Tragedy, courage hang over grounds of Fort Verde

[Source: Pete AleshireThe Payson Roundup]

The tale of two Medal of Honor recipients and the complex history of Apache scouts threaded through exhibits at historic state park

I stood in the drizzle on the porch of the headquarters of Fort Verde, peering at the bronze plaque honoring the Medal of Honor recipients once based here, thinking of a cheerfully loyal warrior and a fearlessly selfless sergeant.

Closing my eyes, I half waited for the sound of their boot heels on the worn planks of the headquarters porch where I stood — a century from their hardship and heroism.

Embedded in the 3,600-pound boulder of quartz and lava, the plaque honors the two soldiers who received the nation’s highest medal and the 17 Indian scouts who served at the best-preserved fort used in the tragic struggle between the Apaches and the U.S. Cavalry.

“Rowdy,” an Apache scout, earned his medal in 1890 for leading a cavalry troop on the trail of a band of raiders and then slipping in close enough to dispatch the rival chief. Sgt. Bernard Taylor earned his medal in 1874 for carrying his wounded commander through 300 yards of enemy fire. Ironically, Rowdy and Taylor came from bitterly opposed warrior cultures, but their stories span the whole history of Fort Verde between its establishment in 1873 and its abandonment in 1899.

Perched inconspicuously on a mesa alongside the Verde River almost in the center of the present-day town of Camp Verde, Fort Verde lay on the supply line between Fort Whipple in Prescott and Fort Apache in the White Mountains and served as the chief staging ground for General George Crook’s relentless war of attrition against the Yavapai and Tonto Apache in the early 1870s. Snatched from the jaws of deterioration and ruin by Arizona State Parks, the meticulously restored, re-roofed and furnished adobe headquarters and officers’ quarters provide the state’s most intimate glimpse of the conflict that has helped spawn and shape the myth of the West.

The exhibits and loquacious, low-key rangers and volunteers in the main building offer an absorbing jump-off for a tour of the fort that can easily soak up several hours for a $4 entrance fee. A bookstore library, filing cabinets in the back full of primary documents and exhibits featuring guns, uniforms, artifacts and explanations of life at the frontier post crowd the main building. That includes a room devoted to the tragic history of the Apache scouts, warriors recruited by General Crook to lead soldiers against rival bands. In the end, the scouts did much of the real fighting — hoping to safeguard their own bands and families by cooperating with the whites against other bands.

Long before the state rescued the fort, settlers had dismantled the enlisted men’s barracks — where the immigrants, drifting Civil War veterans, failed prospectors and adventurous farm boys who constituted the frontier army slept four to a bunk and endured the unthinkable hardships of Indian fighting with a combination of gossip, whiskey, bawdy humor, rank bigotry, physical hardiness and routine courage. But locals converted the thick-walled, adobe officers’ quarters into private homes, which the state then bought and restored to their original condition.

The cavalry first arrived in 1865 in the Verde Valley, rich with the 1,000-year-old ruins of the Sinagua and dominated by the warlike, raiding-based cultures of the Tonto Apache and Yavapai. The settlers took over the best farmland and drove off the game — prompting the Apache to raid their livestock.

Volunteer Army units established Camp Lincoln on the malarial Verde River near the fork with West Clear Creek in 1865, but the volunteers deserted wholesale after more than a year without pay or supplies. A regular army detachment arrived 1866 and moved the camp to the present location in 1870.

In the early 1870s, General Crook directed arduous winter campaigns against the Tonto Apache and Yavapai, relying heavily on Apache scouts from other bands. The scouts led the soldiers in an unrelenting pursuit of the Tonto resisters, who had to provide for their wives and children in the harsh, winter landscape.

Defeated by starvation as much as bullets, the Tonto Apache and Yavapai finally surrendered in large numbers.

Although Crook initially settled the Tonto and Yavapai on a reservation near the fort, the government soon drove them into a winter march across 200 miles of rough country to the San Carlos Reservation and forced them to settle among rival bands.

All that painful, tragic, thrilling history haunts the adobe stillness of Fort Verde, swirling like dust devils across the sweep of the parade ground, lurking in the rusted guns and objects of everyday life displayed on display — ghosts with breaths held.

A procession of vivid characters galloped, slouched, staggered, blustered and blasted their way across that parade ground and into the contradictory chronicles of history.

Fort Surgeon Dr. Edgar Mearns collected the eggs of hundreds of new bird species and once crawled into the open under enemy fire to collect a new flower.

Chief of Scouts Al Seiber led Apache scouts into battle, administering lethal discipline and earning the respect of his rough, warrior followers. Col. John Coppinger, once an Irish terrorist, joined the U.S. Army and became a Civil War hero and then an Indian fighter — drawing covert, soldiers’ laughter on account of the dressing case he insisted on bringing into the field for his clothes and toothbrushes and his inability to pronounce “r’s” or “th.”

And here also, Rowdy and Taylor earned the nation’s highest medal.

Taylor earned his medal in October of 1874 in a battle at nearby Sunset Pass. First Lieutenant Charles King led the 40-man detail in pursuit of a band of Tonto Apache who had run off a herd of cattle and killed a cowboy.

King and Taylor were ahead of the rest of the troops with the Apache scouts when the hostiles opened fire, hitting King in the face and shoulder and scattering the scouts. King retreated dazed and bleeding, but fell from the top of a rock and lay helpless. Taylor charged forward.

