Unlike the many images we have of Geronimo today, no photograph of Cochise exists. We only know what he looked like from contemporary written accounts; mostly American and Mexican. These we owe to the very few people of European descent who lived to tell about their close encounter with the great Chiricahua Apache chief.
He was born about 1810 in the Chiricahua Mountains of present-day Arizona when the United States was a small, weak republic on the East Coast of North America; 2,000 miles and, given the transportation of the day, a galaxy away.
His life spanned the era of American expansion across a huge continent that was then populated by hundreds of Native American tribes. For decades, Cochise fought the invaders of his homeland with everything he had. In 1874, he died in the Dragoon Mountains, located about an hour and a half east of Tucson at a place now called Cochise Stronghold. Ironically, in the end he was at peace with the United States.
Many said that his youngest known son, Naiche, most closely resembled Cochise physically. But we also have written descriptions that tell us not only about his appearance but, more importantly, about his personality, his attitudes, and his extraordinary fighting and leadership skills.
Physical Appearance
Most record his height between 5’10” and 6’0”. According to Lt. Joseph Sladen who, as aid to General Oliver Howard, spent 10 days in Cochise’s camp in 1872, he “looked more than his height on account of his somewhat slender build, and his straight physique.”
Captain Joseph Haskell was among General Howard’s party during 1872 peace negotiations at Council Rocks in the Dragoon Mountains. Later he wrote:
“The reports that we have had of Cochise have always given us the understanding that he is old, used up, crippled from wounds and exposure, and of no account whatever as a leader or a chief. How mistaken we were. We met Cochise and 13 of his captains, and Cochise is as different from the others of his tribe, as far as we saw, as black is from white. When standing straight he is said to be exactly six feet tall. I took a good look at him and made up my mind that he was only five feet ten inches. He is powerful, exceedingly well built, bright, intelligent countenance, and as fine an Indian as I ever laid my eyes on.”
At the time of the peace conference, Cochise would have been about 62; old age in the 19th century. At 5’10’’, he would have been 5 inches taller than the average Apache warrior.
Persona
Of his persona, General Howard, who negotiated the 1872 peace agreement, wrote that Cochise’s “countenance was pleasant, and made me feel how strange it is that such a man could be the notorious robber and cold-blooded murderer.”
In the two years following the 1872 peace agreement, Cochise was a frequent customer of Al Williamson, a trader at Fort Bowie, who wrote, “Cochise never smiled. He was severe and grave of aspect.”
Perhaps Cochise was not totally humorless. After he agreed to end his war on the Americans and settle down on the huge, newly-created Chiricahua Reservation, his warriors continued to raid across the International Border in Chihuahua and Sonora. Once when asked what is warriors were doing in Mexico, he answered euphemistically, “making a living.”
Honesty
To his enemies, the Americans and Mexicans, Cochise was a thief. But unlike his enemies, he was not a lying thief. He told Tom Jeffords, his friend and only agent of the short-lived Chiricahua Reservation, “A man should never lie. If a man asks you or I a question we do not wish to answer, we could say, I don’t want to talk about that.”
Fred Hughes, who worked for agent Jeffords on the reservation, said of Cochise’s peace accord with General Howard, “He kept his word till the day of his death.” In Cochise’s barbaric, merciless world, this was a very high standard for honesty.
A Surprising Discovery: Apaches Are Actually Human
In 1896, almost a quarter century after the fact, Sladen recalled his stay in the Chiricahua camp that resulted in his change of heart toward the Chiricahuas. It came as a surprise to him that the Apaches were actually human, like himself. He wrote that the Indians were “always cheerful, demonstratively happy, and talkative … brim full of fun and joking, and ready to laugh heartily over the most trivial matters. They were especially fond of playing practical jokes of a harmless nature upon each other.”
Fear And Respect
Among his own people, Cochise was sometimes as much feared as respected. Apaches would go out of their way to avoid incurring his wrath, particularly when he was drunk.
Sladen wrote that once he “heard screams from Cochise’s wife and sister. I saw them fleeing in terror from his bivouac. He was striking and scolding them.”
“It may have been during such a binge that his spunky younger wife twice bit him severely.”
Fred Hughes wrote, “It was astonishing also to see what power he had over this brutal tribe, for while they idolized him and also worshipped him, no man was ever held in greater fear, his glance being enough to squelch the more obstreperous Chiricahua of the tribe.”
Another American recalled in a 1890’s article, “A private soldier would as soon think of disobeying a direct order of the President as would a Chiricahua Apache a command of Cochise.”
