Maasai (Apache)

Maasai around 1880

Massai (also known as: Massa, Massi, Wasse, Massey or Bronco Massai in the Apache language Mah-sii ; * approx. 1847 Arizona ; † 1906 or 1911) was a tribal member of the Mimbreños, a group of Chihenne and Chiricahua , Warm- Springs- Apaches . He was a warrior who escaped from a train of prisoners that was supposed to bring Geronimo and other renegades to Florida . He returned to Arizona on foot for about 2300 km.

Life

Maasai was believed to be born in southwest New Mexico around 1847 in the Mescal Mountains of Arizona near Globe . His father was "White Cloud" and his mother was "Little Star". His father taught him the use of the bow, spear and pistol and trained him so that he could later cover 60 km a day in the blazing sun. He also learned u. a. riding and fighting. He had a close friend, Tonkawa '" Gray Lizard, " whose family came from the East and settled with the Apaches. In 1877 he was on the San Carlos reservation with his Chiricahua Apache tribe; Maasai had two children here. His wife was Nahgotsieh , who was believed to be born in 1850.

Scout

The three scouts around 1880; left 'Massai', middle 'Apache Kid', right 'Rowdy'

In 1880 Maasai took part in the campaign against Victorio as a scout . In 1882 he and other scouts had come back by train from Texas to enemy Arizona. The Indians were relocated 50 km further northeast to the "Fort Apache" reservation. In November 1885 he was registered as a scout at Fort Apache by the then "Chief of Army Scouts" Marion P. Maus in Compagnie A of the second battalion . He was dismissed with the rank of corporal in 1886. According to records in the Scouts' archives, Maasai was 1.73 meters tall, had black hair and dark, copper-colored skin.

Maasai met Geronimo, who recruited Apaches to fight against the American settlers and soldiers. Geronimo instructed the Maasai and the "gray lizard" to create hidden stores with weapons, ammunition, clothing and food in order to be prepared for the success of future raids . Both men were arrested and disarmed by Chiricahua Apache scouts. Maasai became a prisoner of war along with Gray Lizard , who volunteered. Maasai was not enthusiastic about life in the reserve. When Geronimo fled on May 17, 1885, Maasai followed him along with another 35 warriors and 109 men, women and children. After a few months, however, the Maasai overflowed and returned to the reserve alone.

transport

After the final surrender in 1886, it wasn't just Geronimo's gang who were sent to Florida. The Americans also sent their loyal Apache scouts, who had served as scouts, as well as hundreds of other peaceful Apaches into captivity. No Chiricahua Indian should remain in Arizona. On September 7, 1886, the prisoners left Fort Apache and after six days they took the train to the terminus of Holbrook, 140 km further north . The Apaches were divided into six wagons. Despite the summer heat, the windows were sealed and the conditions in the cars became terrible because of the overcrowding. In addition, many Chiricahuas had never traveled by train either. For three days the Maasai and the Gray Lizard had worked on a window frame. Then on the fourth day, somewhere east of St. Louis , Missouri , her chance came. The train climbed an incline and slowed down. The Maasai and Gray Lizard jumped through the window, rolled down the hill, and hid in the thick vegetation. The two Indians always crept through the area at night and orientated themselves by the stars. No white man saw them, but they stole guns and ammunition from some white miners. Back in the west, after a walk of around 2,300 km, which took them almost a year, the friends separated.

persecution

Three regiments of cavalry , countless Mexicans, and white, red, and black scouts were looking for Maasai, but what most of them would ever see was a footprint or a rustle of leaves. Even Al Sieber itself, Scouts and the mongrel Mickey Free never came near him; only on one occasion when Mickey found him in a camp with exiled Apaches in Mexico. But since everyone was on neutral ground, the scout could only talk to him about old times. Sieber said the Maasai was so cunning that it didn't leave much like a buzzard's trail . It soon appeared that the Maasai would be held responsible for every murder in Arizona when he only killed to save himself. In fact, in 1892, a White Mountain girl, Natastele , was kidnapped and her mother was bullet-killed. He remarried and found a faithful wife willing to live on the run. They had four children and lived together for almost 20 years, fleeing from persecutors.

