At the Tombstone Court House State Park Museum I was educated about how the U.S. Army made an implacable enemy of the great Apache leader Cochise in an incident that reminded me of the Marias Massacre. It was certainly another case of the army's failure to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent, or even to care to do so.
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Born in present-day Arizona, Cochise led the Chiricahua band of the Apache tribe during a period of violent social upheaval. In 1850, the United States took control over the territory that today comprises Arizona and New Mexico. Not hostile to the whites at first, he kept peace with the Anglo-Americans until 1861, when he became theiCr implacable foe because of the blunder of a young U.S. Army officer, Lt. George Bascom. In that year, Cochise and several of his relatives had gone to an encampment of soldiers in order to deny the accusation that they had abducted a child from a ranch. The boy was later proved to have been kidnapped by another band of Apaches. During the parley, Cochise and his followers were ordered held as hostages by Bascom, but Cochise managed to escape almost immediately by cutting a hole in a tent. Bascom later ordered the other Apache hostages hanged, and the embittered Cochise joined forces with Mangas Coloradas, his father-in-law, in a guerrilla struggle against the American army and settlers. (cochisestronghold.com)
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Cochise was held in such awe that the county formed in 1881 was named for him.