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Apache Scouts One of thethe U. S. Army—Their Uncanny Skill In Tracking An Enemy ~ Most. * lt;. * '• 'r’-: •. ; •; ■?'-*t■/r ‘ * •' £: vsX ' - v^ v•fT**V*V ( *:i' ir: W^'tvr • *nousriors- Hounds of CanyonBIT WAMKW- FAWCETT. . ..NCLE ELUd has the world beat scouts working for ‘ /him •best” that to;; If wb contemplate ib American continent as the Men* of military operations. Critic* there are who pick flaws- in other sections of our military and naval establishments and who declare that the moves in behalf of ''preparedness**. have come none too soon.Apache—that name of . dreaded memory has attained a new significance since the Mexican campaign against Villa and his band was under* taken. Pershing's operations among the canyons and on the deserts of our neighbor republic have proven to the public what our army officers have long known, namely, that the bloodthirsty Apache warrior, turned scout In behalf of Ms former foeman, .is one of the most valuable assets that the U. ft. Army possesses. The very qualities of craftiness and cunning which will cause the Apcbes to go down»in history as the one uncon-quered Indian tribe serve the erstwhile savage In good stead when It cotpes .to trailing, aided by only thefaintest of clues.When the American newspaper audience read at the breakfast table the other morning that a corps of Apache scouts had been rushed southward Into Mexico on motor trucks, the Jtetnf to the average casualreader, perhaps suggested little. Possibly, ‘at most, the word Apache called to . mind something of the exploits the storied Oeronlmo, most famous of renerade chieftains. But to every man who has a first-hand or even a second-hand acquaintance with the i parka that brief dispatch palled up visions of the hounds of the desert— Indians not of Imposing height, but rtf restless eye, Indians that do not rtonfonn In stature to the ideals ofthe story hooka, yet who/ as Charles F. Lummto has said, have the eye of the kite, the ear of the cat, the running of the fox and the tirelessness of the rry wolf/*The Threlfwsnem of the Apache, The tirelessness of the Apache to no! a mere mailer of Indian legend. XT. ft. Artfiy officers had eloquent proof ef it long years before the name offi 'V?JWf-ir ' ’-S' /*: 1. •r- lt;*■ w. -,S';.L'x-.:■AfcVV''v -Ih:5pslmmmi Hf PSMv‘. *■;««SWFiSjlV.v.',Villa was ever heard. The explanation to to be found, of course, in the physical* training of the Apache. Born out of doors, this nomad of the Southwest literally spends his entire life in the open.No small part of the credit, for the Apache’s almost unbelievable powers belong unquestionably to the lend which is home” to these children of mountain and desert, No man’s land*1 would seem, in the estimation of the white man, a phrase peculiarly appropriate to the ancestral stronghold of these Bedouins of the. New World as they hAve been nicknamed.A more repellant region than it Was in the heydey of the Apache tribes it would b# difficult to Imagine, but It was the world's rough hand as administered by nature In her severest mood that made for many of thetraits that caused the Apache to befeared and dreaded for long fearsomeyears In a domain larger than all Europe, excepting Russia.The Wflderneas Whence Sprang theApacheIn order to have ability to appreciate what the twentieth centuryApache scout to doing for the present-day American army it may be well to look-for a moment at the environment whence sprang this superman of Ihe trail. The average citizen*****:*vyaJ0fSV -•*p-c. ••■a.-•■''.'itS v ' / -- X \ y » / /% v * ', / yS• vv . •. v. '1O ' ' .lt; ]P•••• ** ■ -Ji=f m %u.Sf-.’ T.'- ' *mmW.v* '• ‘ki: lt;h’r\. -t* ’ • » • l- * * :r’ ‘*vI‘# . . • •* .* •.lt; V » \N v • • *■ . 11 , • M •,??: lt;$/ V. S:vlt;v;tx*' . - :'4'•.*.*• • • • . . *«.^ ... .. :.vV;x-tpc’/re'5'cocst:« *.?•/•V. / ■clt;0Gr£‘ //? f-cs// /Q(^ YCA/e/* *Se4X'C/’*rrx/ C'A//^e7eff,Ajknowing that the' remnant of the Apaches now occupy three reservations In the Southwest has It In mind that the original realm of the tribe was embraced within the confines of the present States of Arizona and New Mexico. As a matter of fact, however, the great open-air school wherein the Apaches learned the science of scouting was of far vaster dimension. It extended, indeed, from a point midway In Texas. to 8outhern California, and from Colorado on the north fAr Into Olrf Mexico 6n the south. It to the familiarity with Mexico’s mountain fastnesses . Acquired during the period when the Apaches were on the warpath that renders the older tribesmen so valuable as scouts to any American force operating in the turbulent land to the south of us.A Natural Bom Scout His life/ his training, ht*. environment, and more