Nana (Apache)
Encyclopedia
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
and chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
of the Chihenne band (better known as Warm Springs Apache) of the Chiricahua
Chiricahua
Chiricahua are a group of Apache Native Americans who live in the Southwest United States. At the time of European encounter, they were living in 15 million acres of territory in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico...
Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
. In the 1850s and 1860s he was one of the best known leaders of the Bedonkohe and Chihenne, along with Tudeevia (Dudeevia, better known as Delgadito - “Little Thin”, “Skinny”), Cuchillo Negro, Ponce
Ponce
-Persons:* Antonio Ponce de Santa Cruz*Camilo Ponce , President of Ecuador 1956–1960*Carlos Ponce , Puerto Rican actor, singer, and composer*Daniel Ponce de León , Mexican professional boxer...
and Loco
Loco (Apache)
thumb|right|150px|LocoLoco was an Mimbreno Apache chief.-Name:It is unknown whence Loco received his name. One theory suggests that he was named for the fact that he was "'crazy' enough to trust the white men." Another theory says that he got his name from his actions at a battle against the...
(“crazy”, “mad”). He was a nephew of Delgadito, and married a sister of Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
.
Early Fights
He fought alongside Mangas ColoradasMangas Coloradas
Mangas Coloradas, or Dasoda-hae , was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Eastern Chiricahua nation, whose homeland stretched west from the Rio Grande to include most of what is present-day southwestern New Mexico...
and his mixed Chihenne-Bedonkohe band until Mangas was killed whilst in the custody of the California militia in January 1863. In Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
he also undertook many joint raids with the Nednhi of Juh
Juh
Juh was a warrior and leader of the Janeros local group of the Ndéndai band of the Chiricahua Apache. Prior to the 1870s, Juh was unknown in the areas controlled by the United States...
and Natiza against the Mexicans. After Ponce, Cuchillo Negro and Delgadito were killed too, Victorio took over the Chihenne leadership, joined by the leaderless Bedonkohe. Nana, although at least 20 years older than Victorio, married the latters daughter, cementing his position as a leader.
Victorio's War
After several failed attempts to peacefully live on a reservation in their own country, Victorio and Nana gave up trying and fought back against the Americans and Mexicans. The Bedonkohe and Chihenne were joined by more than 80 warriors of the Mescalero ApacheMescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
under their old chief Caballero and some Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
of the Southern Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
. Victorio and Nana therefore had about 200 warriors.
During the Apache Wars
Apache Wars
The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States and Apaches fought in the Southwest from 1849 to 1886, though other minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. The Confederate Army participated in the wars during the early 1860s, for instance in Texas, before being...
and especially Victorio's War
Victorio's War
Victorios War, or the Victorio Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879. Following his escape from the San Carlos Indian Reservation in southeastern Arizona, Victorio led a guerilla war across the...
he raided areas of Texas and Mexico with Victorio
Victorio
Victorio was a warrior and chief of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apaches in what is now the American states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua....
until Victorio and his band were surrounded and killed by soldiers of the Mexican Army under Mauricio Corredor at Cerro Tres Castillos - 68 women and children were captured by the Mexicans and sold as slaves in Mexico.
Nana’s Raid
Nana and his followers, counting only about 30 warriors, had been able to escape and hiding into the Sierra Madre, because he had been on a scouting mission. After the death of Victorio several prestigious leaders and warriors such as FunFun
Fun is the enjoyment of pleasure and, according to Johan Huizinga, "an absolutely primary category of life, familiar to everybody at a glance right down to the animal level." Fun may be encountered in many human activities during work, social functions, recreation and play, and even seemingly...
(also Yiy-gholl, Yiy zholl), Ka-ya-ten-nae (Kadhateni - "Fights Without Arrows "," Cartridges All Gone ") took the leadership of the Chihenne, Bedonkohe and south of the American border living Chokonen and Nednhi bands beside the already established leaders Nana, Loco, Mangas, Naiche
Naiche
Chief Naiche was the final hereditary chief of the Chiricahua band of Apache Indians.-Background:Naiche name, which in English means "meddlesome one" or "mischief maker", is alternately spelled Nache, Nachi, or Natchez. He was the youngest son of Cochise and was named after his grandmother...
, Geronimo and Juh. Nana, now almost 80 years old (according to some reports, nearly 90-years), formed his own war party with the Chihenne (Warm Springs Apache), enlisting loitering warriors in the reservations. His band joined by 15 Chokonen and 12 Mescalero warriors, began raiding Army supply trains and isolated settlers. In less than a month Nana fought eight battles, killing 30-40 Americans, at least as many Mexicans, captured about 200 horses to replace 100 ridden to death and then fled back to Mexico. He escaped more than 1,000 soldiers, not counting the three or four hundred militia volunteers and Indian Scouts.
Nana was captured in a surprise attack and sent together with 374 Apaches to the San Carlos Reservation, but he escaped in 1885 together with Mangas and Chihuahua, joined forces with Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
in Mexico, and fought with him during his last days of resistance. In 1886, he surrendered along with Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
and was sent to Fort Marion, Florida. In 1894, he was allowed to return west to Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
, Oklahoma.
Nana died at Fort Sill on May 19, 1896, at the age of 96. He had the longest fighting career of any of the Apache warriors.
Legacy
Nana is unique among the war chiefs. In an age where one left the fighting to the younger warriors, he had a tenacity, stamina, courage and cruelty, which characterized an true Apache warrior. Nana was half blind, crooked from arthritis and moved the foot behind, but once he sat in the saddle, he rode "like the devil." Nana was the last great, free leader (Nantan) of the Chihenne.External links
- Nana, Apache Chief at the Arizona Memory Project
- Nana (Kas-tziden) from the Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, via Google Books
- Nana in photograph of the Council between General Crook and Geronimo from the U.S. government's American Memory website
- Warm Springs Apache Leader Nana: The 80-Year-Old Warrior Turned the Tables at the Weider History Group's historynet.com