Diversity in MI - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

had secret agents, men and women.12However, this information received from spys didnot prevent the renegades from spurring Loco and his peoplefrom the reservation.In 1891 the Army experimented with enlistingscouts in units of the regular army. The number of scoutsauthorized Army-wide was reduced to 150, fifty beingallocated for Arizona. The General Orders, dated March 9,allowed for L Troop of each cavalry regiment and I Companyof each regiment of infantry to be converted to 55-man Indianunits. The 9th and 10th regiments of black cavalry wereexcepted as were the 6th, 11th, 15th, 19th, 24th and 25thinfantry regiments. In 1897 the provision was dropped andthe Indian companies and troops were disbanded. The Indianscout units were distinct however, and were not affected. Butthey were reduced so far in numbers that they were no longerfunctional as companies and were redesignated as detachments.The Apache Scout is usually thought of as falling within thecategory of human intelligence because of his job as a longrangereconnaissance man, but the Indian’s skills at trackingresemble the techniques used by the imagery interpreter.Imagery intelligence studies the earth’s surface for clues toidentify and locate enemy activity. Today that is accomplishedmainly by photographic, radar, infrared, or electroopticimages, some conveyed from platforms in space. TheApache too scrutinized the ground for signs of enemy activity,but he gathered his images from as close to the earth’s surfaceas you can get. Occasionally his platform was the back of ahorse.Here, an early observer, John C. Cremony, tells how theApache could read the signs of the trail....They can tell you, by the appearance ofthe grass, how many days have elapsed since it was troddenupon, whether the party consisted of Indians or whites, abouthow many there were, and, if Indians, to what particular tribethey belonged. In order to define these points, they selectsome well marked footstep, for which they hunt with avidity,and gently pressing down the trodden grass so as not todisturb surrounding herbage, they very carefully examine theprint. The difference between the crushing heel of a whiteman’s boot or shoe, and the light imprint left by an Indian’smoccasin, is too striking to admit of doubt, while the differentstyles of moccasin used by the several divisions of theApache tribes are well known among them. The time whichhas elapsed since the passage of the party is determined bydiscoloration of the herbage and breaking off a few spires toascertain the approximate amount of natural juice still left inthe crushed grass. Numbers are arrived by the multiplicity oftracks.If a mounted party has been on the road,their numbers, quality and time of passage are determinedwith exactitude, as well as the precise sex and species of theanimals ridden. The moment such a trail is fallen in with,they...find some of the dung, which is immediately brokenopen, and from its moisture and other properties, the date oftravel is arrived at nearly to a certainty, while the constituentsalmost invariably declare the region from which the partycame. This last point depends upon whether the dung iscomposed of gramma grass, barley and grass, corn, bunchgrass, buffalo grass, sacaton, or any of the well knowngrasses of the country, for as they are chiefly produced indifferent districts, the fact of their presence in the dung showsprecisely from what district the animal last came. ...Whenmaize is found they feel confident that the travelers were eitherMexicans or people from that country.The American Army had used Indians as guides ever since itsinception, but they were employed as civilians. It was notuntil an Act of Congress in July 1866 that Indians wereactually enlisted and became an official unit of the U.S.Army. General George Crook made extensive use of Apachescouts in Arizona territory to track down Apache renegades.Crook would emphasize their worth in his official report: “Icannot too strongly assert that there has never been anysuccess in operations against these Indians, unless Indianscouts were used. These Chiricahua scouts...were of morevalue in hunting down and compelling the surrender of therenegades than all other troops...combined. The use ofIndian scouts was dictated by the soundest of military policy.”On the reservation where many Indian factionsintrigued against each other and the U.S. Army, a network of“Confidential Indians” would report to the military any plansor dissatisfaction. This proved useful in 1882 wheninformants alerted the Army to the intentions of renegades toattack the reservation at Camp Goodwin and breakout Locoand his Warm Springs people to join them in raiding. Theinformation, however, did not prevent Geronimo, Juh, Chato,and Nachez from doing just that.Probably the most famous of Apache scouts,Alchesay, was born about 1853 between Globe andShowlow, Arizona. He enlisted in 1872 and became FirstSergeant of A Company, Indian Scouts, commanded byLieutenant Charles B. Gatewood, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Heparticipated in major campaigns in the Tonto Basin area in1872 and 1873. His gallant conduct on several occasionsearned for him the Medal of Honor. General Crook gave alarge share of the credit for his success in these fights toApache scouts. Alchesay, who was considered the chief ofthe White Mountain clan, was also involved in the 1886Geronimo campaign. He visited President Grover Clevelandin Washington and acted as a counselor to Indian Agents inArizona Territory. Alchesay died in 1928, a chief to his ownpeople and to the U.S. Army which depended so much on hisabilities. A barracks building at Fort Huachuca is named forhim and he is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall ofFame.Another Apache scout to win the Medal of Honorwas Private Nantaje who had distinguished himself at SkeletonCave. Colonel Harold B. Wharfield, a commander of scoutsin 1918 at Fort Apache, detailed Nantaje’s heroism in hisbook Apache Indians Scouts. “The fight of December 28,1872 at a cave in the Salt River canyon north of the SuperstitionMountains, now called Skeleton Cave, was an outstandingincident in Nantaje’s service as a scout. He waswith a group of enlisted Apache scouts and two companies ofthe 5th Cavalry from Camp Grant that had joined in the fieldwith a company and some hundred enlisted Pima scouts fromFort McDowell. Nantaje had been brought up in the cave asa child, and knew that it was a winter habitation for Apaches.He led the forces by night march to the location. In the