American Indian Culture and Research Journal

One afternoon, in August of 1881, the Sixth Cavalry of the US Army was nervously setting up camp along Cibecue Creek after arresting Nockaydelklinne, a medicine man accused of stirring unrest among Apaches newly settled on small reservations in Central Arizona. Ordered to “capture or kill” Nockaydelklinne, the soldiers had boldly entered Nockaydelklinne’s quarters and told the old man that he would come with them. Nockaydelklinne acquiesced—but soon hundreds of Apache warriors surrounded the cavalry, incensed that he was seized without cause. Shots were fired, and men fell on both sides; a soldier shot Nockaydelklinne point blank. Later, seeing the medicine man still miraculously alive, a soldier decapitated him. The Eastern press reported that Indians massacred 117 men. The final count was six. For months afterward, Apaches broke from the reservations, reoccupying their traditional lands. They were incessantly hunted by the army—killed or forced to return. The citizens of Arizona were outraged that these Indians dared to exceed the boundaries of the land assigned to them. A century later, scores of texts chronicling the battle of Cibecue have been published. Yet nearly every article and book simply recounts the story from the standpoint of the Euro-American participants. The voice of the Apache victims, their experiences and perspectives, has been utterly and almost completely silenced.