Massai's death

It was not originally known whether Maasai moved to Mexico or was killed until his daughter Alberta Begay revealed new facts in 1959:

A strong contingent of lawless whites tried to corner the fugitive. Maasai could easily have saved himself, but he wasn't the heartless animal of his legend. He told his wife to take herself and the children to a Mexican friend for a few days, then travel north at night to her own Mescalero reservation to settle there. Then he spoke to his oldest boy. “My son,” he said, “you must act like a man now. I taught you to use a bow and a rifle. In the morning I go to where we hid the horses. If I don't come back, you will leave the area immediately. The undergrowth is thick here, so travel to our friend during the day. But then you only go on at night. ” Shortly before dawn, the Maasai snuck away with his rifle in hand. He also had his bow with the arrows and a Colt with him. Shortly afterwards, the eldest son also followed him. Suddenly there was a flurry of gunfire that hit the Maasai. His eldest son saw it and returned to his mother. He told her that he did not know if Maasai was still alive. Zanagoliche stayed in hiding with her children and waited. She refused to leave until she saw Maasai one last time. All day long, the white hunters searched for firewood, lit a large fire and burned Maasai. The next morning they were gone. Zanagoliche and the eldest son went back to the place where the fight had taken place. All that was left of the Maasai were a few bones that they buried with the buckle of his ammunition belt.

It was not until 1911 that Massai's wife returned to the Mescalero reservation alone with her four children.

reception

• Maasai: The Last Apache Outlaw. by Grady McCright, iUniverse June 10, 2008, ISBN 978-0595515066 . The book deals with the life story of Maasai in very detailed novel form.
• Massai became even more famous after Paul L. Wellman's novel "Bronco Apache" in 1936, as well as through the film Massai the Great Apache ("The Last Apache" with Burt Lancaster as Masai, 1954).
• According to the book by author Hayes, ( Apache vengeance ; True story of Apache Kid ), Maasai had been north-east of Globe in April 1889 when a horse was stolen from the Cross-S ranch. Subsequently, the murder of a logger in the Pinal Mountains by Sabino Quiroz became known, while his partner and Joe Guerena had hidden nearby.
• Gregor Lutz describes in his book "27 Years of Captivity of War": In 1896 he was involved in a battle with the US Army (7th Cavalry) in the Guadalupe Canyon, he managed to escape again, but is said to have escaped ten years later (1906) of a group of cowboys shot dead near Chloride, New Mexico.
• A lookout point in Arizona was named after him, the Massai Point , at Chiricahua National Monument in 85643 Arizona.

See also

• United States Indian Policy
• List of North American Indian tribes

literature

• Paul L. Wellman: Bronco Apache. 1936
• Dan L. Thrapp: Al Sieber: Chief of Scouts. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1964, ISBN 0-8061-2770-8 , pp. 344-350.
• Donald E. Worcester: The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest. Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf et al. 1982, ISBN 3-430-19854-2 , pp. 310-313.
• Gregor Lutz: 27 years of captivity. Geronimo and the Apache Resistance, BOD Norderstedt, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-2896-6 .

Web links

• "Who was the wildest Indian you ever knew?"
• Maasai, Chiricahua Apache , ditto Maasai at Farwest.it
• Maasai, Geronimo's Last Free Warrior

Individual evidence

1. ↑ his name affix 'Bronco' stands for his "wildness"
2. ↑ http://www.theoutlaws.com/indians3.htm
3. ↑ Marc Simmons: TRAIL DUST: Massai's escape part of Apache history. - The Santa Fe New Mexican. November 14, 2008.
4. ↑ Mimbreños
5. ↑ Eve Ball: Indeh. To Apache Odyssey. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK 1988, ISBN 978-0-8061-2165-9 , pp. 248-261.
6. ↑ Alberta Begay, Eve Ball, Sherry Robinson: Apache Voices: Their Stories of Survival as Told to Eve Ball. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, 2003, ISBN 978-0826321633 , pp. 87-102.
7. ↑ In original, engl. named as the 'Gray Lizard'
8. ↑ Begay, pp. 248-261.
9. ↑ DE Worcester: The Apaches.
10. ^ Brigade General Marion Perry MAUS at Arlingtoncemetery
11. ↑ ^{a b} Ball, pp. 249-252.
12. ↑ Jimmy McKinn - Kidnapped By the Apache ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ↑ Grady McCright, Masai: The Last Apache Outlaw. ISBN 978-0-595-61927-6 .
14. ^ DE Worchester: The Apaches. P. 313.