than all else the form of warfare which the Apaches In the old days were forced to Adopt, combine to make the average tribesman a natural bom scout. Secretlvenesa is not the-least essentia! of the Attributes of the successful scout, and aecretlveneas has become instinctive with the Apache. The Ability to meltInto the brown earth and to merge with the gray rocks Is his to a baffling degree. In the old days when the Apaches on the warpath gave our troeps so much trouble It was the first principle of The Indian fighter tofight In what we have come to knowas true Indian fashion, skulking from one shelter to Another and never exposing the smallest portion of the body. Indeed, these Indian warriorsC'/smps^? or tfie s*p£rc’S?e? Oozmtry had the present-day trench fighters beaten to a standstill in this branch of military science. This knack of capitalizing Ihe shelter of every rock and tree has been translated Into terms of modern trailing with rare efficiency.On top of the secretive ness of the Apache to that marvelous perception of detail which makes for genius In trailing. On This score no white man. even though fortified by ihe experience of a lifetime In scouting, ha.* ever proren the peer of the best1 Apache* trailers. TW'latler are alike fat home in following a scent over rocky hillsides and through maxes of sand and dust Not only have The Apaches demonstrated an ability to detect footprints so faint that none of the white men of the average scouting party had been able to discover ! their presence, but they have piled miracle upon miracle by figuring how llong a time hAd elapsed since such ‘ft faint print was innde.The Apache to emphatically an In-dlvidtialtoT which makes, of course, ’for the Ideal scout. He needs noleader, he worries- not over lack of, . , ^ ,* i -♦counsel and. advice, he suffers not from loas of,companionship.. Self-sufficient, and sqif-reliant,. keeping M* ’ ow-n counsel, ho .plays a lone hand, in a masterly manner. To surmlae how tn-advtoable to the solitary Apache bent on sleuttflngV-U li but necessary to recall how? InvtoibleVilir the old days wefe the' on‘ the Warpath. '.ForJnatdjice^ during this, ratd of Ul»n:and h to band; itv the .au tumn of .188b, th6 'j^paciie' wairJo« ‘w®r® oTl the .rampage .tor geveri .wgejc% during which; tJtne ^they tolled' thirty-eight person's,.'.Yet during, ‘that entire timethe-tooopA-and cJv*Uan#4h*t were constantly In pursuit . never Caught1 eight of so 'mupb as a .single :member - of -the raiding band- r ^ \• ■::TrsU^ W^ ^.When:the man on'the street reed.a few weeks since that twenty Apaches after an unbroken ride of sixty miles from Fort Apache to ttolbrook, Arizona, .had executed a -war dante end joined .In the piirsuit of-Villa he may have wondered whether.this was not I a new Idea1*—this employment of the !bloodthirsty Apaches as scouts for the U. 3. Army/ As a matter of fac** however, the practice Constitutes no novelty at ail. . The Apachb ha* long since wbrv, his spurs as a O. 8. Artay scout even - though the present-day citizen has forgotten or overlooked the factTruth to telL every one of ihe twenty Apaches who were^hurrled to Mexico when the advance- of the U. S. Regulars was hampered by false Information given by Mexicans, fought either with or against Geronimo in the. famous campaign.agalnst the lr dian bandit who made more history than arty other one man of his race. Furthermore, It Is a. safe guess that none of the various U. S. Army campaigns against the Apaches would have proven, successful and the renegades of the trfbe would never have ;ieen brought to respect Uncle Sam’s authority, had It not been for Ihe aid rendered CheTJ. S/trooper* by friendly Apache acoutaAs will be noted from the accompanying pictures, the Apache acout In the service of the U. 9. Army boast* a costume that may In some cases con* !fornr*to conventional military stsnd-jards. but is more often a strange mature of regulation army raiment with remnants of the habiliments of th* ?aavage. A modern rifie to an Invariable accompaniment of the scout's sar-itortol outfit Long ago the Apachemanifested a weakness for firearms of ,fhe finest quality. It was said 1n th* •days*when the renegades were on thr!warpath in Arizona that the Apach^ iwere belter armed then their ;I pursuers. And that the rerlmen carr!e1 ithe best field glasses In the South* ‘west. That policy persists with *hc average Apache who in the role of * tT. S. scout must ptend ever ready tr ptay the game r*ngle-handed with;fate.
Newspaper Details
Fitchburg Daily Sentinel
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, US
Mon, May 22, 1916
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Ryan B.
USA 29 May 2019
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