From Fort Marion to Fort Sill: A Documentary History of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, 1886-1913

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135 K Kaahteney (Jacob) c. 1861–1918 ws fig. 55 Kaahtennae; Kaahtenny; Kaatenney; Kaetena; Kaetenna; Kahahtenai; Kaahtonai; Kantenné; Kantinno; Kayatennae; Looking Glass; Cartridges all gone. The brother of Kinzhuna, Baykathenn, and Nezulkide, Kaahteney was a nephew of Konthlekizh and was related to Chihuahua, perhaps through one of Chihuahua’s earlier wives. A prominent warrior, Kaahteney was a major figure of considerable authority and influence among his own people but almost unknown to whites. He was in the rear guard at Tres Castillos, Mexico, in October 1880, one of the seventeen in Victorio’s band who escaped annihilation and capture by Mexican troops. In 1882 Kaahteney was with Juh at Cerro Mata Ortiz, Mexico, when Juh avenged the carnage of Tres Castillos. After Victorio’s death Kaahteney assumed leadership of the Warm Springs band under Nana. Had the Apaches remained in Mexico, military officers of the day who knew them well anticipated that Kaahteney would be the next chief of the Warm Springs and Chiricahua Apaches. Kaahteney never lived on a reservation until May 1883, when he and Nana surrendered to General Crook in the Sierra Madre. Captain Bourke described the chiefs and their bands as they came into Crook’s camp, taking special note of Kaahteney: “Early in the day there was seen winding through the pine timber a curious procession,—mostly young warriors, of an aggregate of thirty-eight souls, driving steers and work cattle, and riding ponies and burros. All these were armed with Winchester and Springfield breech-loaders, with revolvers and lances whose blades were old cavalry [sabers]. The little boys carried revolvers , lances, and bows and arrows. This was the band of Kantenné (Looking Glass), a young chief, who claimed to be a Mexican Apache and to 136 | Kaahteney (Jacob) belong to the Sierra Madre, in whose recesses he had been born and raised.” Kaahteney was listed as chief of Band C of the Warm Springs Indians at San Carlos in 1884. He was enlisted as a scout based solely on his being a constant source of aggravation to Crook. Captain Emmet Crawford agreed with Crook that “such a responsibility would bring him into line and improve his behavior.” Arrested for a number of infractions , including tiswin parties and wife beating, Kaahteney was discharged as a scout after three months, about the time of his arrest for an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lieutenant Britton Davis. Removed from Fort Apache, and tried and convicted by an Indian court at San Carlos, he was sentenced to five years in Alcatraz prison for attempting to instigate an uprising. During his incarceration he learned rudimentary reading, writing, and English. After serving eighteen months he was pardoned by General Crook, who believed Kaahteney ’s federal “rehabilitation” would be a good influence on the Chiricahua . Crook enlisted the reconstructed Kaahteney as a scout in the regular army at Fort Apache. Attaining the rank of sergeant, he was with Crook during the March 1886 surrender negotiations with Naiche and Geronimo at Embudos Canyon, Mexico. One night in Crook’s camp Kaahteney displayed to his comrades a letter from Lorenzo Bonito, a son of Chief Bonito of the White Mountain Apaches, to whom Kaahteney may have been related by marriage. Captain John Bourke said the light of the campfire that night illuminated the correspondence and Kaahteney began mumbling, “which the other Apaches fancied was reading, and at which they marveled greatly; but not content with this proof of traveled culture, ‘Ka-e-ten-na’ took a piece of paper from me, wrote upon it in carefully constructed school-boy capitals, and then handed it back to me to read aloud. [I] read slowly and solemnly: ‘my wife him name kow-tennays wife. one year hab tree hundred sixy-fibe day.’ He read with the “dignity and complacency of a Boston Brahmin; the envy of his comrades was ill-concealed[,] their surprise undisguised.” The next morning Bourke and the Apache scouts encountered a herd of peccary, commonly known as javelina. Kaahteney, “with his horse at full gallop, shot one through the head,” wrote the astonished Bourke. Kaahteney was a member of the July 1886 delegation of scouts rep- Kaahteney (Jacob) | 137 resenting the Warm Springs Apaches. Delegation members met with several government officials to discuss the disposition of the Warm Springs band. On the government payroll as an army scout, Kaahteney was sent to Fort Marion, Florida, his status becoming that of a...