Chiricahua and Janos: Communities of Violence in the Southwestern Borderlands, 1680-1880

5. War, Peace, War: Revenge and Retaliation, 1831–1850

Revenge and retaliation dominated relations between the two communities after 1831. An end to rations led to an increase in Chiricahua raiding, resulting in increased hostility from Mexicans. For most of the 1830s many Chiricahuas attempted to reestablish a peace with the Mexicans, but these efforts fell victim to the desires for revenge and retaliation. By the 1840s Janos had to restore a declining garrison, deal with outside scalp hunters, and then pursue and persecute Indians for ongoing raids. Only then could Janos cobble together peace deals, which rarely lasted as rations typically did not come, and troops kept leaving for other assignments. By the last years of the 1840s Mexicans returned to the scalp hunt, Chiricahuas continued to raid, and both sides exchanged treacheries whenever able. Yet this hostility was tempered by ongoing exchanges of goods and continuing negotiations for peace at Janos. The seemingly irrational cycle of revenge and retaliation, negotiation and exchange was quite rational as both Janos and Chiricahua were weak, unwilling to trust the other community, and unable to enforce any settlement, leaving revenge as their primary option. “A Terrible Hatred” Death stalked Janos in 1831. Viruelas, smallpox, swept through both Mexican and Apache homes, targeting their most vulnerable Chapter 5 War, Peace, War Revenge and Retaliation, 1831–1850 war, peace, war 124 members, infants and children, ultimately killing forty. The epidemic spared neither community, killing an Apache child, “un apachito ,” before moving on to kill the infant daughter of Captain Juan José Zozaya and Doña Petra Varela. To escape this outbreak of smallpox both Compá brothers and their groups, and those of other Chiricahua leaders, fled at the beginning of summer to the higher , cooler, and decidedly less deadly ground of the Sierra Madre. There they continued the seasonal round of hunting and gathering , with a few young men likely slipping off for some raiding. As the smallpox burned itself out at the start of winter Juan José grew concerned with his and his people’s standing among the Mexicans.1 In January 1832 he sent a letter to Mariano Varela at the Hacienda de Ramos, a long-time friend of the Compás, father-in-law to Captain Zozaya and José Ignacio Ronquillo, and likely Juan José’s godfather . Juan José dispatched the letter in the hands of several women who carried it to Janos, the means of customary communication between the two communities. In the letter Juan José insisted to Varela that he and the Apaches just wished for peace. The women added to Juan José’s message, saying the Apaches were gathered together for defense if no peace was forthcoming. While Mexicans accepted that Juan José and the Chiricahuas were at peace, they could not extend the Indians any rations. No rations guaranteed continued raiding. Chiricahuas ran off horses from a ranch west of Janos in mid-February , killing the vaquero who attempted to stop them, and stampeded livestock away from ranches near an intermittent lake to the north, the Lago de Guzmán, and the Corral de Piedra to the east. Two months later they attacked a favorite target, the Janos horse herd, and haciendas all around the presidio. In retaliation José Ignacio Ronquillo led a combined campaign deep into Chiricahua territory . For three days on the Río Gila in May Ronquillo’s forces, including men from Janos, fought Apaches, killing 22, wounding 51, and recovering 141 horses. They took only two prisoners. Ronquillo then returned to Janos and opened negotiations. For the next several months Apache envoys came and went from El Cobre and Janos, until twenty-nine leaders signed a peace treaty on August 21, 1832.2 war, peace, war 125 Chiricahuas agreed to end their raids, to return all livestock recently taken, and not to enter the interior of Chihuahua without permission. For his role in the negotiations Juan José Compá was appointed one of three principal chiefs and called “general,” a position his father had held and his brother had longed for. General Juan José would oversee Chiricahuas living northwest of Janos. Fuerte, also named a general and later better known as Mangas Coloradas, was paramount chief of the rancherias around El Cobre , and General Matías headed those Apaches living along the Río Gila north of Sonora. But without rations or any reciprocity, the peace proved defunct almost from the moment it was signed, and Chiricahuas resumed raiding all across...