Arriving in Oklahoma
When the Chiricahua prisoners of war were moved to Fort Sill in 1894, they had already spent about eight years in captivity in Florida and Alabama. Fort Sill, in what was then Indian Territory and is now southwestern Oklahoma, was a working army post, and the prisoners remained under military supervision. The land set aside for them lay near the Kiowa, Comanche and Plains Apache communities, whose own reservation had been established in the same part of Oklahoma.
The move came partly because of the poor health of the prisoners in Alabama and partly because of public and official pressure to find a better place for them. Details of the debates vary by source. The Chiricahua themselves wanted to return to their homeland in the Southwest, a goal they pursued for many years but were not granted.
Daily life as prisoners of war
Chiricahua families at Fort Sill were organized into villages near the post. They built houses, grazed cattle and raised crops, and some men worked for the army. Adults and children were expected to adjust to farming and ranching in a region with a different climate and different plants from the mountains they knew. The sources describe real efforts, often with considerable success, to build herds and farms, though conditions were controlled and mobility was limited.
Children attended school, and a number had earlier been sent to Carlisle. The policy that took Chiricahua children at Carlisle far from their families was part of a wider effort at assimilation, and Fort Sill itself saw changes in language and practice. Even so, families kept traditions of kinship and of speaking their own language, and many ceremonies and teachings were sustained, mostly in private.
Leaders such as Naiche remained important in the community, and so did others who had been scouts or had served in the army. Geronimo became a well-known figure for visitors and reporters. His situation as a prisoner shaped how he appeared in public; the facts of Geronimo in captivity are more complex than the popular image of a defeated warrior. He died at Fort Sill in February 1909 and was buried in the cemetery for the Apache prisoners there.
The cemeteries at Fort Sill contain the graves of many people who died during the prisoner years. For descendants, the Fort Sill Apache cemeteries are still places of remembrance.
The long wait for release
Chiricahua leaders and their supporters, including some army officers and outside advocates, asked repeatedly for the release of the prisoners. Opposition came from some local settlers and officials in Arizona and New Mexico, who objected to the return of the Chiricahua. The question dragged on for many years. It was resolved only in 1913, when Congress allowed the release of the prisoners of war.
The 1913 choice
In 1913 the Chiricahua were given a choice. Those who wished could go to the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico, where the Mescalero Apache community accepted them. Those who preferred could stay in Oklahoma and receive individual land allotments on former Kiowa, Comanche and Apache lands near Fort Sill. In round terms, a majority chose Mescalero, and a smaller group stayed in Oklahoma. Exact counts differ between sources, and the account here avoids precise figures.
The decision was not easy. Some families who wished to return to Arizona could not, since that land was not available to them. Some chose Oklahoma because they had made homes, farms and friendships there, or because they feared another uprooting. Others chose New Mexico to be close to the mountains and to relatives among the Mescalero. The families split along those lines, and relatives who chose different places could be separated again for years.
Two communities, one history
The result was two Chiricahua communities. Those who went to New Mexico became part of the Mescalero Apache people, where Chiricahua, Mescalero and Lipan descendants now share a reservation, one reason the Mescalero Apache Tribe includes members of several Apache backgrounds. Those who stayed in Oklahoma formed what is now known as the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, whose descendants of the prisoners hold a distinct political identity. The Chiricahua at Fort Sill, and later the tribe, preserved their identity through generations in which they had little land and little recognition.
Each community remembers the 1913 decision, and the years before it, through its own family histories. A shared theme is the endurance of people who were held for 27 years, as a result of choices that were not theirs, and who still preserved language, family bonds and a sense of themselves as Chiricahua.
Remembering today
Descendants and others have worked to keep this history visible, through commemoration, writing, and care for the cemeteries. Prisoner of war memory has been shaped by community efforts as well as by the work of historians. Because experiences differ, and because some family knowledge is not shared outside the community, readers should be careful about generalizing. Current information about each nation and its history is best found on the nation’s own official website.