Alchesay National Fish Hatchery & William Hart AlchesayA forgotten part of Arizona history by Lee Sharpe
One day we took the turnoff for Alchesay National Fish Hatchery, four miles north of Whiteriver between Mileposts 342 and 343 of AZ 73. A signed paved road heads northeast along Whiteriver a little over 4 miles to the site. Dad wanted to show the kids where all of the fish we had been catching and eating all summer came from. The Hatchery was magical with millions of trout from tadpoles are raised to 6 to 8 inch fish ready to be distributed in the local lakes and rivers.
We were camping along Whiteriver for the summer. Dad went back to Phoenix to work during the week while Mom and the kids stayed in a small trailer in a campground. It was heaven on earth for kids. Dad would return with supplies each Friday and take us on adventures. His knowledge of history meant long talks about the various historical markers, camps and sites.
Alchesay Hatchery specializes in raising small native, rainbow, brown, and cutthroat trout of 6–8 inches. Visitors are welcome to view exhibits and stroll along a self-guided tour on 7 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Alchesay was the name of a famous Sierra Blanc Apache Indian Scout. Chief (Sgt.) William Hart Alchesay, b. 1853 d. August 6, 1928, served as a Sergeant in Company A, United States Army Indian Scouts in the Wars with the Plains Indians. He was awarded the Congressional Medal Of Honor for his bravery during the Winter of 1872-1873, in the Tonto Basin Campaigns. His citation reads “Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches”. One of 14 Native Americans who were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Indian Wars, Alchesay’s Medal was awarded on April 12, 1875, the result of a personal recommendation from General George Crook.
Later he became a respected Chief of the White Mountain Apache Indians, and participated in the 1886 Campaign that ultimately ended in the capture of Geronimo. A respected counselor to Indian Agents, Alchesay even met with President Grover Cleveland to discuss Indian issues. General Crook’s aide, Captain John G. Bourke (also a Medal of Honor recipient), described Chief Alchesay as “a perfect Adonis in figure, a mass of muscle and sinew of wonderful courage, great sagacity, and as faithful as an Irish hound”.
Alchesay is buried at the Fort Apache Indian Reservation Cemetery in Whiteriver Arizona.
Jim, Blanquet, Elsatsoosh, Kelsay, Kosoha, Machol , Nannasaddie and Nantaje also received the Medal of Honor during the Indian Campaigns. Alchesay is honored in the Arizona Veteran’s Hall of Fame. To this day the Alchesay name is common among the Whiteriver Apache tribes. In fact, the Whiteriver High School is names Alchesay. There’s an Alchesay Canyon and Bridge along Hwy 88 mile post 241.
Sources:
http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_1865_ind/alchesay.htmlhttp://www.arizonahandbook.com/white.htmhttp://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6404098http://www.homeofheroes.com/hometownheroes/az.htmlWilliam Alchesay: JAN 06 Arizona Highways
http://www.arizonahighways.com/page.cfm?name=Disc_MagRef_People&page=2http://nativenews.net/nnn_history2003.shtmlhttp://www.azdvs.gov/Files/Hall%20of%20Fame/HoF%20Nomination%20Packet%2007.pdfhttp://www.mccoy.army.mil/vtriad_online/11121999/red%20cloud.htmhttp://www.buffalosoldier.net/IndianWarAfricanAmericanIndianScoutMedalofHonorRecipients.htmhttp://www.worldcatlibraries.org/search?q=su%3AAlchesay.&qt=hot_subjectA visit to the Arizona Capitol Museum revealed several more facts about William Hart Baha Alchesay.
The Arizona Legionnaire Newspaper had an article on July 24, 1978 that displayed a picture of Alchesay with a rifle. It mentioned, “he made frequent trips to Washington DC on behalf of the Indians. Through his actions Indians were paid a fair price for their land. Senator Carl Hayden was a great friend and made sure they got fair treatment
A book Alchesay, written by Col HB Wharfield brought forth many details of Alchesay’s life.
A copy of the Medal of Honor citation is on display at Alchesay High School in White River, AZ.
The Mesa Tribune 8/13/73 page 11 article by Frank Tyndall, of Mesa, and State Director of the Medal of Honor History Roundtable discussed erecting a marker on Alchesay’s grave in White River Arizona. He comments he has the support of two of Alchesay’s grandsons and great grandson and great granddaughter. The White River Apache tribe agreed to pay the expenses for materials. He commented about the honor that should be given to Alchesay for his efforts in securing the surrender of Geronimo. Alchesay was always a peacemaker and a friend to the white man. He told his people, “Learn the ways of the white man but stay true to the beliefs of the Indians.”
Tyndall also wrote to the US Postmaster to urge the creation of a postage stamp honoring Alchesay.
According to a letter from the Bureau of Indian Affairs Department of the Interior dated Dec 6, 1957, Chief Baha Alchesay as he was known by his own people, was the last hereditary chief of the Apache. When he died on Oct. 11, 1952 at 67 years of age, he was widely recognized as the last in a long line of great chiefs. His funeral was attended by Arizona Governor Pyle.
