thumb|[[Dragoon Mountains in Southeastern Arizona, where Cochise hid with his warriors]]

Cochise ( ; Apache: or , ; later or , ; June 8, 1874) was the leader of the Chiricahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of a Chiricahua Apache. A key war leader during the Apache Wars, he led an uprising that began in 1861 and persisted until a peace treaty was negotiated in 1872. Cochise County is named after him.

Biography

Cochise (or "Cheis") was one of the most noted Apache leaders (along with Geronimo and Mangas Coloradas) to resist intrusions by Mexicans and Americans during the 19th century. He was described as a large man (for the time), with a muscular frame, classical features, and long, black hair, which he wore in traditional Apache style. He was about tall and weighed about . In his own language, his name Cheis meant "having the quality or strength of oak." The mistaken arrest of Cochise by Lt. Bascom is still remembered by the Chiricahua's descendants today, who describe the incident as "Cut the Tent".

Cochise joined his father-in-law Mangas Coloradas (Red Sleeves, Kan-da-zis Tlishishen), the powerful Chihenne-Chiricahua chief, in a long series of retaliatory skirmishes and raids on the white settlements and ranches.

In January 1863, Gen. Joseph R. West, under orders from Gen. Carleton, captured Mangas Coloradas by luring him into a conference under a flag of truce. During what was to be a peaceful parley session, the Americans took Mangas Coloradas prisoner and later executed him. Based on statements by Sumner and descriptions by Sladen, modern historians such as Robert M. Utley believe that Cochise's Spanish interpreter was Geronimo.

After the peace treaty, Cochise retired to the short-lived Chiricahua Reservation (1872–1876), with his friend Jeffords as agent. He died of natural causes (probably abdominal cancer) in 1874, and was buried in the rocks above one of his favorite camps in Arizona's Dragoon Mountains, now called the Cochise Stronghold. Only his people and Tom Jeffords knew the exact location of his resting place, which they never disclosed.

Many of Cochise's descendants reside at the Mescalero Apache Reservation near Ruidoso, New Mexico, and in Oklahoma with the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache.

Whether a portrait of Cochise exists is unknown; a reported portrait is actually that of a 1903 Pueblo of Isleta man named Juan Rey Abeita.

Family

Cochise married Dos-teh-seh (Dos-tes-ey, Doh-teh-seh – "Something-at-the-campfire-already-cooked", b. 1813), the daughter of Mangas Coloradas, who was the leader of the Warm Springs and Mimbreño local groups of the Chihenne band. Their children were Taza (1842–1876) and Naiche (1856–1919).

References

Further reading

  • Bourke, John G. (1971). On the Border with Crook. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . .
  • Nichols, Roger L. Warrior Nations: The United States and Indian Peoples. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
  • Sweeney, Edward R. (2008) Making Peace with Cochise: The 1872 Journal of Captain Joseph Alton Sladen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. .
  • Note that the first photo in Find a Grave is actually not Cochise. That photo is a popular one of Chato (Apache) from the Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives: See Portrait of Chief Chato in Native Dress 1886. Since the photo was taken in 1886, Cochise was long gone (he died in 1874). The second photo in Find a Grave is of Eskiminzin, the Aravapai Apache leader.
  • Mescalero Apache Tribe