I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches

19. Friendship for the Texians

184 When the first shot of the Texas Revolution detonated years of friction and resentment in October 1835, some Lipans were already serving as spies and scouts. The mayor of Reynosa reported in November that “some groups of Lipans acting like rebels are going about causing damage to the ranches near the salt source.”2 Many Lipans remained in Coahuila to sit out the conflict; some moved back and forth across the Rio Grande to avoid battles; others took advantage of the chaos to raid. Incursions by all tribes were unintentionally most helpful to the Texans. Santa Anna, making his way north, expected the tribes to side with Mexico, but below the Rio Grande, they pilfered supplies and attacked troops.3 In January 1836 Hugh Love proposed enlisting Indian tribes for six months or more at the same pay as regular troops, providing ammunition , and giving them horses and half of all other plunder taken from the enemy. He also suggested that commissioners treat with the frontier tribes and “grant the lands promised them.” The overtures failed, and settlers were “entirely unprotected by any military force, or plan of general defence,” reported an advisory committee, which asked the acting governor to sweep “from the country, & from the earth, if 19 CHAPTER Friendship for the Texians Familiar with his fame as a Statesman and a Warrior, and confiding in his attachment to the American people, the Government of Texas is proud to receive General De Castro on terms of amity and friendship. — Mirabeau B. Lamar, 18381 Friendship for the Texians 185 possible, these restless & bloody savages . . .” In February the committee called for a “Ranging corps.”4 Q R Lipans were there when the Alamo, a makeshift fort patched together from the old San Antonio de Valero Mission, earned its place in history on March 6, 1836. Marcelo de Castro, a brother of Cuelga de Castro, said his people approached to help the Alamo defenders. Apprehended by Mexican soldiers, they had to watch the battle from a distance. “We were hunting. We were far. We return quickly. We witnessed smoke coming from the Alamo,” said Calixto Gonzalez Castro. “We were forced by soldiers from entering the Alamo. We witnessed how the Mexican soldiers tossed and burned the bodies of the dead Texans into large fires. We lost family at the Alamo. We buried our dead.”5 Chief Magoosh, an Upper Lipan, was born near San Antonio in 1821 just weeks after the Mexican flag replaced the Spanish flag. “My grandfather saw the fall of the Alamo when he was a boy. The Apaches were sympathetic with the Americans. They hated the Mexicans,” said Richard Magoosh, the chief’s grandson.6 “My great grandfather escaped [from the Mexicans] and walked this way and rejoined the People,” said Meredith Magoosh Begay, a great-granddaughter. “He had worn out his moccasins and walked barefoot through thorns. He killed a deer and used a deerskin to wrap his feet. He sat on top of a hill. He saw kids and yelled. Two girls ran back to their mother and father, saying, ‘A ghost is calling us.’ Men got on horses to find him. They gave him a horse.” The two girls who saw him were Augustina Zuazua and Rose Tahnito, who came to the Mescalero Apache Reservation from Mexico in 1905.7 Because this was Lipan country, it’s reasonable to assume they were present. Historians are still debating the number of Alamo defenders, and Calixto Castro’s recollection indicates that the Lipans weren’t necessarily inside the Alamo but were captured and died trying to reach the Alamo. The revolution ended officially on April 21, 1836, but not 186 I FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT the hostilities and intrigues, and both sides wanted Indian allies. In August Thomas Rusk, trailing defeated Mexican troops to make sure they crossed the Rio Grande, was cheered to learn that “the Comanches & Lipatlans can be enlisted . . .”8 If the tribes had known what was in store, they might have chosen differently . In 1836 Mexican Secretary of War José María Tornel wrote prophetically that as the United States’ population increased, its government began to see the inconvenience of Indian treaties. The attitude of white people toward nonwhites “was sufficient for the expulsion of the men of bronze,theredmen,andforthedespoliationoftheirproperty . . . What was there to restrain Anglo-American greed? Nothing! Might was on their side, the miserable Indians had nothing but...