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

34. Lipan Exodus

338 Lipans described their journey from Mexico during interviews with Morris Opler in the 1930s. This is their account: Most of the Lipans still in Mexico were living peacefully near the towns and trying to get along. Antonio Apache’s grandfather was a mail carrier. The government couldn’t keep mail carriers on the route between Zaragosa and Presidio del Norte because they would be waylaid and killed, but for three years, the wily Lipan mail carrier completed his rounds on horseback every six days, one way. Some Lipans were then in the hills making trouble. (This could have been Alsate and Colorado.) One day they attacked a wealthy Mexican family traveling to their ranch and killed the entire party. Next they killed the employee of a Zaragosa man who was a friend to the Lipans. They took the hired man’s clothes and killed the two steers he was driving, according to Antonio Apache. (In February 1880 unidentified Indians killed some people near Zaragosa, murdered an entire family at Guererro [Presidio del Norte], and attacked a ranch. A party of Mexican citizens pursued them inland.) The wealthy Mexican called a meeting to organize and fight the Lipans, but the friendly Mexican, despite his losses, defended them. The wealthy man prevailed. 34 CHAPTER Lipan Exodus I am now utterly opposed to their being coaxed back. — General Ranald S. Mackenzie, 18821 Lipan Exodus 339 The Lipans’ friend rode alone to the Indians, who were on the move. He called out to them, asking for a Lipan he knew. They told him the man had gone to the Mescaleros. He told the others they should speak to him because he had important news. They were afraid to approach, so he talked from a distance: “They are going to follow you right into the mountains and keep after you till they find you all. You Indians may think these are big mountains and this is rough country , but when they start to search for you, it will not be big enough, for there will be many men looking for you,” he said. He suggested they go north to Fort Stanton in New Mexico. He also informed the Lipan mail carrier and urged him to go to Fort Stanton. Each time the mail carrier made his rounds, he saw more soldiers. Finally the friendly Mexican warned him trouble was about to start. He gave the carrier a beef to butcher and make jerky and said they should leave for their own safety. These Lipans departed in the early morning, leaving fires burning in all their camps so the Mexicans who wanted to kill them would think they were still there on the outskirts of town. They went to the mountains and traveled until they reached some distant Lipan camps. The mail carrier warned his people, but some didn’t believe the Mexicans could find them. “These mountains are rough, and they don’t know the country as we do,” they said. The soldiers found them east of Zaragosa and attacked at dawn. They captured two women—a Lipan and a Mescalero—and some children. The Lipan woman, Liha, was wounded in the back; the Mescalero woman was Dule. (Both women came to Mescalero in 1904.) Others, including the sisters Conejo (Percy Big Mouth’s mother) and Yeyu, escaped.2 The mail carrier continued on to warn relatives near Norte. They too ignored the warning and remained. They went to town to buy shells to hunt antelope, but shopkeepers had all been warned against selling ammunition to them. One said he would try to find them some shells. While they waited, they saw smoke signals3 from the hills, which meant trouble. 340 I FOUGHT A GOOD FIGHT Lipans in camps at the edge of town, led by Pancho Venego and his father, started for the mountains. Mexican friends told them that soldiers had trouble with Indians to the west (Victorio) and intended to fight them. “We Mexicans who live here don’t bother you Indians, but these soldiers are from another place,” they said. Another Mexican gave a butcher knife to a Lipan who was his friend and told him to stay in the hills and not return. The Lipans, in two groups, gathered at a big mountain they called Pine. Some decided to return to a big camp near Norte. Pancho Venego said, “I came out here with my mind made up...