Adele Nozedar - The Element Encyclopedia of Native Americans - An A to Z of Tribes, Culture, and History

After the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1831, the Choctaw were the first large non-European group to be given the status of U.S. citizens.

In the First World War, a number of Choctaw soldiers served in the U.S. Army. The Choctaw language is a difficult one for nonspeakers to decipher, and so was used as a code to transmit messages on behalf of intelligence officers in order to make sure the German enemy wouldn’t be able to discover the plans of the Allied armies ( See Choctaw Code Talkers ).

During the First World War, despite the fact that the American military tried to befuddle the German enemy by means of various codes and ciphers, the Germans had a high success rate in deciphering these messages. But one Colonel Bloor had an epiphany one day when he realized that he had a number of Native Americans—including several who spoke the Choctawlanguage—in his division, which was based in France.

The first test of the new “code” took place toward the end of the war, in 1918, and resulted in the successful withdrawal of two battalions, with no interference from the Germans. This told Bloor that it was unlikely that the enemy had any idea what language was being spoken, an assumption that was corroborated by a German officer who was subsequently captured. The “code talkers” used field telephones to communicate with one another. The only downside was that the Choctaw language simply did not have words to translate some of the modern military terminology and technicalities; however, the Choctaw soldiers were able to improvise.

Nineteen Choctaw men formed this band of “code talkers.” They rarely spoke about what they had done and did not gain the acclaim that the Navajocode talkers, operating during the Second World War, achieved. However, all 19 of the men were awarded posthumous medals, the Choctaw Medal of Valor, in 1989.

Various Native American peoples lived in dwellings on or in cliffs, either perched on ledges or in caves or other natural hollows, which might be enlarged by digging and scraping or the addition of adobe. The Anasaziin particular lived in such a way.

There were many different secret societiesamong the various Native American peoples, and the Clown Society was one of these. Members of this particular society were known to the Sioux, for example, as Heyoka. The Sacred Clown had an important part to play in many societies, was beyond authority and therefore able to poke fun at any form of officialdom without fear of reprisal. An important aspect of the Heyoka was the ability to ask the sorts of questions that others might be afraid to ask.

A prospective member of a Clown Society has to be initiated; naturally the initiation rites are a closed matter, but it has been recorded that one of the rites involves eating dirt and smearing the body with mud. This might seem to be antisocial behavior but is in keeping with the contrary nature of the Heyoka.

It is in the nature of a clown to be funny; the Heyoka is trained in all forms of humor, from wit to slapstick. Each Heyoka develops his own makeup and costume; once he is wearing his disguise, then anything is permissible.

“Nobody wants peace more than I do. Why shut me up on a reservation? We will make peace; we will keep it faithfully. But let us go around free as Americans do. Let us go wherever we please.”

1805–1874

A famous chief of the Chiricahua Apache, at the core of Cochise’s reputation was his resistance to the white man’s invasions in the 19th century. In the Apache language his name, Cheis , means “strong like the oak” or “hardwood,” a name that proved to be entirely appropriate. Cochise is most infamous for having held off the U.S. Army for four years, with just 200 men, when the Government tried to force them to move onto a reservationin New Mexico. Cochise County in Arizona is named in his honor.

Cochise’s tribe originally occupied that part of the United States which would become Arizona and New Mexico, as well as Sonora. The Chiricahua were already used to invasions; they had resisted the encroachment of the Spanish and the Mexicans into their territory. Consistently losing to the Chiricahua in various skirmishes, the Spanish rethought their approach, employing wilier means than mere warfare. They devised a strategy whereby the Chiricahua would become dependent on cheap liquor and the substandard gunsissued to them by the Colonial Government. This worked for a while, and Spain gained control of the land; however, Mexico managed to win it from Spain. As a result, the supplies of liquor and guns to the Chiricahua dried up. The more traditional method of warfare flared up once again, since the tribe were no longer reliant on cheap alcohol to befuddle them.

In an attempt to subdue the Chiricahua, the Mexicans decided on a policy of killing them off. Mercenaries, who were paid per scalp, were employed in this endeavor. Cochise’s father was a victim of this policy, and it was this tragedy that proved to be the driving factor behind his desire for vengeance, not only for his father in particular, but for his people as a whole. A mark of Cochise’s effectiveness was that when he was captured by the Mexicans in 1848, he was ransomed in exchange for a dozen Mexican prisoners of war.

Tensions on the U.S./Mexican border were nothing new, not to the Apaches and the Europeans in any case, although there was a relatively settled period in the 1850s after the United States acquired the area. But since the U.S. persisted in encroaching further into Apache grounds, the skirmishes continued, and in 1861 things blew up when Cochise and his men were (falsely) accused of kidnapping the son of a local rancher, and stealing his cattle. This crime had in fact been committed by a different band of Apaches. In a case that became known as The Bascom Affair, which is cited as a key trigger in the Apache War, a young Army officer invited Cochise into the camp, where he was then accused of the kidnapping. Cochise denied everything and even offered to help find those guilty, but when the officer made moves to arrest him, Cochise struck back with a knife, which he then used to slash his way to freedom. The U.S. Army officers retaliated by taking, as hostages, some of Cochise’s people. Numbered among these hostages were some of Cochise’s immediate family.

The whole situation was racked up another few notches as Cochise took more U.S. hostages in an attempt to release his own people. As the situation escalated beyond anyone’s control, the hostages from both sides were summarily murdered; among the slain was Cochise’s brother. The war raged on for another 11 years, resulting in countless deaths; a total body count of as many as 5,000 has been estimated.

In the meantime, Cochise had married Dos Teh Seh, the daughter of the renowned chief, Mangas Coloradas. With his father-in-law, Cochise led a series of raids on the white settlements that continued to encroach on Apache land. One of these raids became known as the Battle of Dragoon Springs, during which the Apache’s superior knowledge of the landscape, and their ability to survive in the tough environment, meant that they held sway over a U.S. Army that was increasingly preoccupied with its own civil war.

At the Battle of Apache Pass, however, the U.S. Army turned their artillery fire on Cochise, Coloradas, and their men. Up until that point the Native Americans had been holding their ground. Despite the fact that this was the first time that they had experienced such powerful weaponry, some of them still fought on until they were either killed or forced to flee to save their lives. General Carleton, who had orchestrated the battle, took over as Commander of the territory.