WHR champions-although many of the Apache bulls and cows win firsts at 4-H shows.

The registered herd was started with borrowed moneylong since repaid-in 1934. The Tribal Council at that time bought for the tribe 600 registered heifers. These were acquired at a bargain, because of the drought throughout the southwest, and they came from some of the finest herds in Texas and New Mexico. At this time most of the cows-and bulls-on the reservation were either poor grade Herefords. or old Mexican-type cattle.

When the Painter Dispersion sale was held in Roggen, Colorado, in 1938, the tribe purchased Painter's Domino C. 366th and two of his sons. Next year these bulls were used for artificial insemination of more than 1000 cows in the registered herd by then. By continuing to use the artificial insemination process, and by purchasing additional outstanding sires, the quality of San Carlos cattle has been continually up-graded to its present high standard. WHR Royalmix was bought in 1945, to replace the 366th; in 1947 WHR Invader 14th was purchased. Last year over 1200 registered cows were bred by artificial insemination. The present Breeding Technician at San Carlos is Virgil Pate, a graduate of New Mexico A. & M. in Animal Husbandry. He has two Apache assistants, who have proven interested in this work. It would perhaps seem that the Apaches at San Carlos have solved their part of the "Indian Problem" very well. To a considerable extent this is true. They have certainly demonstrated most convincingly their ability to succeed in a highly complex and competitive field, that of cattle raising.

But they face a very real problem, even as Arizona's "finest cattle ranch." Before the dangers of over-grazing were known, their reservation "supported" 100,000 head of livestock-cattle and horses-after a fashion. With today's knowledge of maintaining a good range in order to produce high grade cattle, their reservation is capable of supporting adequately only 28,000 head.

There are about 3600 Apaches living on the San Carlos reservation. In order to distribute equally the opportunity to own cattle, the only profitable venture possible on the reservation, the Tribal Council has limited to seventy breeding cows any one Apache's cattle holdings. This means that if every Apache cowman owned his limit, only 400 could become cattlemen. As it is, there are not enough "vacancies" in the associations for young men to enter the cattle business. At present there is a waiting list of nearly 200, many of them veterans of the late war, for places in the associations. An Apache must belong to an association to own cattle. And he must also be at least of one-fourth Apache blood, and be reservation born and raised.

To make room for these younger men, the Tribal Council has made it impossible for a cowman's cattle to become an "estate"; that is, to continue to be owned by his family in case of his death. When a cattleman dies, his cattle-cows and calves as well as marketable steers are sold at the next year's sales. His family receives all the proceeds-and his place is given to a young Apache on the waiting list of the association.

He requires no capital, however, when he secures his right to own cattle. He applies to the Tribal Council for an issue of yearling heifers, and is given 30 head from either the registered tribal herd, or from his association. He is allowed seven to eight years to get started; at the end of that period he must repay his original thirty heifers, plus three more for interest, and after that he's on his own.

Through the "loan" policy of the fine registered bulls for use on the association ranges and the continual production of these fine bulls through artificial insemination, the cattle project on the San Carlos reservation can be expected to succeed indefinitely. But the solution of how to expand this business enough to take care of the entire tribe is not in sight. The Apaches know the "right" solution. It's to have the hundreds of thousands of acres which have been snipped off their original land grant either restored to them, or paid for so they may buy land. The present 1,627,804 acres constitut-ing San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation is just about half of what was established as this area by President Grant in 1872. The younger generation among the Apaches see no reason why they shouldn't at least be paid for land deeded them in solemn treaty.

"The people of Central Arizona ought to be glad all we want is payment for our land," one of them says. "An awful lot of people would have to move if we demanded the land itself."

This is the characteristic understatement of an Apache. Actually most of Southern Arizona's populated area, includ-ing her richest mining areas, were included in the original boundaries of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.