The first time the army used howitzers against Indians In 1862, a Union army force was making its way across Arizona Territory. They had entered...
Bringing out the Big Guns
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Indians
Arizona’s Yavapai-Apache War
A tour of the conflict’s historic sites is a poignant reminder of how unmerciful war was meted out against the state’s Native people. ...
Spark on the Prairie
Hit the road across Oklahoma and Texas to discover the history behind the Warren Wagon Train Raid and the Kiowa Indian Trial of 1871. It...
The Last Frontier
Edward Curtis's Final Adventure What we know: He was 59. He had a bad hip after a whale upended his boat while he was making a film. He would travel...
Shadow Catcher
The Man who Saved 100 Nations Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) was a 19th-century Western pioneer and entrepreneur, known for his photography,...
The Hero or Goat of Beecher Island?
The legacy of Gen. George Forsyth’s leadership in the famous battle remains controversial over 150 years later. George “Sandy” Forsyth was a...
The Great Chiefs
Their Courage Shaped a Nation "Resting here until day breaks and shadows fall and darkness disappears is Quanah Parker, the last chief of the...
Dealing with Mosquitos, Ticks, and Chiggers
How did cowboys, Indians, and settlers deal with ticks and chiggers? When I was a kid in northern Arizona every summer, we’d ride the Santa Fe...
Smallpox Epidemic Of 1837 Smallpox was the scourge of the West, especially to the Indians. They called it “Rotting face” for the pustules that broke out on the skin.
Smallpox was the scourge of the West, especially to the Indians. It attacked whole tribes and left few survivors. It has afflicted Native Americans...
Apache Pass In movies the stage tries always to outrun the bad guys or Indians. Did that ever work?
Chasing a stagecoach was mostly the stuff of Hollywood because it added more drama to the event. In reality, the stage robbers tried to find a...
Tragic Powwow
The Apache Kid vs Al Sieber, Then Everyone in Arizona
The Gatling Gun How effective were gatling guns against the Indians?
The Gatling Gun was a spring-loaded, multi-barrel, hand-cranked machine gun. Invented in 1861 by Richard Gatling. It fired 350 rounds a minute (if...