No chief replaced Alchesay in his family line. He believed the time in history had passed for passing on the title in the hereditary line. Now the democratic process better fit the demands of the modern world. Since the Reorganization Act of 1934, an elected chairman had officially managed the tribes affairs. But they had never gone against Alchesay’s wishes. Unable to speak English Alchesay had to work through interpreters.
Born in approximately 1853, of the Red Rock Strata Clan, named for the red cliffs on the east side upper slopes of Carrizo Creek near the mouth of Mud Creek, Alchesay’s birthplace was near Limestone Creek. His Uncle Pedro was the chief at the time. Pedros cousins Molly and Cora were both married to white scouts, one names Corydon Eliphalet Cooley.
Pedro had recently negotiated a deal with Chief Diablo for more land for the tribe. They had moved in early 1850 from their haven in the Turnbull Mountains area to the Upper Carrizo in the general region of Forestdale. The land Diablo allotted them was 8 miles north of the present day White River agency office.
When Alchesay was a scout for General Cook, he was armed with a .50-70 Springfield rifle and a .50 caliber Spencer Model 1865 carbine. He was under the command of Capt. (Bur Major) George M. Randall in charge Company I, 23rd Infantry. They left Camp Apache in late November 1872 moving out along the Crook Trial south into Tonto Junction with the Salt River on to Camp McDowell.
In March 27, 1873, under Capt Randall along with Scout Cooley took over a large Rancheria on top of Turret Mountain (Peak) south of Camp Verde capturing renegades. Three days prior the group of renegades had killed three white men, including George Taylor, in Wickenburg.
The summer of 1873, Alchesay deserted the Army on June 10th but surrendered on September 1st. It was common for Indian scouts to go home or wander off during the summer when hunting was poor. The time off didn’t seem to bother their superiors and a simple apology mended their record.
Family was a big part of life in the Apache communities. Alchesay’s first wife was tah-jon-nay. He had two children with her, a son Wheeler and a daughter Nellie Benito. His second wife was Dora who gave him six children. Herbert, Sidney, Otto, Eva, Nancy and MaryAnn.
Wheeler’s daughter Genevieve Baha was employed by the Phoenix Bureau of Indian Affairs for many years and provided much of the information for Wharfield’s book on her grandfather.
Most of the children took the Baha name with only MaryAnn taking the Baha-Alchesay name. Eva married Isaac Kessay. The Alchesay name is widely known in Apache country today.
Bloody Basin and Native American History
Bloody Basin and the Tonto National Forest have a rich heritage reaching thousands of years into the past. Originally home to several prehistoric Indian groups who hunted and gathered wild plants in the Mazatzal Mountains and Sierra Ancha and along the Salt and Verde Rivers and their tributaries, it was colonized more than a thousand years ago by a related group of people known today as the Hohokam. The Hohokam were accomplished farmers, craftsmen, traders, and warriors who built large towns and villages and dug hundreds of miles of irrigation canals along the Salt and Gila Rivers around Phoenix. Centuries of trade and conflict then gave rise to several distinctive new cultures, the best known of which is the Salado people of Tonto Basin. About 600 years ago, the effects of several hundred years of droughts, floods, and warfare took their toll on the Salado, the Hohokam, and their neighbors, and most of these people left the Tonto area, never to return.
Later, the Apache, members of the southern branch of the Athapaskan linguistic family, arrived in the area, emigrating from the Mackenzie River Valley of western Canada. The Apache fought with their neighbors, the Maricopa, Yavapai, Havasupai, and Hualapai, descendants of the Hohokam, and later with the Anglo trappers, miners, cattlemen and settlers who followed in the mid-1800's. Of all the tribes in the area, the Tonto Apaches were perhaps the most feared. They showed little mercy to the interloping people, they were highly mobile, unpredictable, and difficult to capture. Further south, their cousin Geronimo eluded capture for years using similar tactics in similar terrain.
Along with the Yavapai, the Tonto Apaches were the dominant band in the area, and feared for their ferocity and endurance. As Anglo settlers moved into the area in the 1860's, they were constantly on guard against attacks from the Yavapai and Apaches, who lived primarily by hunting, gathering and raiding. In 1863, the Arizona Territory was created from the New Mexico Territory, and in 1865 the Army sent a small force of 300 volunteers from California and established Fort McDowell 18 miles east of Cave Creek in an effort to bring the Indians under control. Following Indian trails, the Army built roads linking Fort McDowell with Phoenix and Fort Whipple (present-day Prescott), which provided the access to this rugged country. The 4X4 trail we enjoy today are the result of the trails built by the Cavalry and early pioneers.
-The Army skirmished with the Indians for a decade, with mixed results. As a result of the public outcry, the military organized the Tonto Basin Campaign. The commandant of the operation was General George Crook, recently assigned [June 1871] to the Southwest after establishing his reputation as an Indian-fighter in the Snake War in Idaho and Oregon.