In the mid-1900’s, Asa (Ace) Daklugie, son of Juh (pronounced Hó) told ethnographer Eve Ball that as a child he was warned not to even look at Cochise’s wickiup because it might be considered disrespectful.
Power and Influence
Cochise was chief because his followers wanted and needed his leadership at a time when their world was being invaded and their very existence threatened. At the height of his power, late 1850’s to mid-1860s, Cochise exercised almost absolute rule over several thousand Chiricahuas. He could bring together his own Chokonens and other bands to organize war parties of more than 500 well-armed, well-mounted, and well-led warriors. No other Apache chief; not Mangas Coloradas, not Victorio, not Juh, nor Nana nor Loco, had this much sway over so many Apaches. In the 1860s, Cochise’s word was law to a people who largely controlled and raided over a 20,000 square mile area of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico.
Most Apache chiefs were war leaders who were skilled in the art of raiding stock from the Americans and Mexicans; generous in sharing their loot with their people, and adroit in trading their excess booty for guns, ammunition, blankets, clothes, and whiskey.
Being a war leader required extraordinary close-combat fighting skills. Cochise was well-known for his skill with knife and lance. But Captain Cremony of the California Volunteers who fought Cochise at the Battle of Apache Pass, later wrote, “… no Apache warrior can draw an arrow to the head, and send it farther, with more ease than he.” It should be noted here that most Apache warriors were more deadly with a bow and arrow than a rifle.
Hatred
Cochise could be relentlessly bitter and unforgiving. In the 1860s, Cochise’s hatred for the Mexicans was surpassed by his hatred of the Americans, who had needlessly hung several of his male relatives at Fort Bowie. About the U.S. Army’s treachery at Apache Pass in 1861, Cochise said, “I was at peace with the Whites until they tried to kill me for what other Indians did; now I live and die at war with them.”
Cruelty
His capacity for cruelty knew no bounds. Cochise could be lovingly compassionate and generous to his own people, particularly his relatives, but toward his enemies he showed no mercy. His captives were often tortured to death in the slowest, most painful, and humiliating ways.
Revenge
When the Americans or Mexicans killed his people; whether in ambush, set battles, or the massacre of Apache women and children; Cochise retaliated with all the power at his command. In the 1860’s, his Chiricahuas mostly warred for revenge against the Americans and Mexicans. Raiding for cattle, horses, mules and other usable items was still important for survival, but “an eye for an eye” became their primary motivation. In this sense, the Chiricahuas had a keen sense of Old Testament morality.
Leadership
Above all, Cochise was a superb leader. In battle, he led by example. Edward Sweeney, who penned the most authoritative biography of Cochise wrote, “Cochise did not establish political alliances like those conceived and molded by Mangas Coloradas, his father-in-law, who was the dominant Eastern Chiricahua leader for some twenty years before his death (or execution) at the hands of white soldiers in 1863. Nor did Cochise evince Victorio’s skills in the art of guerrilla warfare. His fame was not based on a single whirlwind raid as was that of Nana, Victorio’s lieutenant, and he did not possess the military genius of Juh (Whoa). Yet each of these men was Cochise’s ally at one time or another, and although they were not of the same band, each willingly fought under Cochise or at his side. All respected his leadership ability; his fierce, uncompromising hatred toward his legion of enemies; and above all, his courage in battle and his wisdom in counsel.”
Peace
By 1870, if the Americans and the Mexicans were going to stop the Apache raids that were slaughtering their citizens and ruining their economies, they knew they had to either kill Cochise or make peace with him.
In the end, the United States government at the highest level decided that it would be faster and cheaper to make peace: a peace they agreed to in October 1872, then completely violated only 4 years later in 1876.
The Chiricahua Apache’s War with the United States during the late 1850’s and all of the 1860’s is called Cochise’s War. Cochise died in 1874. In the late 1870’s and early 1880’s, their war against the United States became known as Geronimo’s War.
Following the 1876 closing of the Chiricahua Reservation, the raiding and killing on both sides of the International Border continued for another decade. In 1886, Geronimo surrendered for the fourth and final time. The once mighty Chiricahuas were never to return to their Southern Arizona homeland that Cochise had so ably defended against overwhelming forces, both American and Mexican. Today, ironically, more than 6,000 square miles of Cochise’s former homeland in Southeastern Arizona is named in his honor: Cochise County.
For more information on the Apaches and the history surrounding the Apache Wars, see our page on the Local History of the Apaches.