"During the winter of 1872-73, nine small, mobile detachments, using Apache scouts recruited from the reservations, crisscrossed the basin and the surrounding tablelands in constant pursuit of the militants. They wore down their quarry, forcing as many as 20 clashes, during which they killed about 200. One outfit, under captains William Brown and James Burns, won a decisive battle at Salt River Canyon on December 28, the Battle of Skull Cave, against a band of Yavapai hostiles who had fled their reservation at Camp Verde and hid out with the Apaches.
Patrols and skirmishes continued throughout January and February 1873, with Maj. Brown, Lieut. Frank Michler, Lieut. Albert E. Woodson, Capt. Thomas McGregor, among others, involved in clearing the Superstition Mountains. Bourke told of one engagement.
All through the Superstition Mountains, we worked as carefully as we had worked in the more northern portion on our trip to MacDowell, but we met with less success than we had anticipated; on the morning of the 15th of January, after a toilsome night-climb over rough mesas and mountains, we succeeded in crawling upon a small rancheria where the first rays of the sun had surmounted the eastern horizon; but the occupants were too smart for us and escaped, leaving three dead in our hands and thirteen captives-women and children; we also captured the old chief of the band, who, like his people, seemed to be extremely poor.
On 11 March a band of Tonto-Apache Indians attacked a party of three men, killing them all. One of the men was taken alive and tortured. According to Maj. Azor H. Nickerson, "They...took him up to a sheltered spot among the rocks, stripped him of his clothing, tied his hands behind him, fastened his feet together and commenced to torture him by shooting arrows into his naked body, taking care not to hit a vital spot."
The atrocity spurred a punitive expedition which tracked the hostiles to Turret Mountain. Here the Indians suffered another crushing defeat on 27 March 1873 when Capt. George M. Randall, 23d Infantry, led a charge into a unsuspecting rancheria on Turret Peak, killing twenty-six Indians.
According to Bourke:
Randall made his men crawl up the face of the mountain on hands and feet, to avoid all danger of making noise by the rattling of stones, and shortly after midnight had the satisfaction of seeing the glimmer of fires amid the rocks scattered about on the summit. He waited patiently until dawn, and then led the charge, the Apaches being so panic-stricken that numbers of the warriors jumped down the precipice and were dashed to death. This and the action in the cave in the Salt River Canon were the two affairs which broke the spirit of the Apache nation; they resembled each other in catching raiders just in from attacks upon the white settlements or those of friendly tribes, in surprising bands in strongholds which for generations had been invested with the attribute of impregnability, and in inflicting great loss with
comparatively small waste of blood to ourselves.
One further item needed to be cleared up for the operation to be a complete success. That was the defeat of the Tonto chief Delshay and his band. Delshay was variously known as Wahpoo-eta or Big Rump. Crook called him "The Liar" and Bourke knew him as the "Red Ant." The chief was described as being "An exceptionally large Indian with broad shoulders set high, which gave the impression that he stooped. In spite of his weight he was very agile and swift of foot. He seldom walked but "lumbered" along at a slow trot and was reputed to tire out even his swiftest runners. While many of the Indians wore ornaments, I do not recall any but Del-che who wore only a single pearl button in the lobe of the left ear. Asked why he wore only one in the left ear, he replied that one in the right ear would interfere with his bow or gun while
shooting." The heavy-shouldered Delshay was one of the most feared leaders in the Tonto Basin, so much hated by the whites that he was once shot by the post surgeon at Old Camp Reno for no apparent reason other than his presence presented the opportunity. His favored tactic, to avoid casualties, was to surrender to any American forces that threatened him, and then to return to the Mogollon Basin when he had the chance.
Capt. George M. Randall, thanks to his Indian Scouts, surrounded Delshay's camp on upper Canyon Creek on 25 April. As his command fired their first volley, Delshay waved a white truce flag, and with some misgiving, Randall accepted his surrender and took him into the White Mountain reservation. Delshay would flee that place, citing abuses by other Indians, and eventually wind up living at Camp Verde. General Crook, in his Autobiography, conveyed Delshay's reasons for surrendering this last time.
Delshay commenced crying and said he would do anything he would be ordered to do. He wanted to save his people, as they were starving. Every rock had turned into a soldier, and his people were hunted down as they never had been before. He had nothing to ask for but his life. He would accept any terms. He said he had had one hundred and twenty-five warriors last fall, and if anybody had told him he couldn't whip the world, he would have laughed at them, but now he had only twenty left. He said they used to have no difficulty in eluding the troops, but now the very rocks had gotten soft, they couldn't put their foot anywhere without leaving an impression by which we could follow, that they could get no sleep at nights, for should a coyote or a fox start a rock rolling during the night, they would get up and dig out, thinking it was we who were after them." 2
It was Crook's Tonto Campaign, and more specifically the Battle at Turret Peak, that resulted in the name "Bloody Basin" being given to this locale. The Battle of Turret Peak also resulted in the award of four Medal of Honor's being bestowed upon the troops of the 5th Cavalry.