Although King fiercely ordered Taylor to leave him and seek safety, Taylor slung King across his back, and carried him through heavy fire for 300 yards back to the main body of troops — pausing repeatedly to hold off the Apaches with his pistol. King suffered from his unhealed wound for the rest of his life, but became one of the most vivid and important of western writers of his time.

Rowdy earned his medal through less selfless, but no less daring actions. A fierce, good-natured warrior, he led a detachment of soldiers and scouts on the trail of a small band of raiders who had killed a Mormon freighter and taken his horses.

Rowdy trailed the renegades to a canyon near Cherry Creek. Once the soldiers caught up, they surrounded the hostiles and opened fire. The Apaches dug in behind good cover, so Rowdy led the scouts from cover to cover to close the distance.

Finally within 40 feet of the enemy, Rowdy took a position on top of a rock as bullets spattered all around him and hit the leader of the band twice — prompting the mortally wounded chief to surrender.

The officer in charge initially wanted to carry the wounded man back to the distant fort, although Rowdy observed “I don’t think we’ll ever get that feller up that hill: I think we better kill him.” Finally, moved by the prisoner’s own entreaties — between snatches of his death song — Rowdy dispatched him.

As one officer later recalled of him, “Rowdy was an original and interesting character. He had some virtues of a high order and many vices. He was unswervingly faithful to his friends and terribly faithless to all others. He would kill a wounded prisoner to save the trouble of getting him to camp but would cry like a child on saying good-bye to a friend.”

So I thought of Rowdy — and of Taylor — standing there in the drizzle on the porch where they had once awaited their orders. Faintly, I heard the clomp of boots on boards. I turned — but saw only the empty parade ground and heard only the echoes of silence.

Overhead, a vulture wheeled, heavy on the sodden air — still on patrol after all this time.

Phoenix Parks and Recreation Announces You Tube Video Contest

The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department is looking for amateur videographers and photographers to enter their works in a video contest designed to highlight the city’s desert preserves, parks and recreation facilities.

Videos can be either moving video or a video presentation of still photo images. All videos must mention the preserve area, park or community center location at which it was shot and, if applicable, any program featured in it. Winning videos also should build a comprehensible narrative through the use of natural sound (interviews or clips of narration or explanation from participants or users), voiceover narration or on-screen graphics.

To enter, participants will need to post their completed videos on You Tube and submit the link for consideration. Winners will be chosen for each month and will have a link to their You Tube-based videos posted on the department website homepage. Winners also will be announced in a news release and have their videos aired on the Phoenix 11 cable television channel.

Contest details are posted online on the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department website at phoenix.gov/parks.

 

ASU students chosen as State Park Youth Ambassadors

[Source: Dana Berchman, ASU News]

Students Kelly Alvidrez, Victor Vizcaino and Benjamin Watts (far right) with Renee Bahl, executive director of Arizona State Parks (second from right).

Three Arizona State University students have been selected by Arizona State Parks as State Park Youth Ambassadors.  All three students, Victor Vizcaino, Kelly Alvidrez and Benjamin Watts, are currently enrolled in the Parks & Recreation Management program at ASU.

Victor Vizcaino recently conducted field surveys in Kaibab National Forest on a research project with the City of Phoenix Parks Program.  “It is an honor to have been selected as a Youth Ambassador for Arizona State Parks because I get to represent my state, my university and the pride we share for the beauty of Arizona,” says Vizcaino.

Kelly Alvidrez is interested in environmental education and wants to teach others about the outdoors and how to use it in a sustainable manner.  “Through this appointment I hope to get young people excited about the parks and outdoor recreation. Also, I would like them to understand why we need to be stewards of our natural resources and how we can use them appropriately,” says Alvidrez.

Benjamin Watts enjoys exploring Arizona and its diverse assortment of natural resources. He believes getting people, especially youth, involved in the outdoor community is a crucial step in recognizing that we are a small part of a larger picture.  “Being selected has really reaffirmed my decision to change my major and get involved with the Parks and Recreation Management Program. I took a chance and it has changed my life,” says Watts.

Kathy Andereck, Director of the School of Community Resources and Development in the College of Public Programs, says she is thrilled that these students have been chosen.  “The students are reflective of the excellent education and mentoring provided by our faculty and the abundant opportunities available to Parks and Recreation Management majors. It also highlights the School’s philosophy and commitment toward community engagement and development of partnerships,” says Andereck.

The Youth Ambassador project is a cooperative effort between America’s State Parks and the Outdoor Foundation’s Outdoor Nation that encourages young adults to share their experiences with outdoor recreation. Each Youth Ambassador receives an Olympus camera and a 1-year Annual Pass to Arizona State Parks. They will document and share their experiences to the public using video, photos and blog entries that will posted on http://www.outdoornation.org.

“The Outdoor Foundation is pleased to partner with America’s State Parks to launch a nationwide Youth Ambassador program,” said Chris Fanning, executive director of The Outdoor Foundation. “Outdoor Nation is a growing youth-led outdoor movement where young leaders are championing change in communities and on campuses across the country. Protecting America’s State Parks is one of the most important things our ‘Outsider’ community can do.”

 

Homolovi Ruins State Park to Reopen

[By Lee Allen, Indian Country Today]

Photo courtesy Ellen Bilbrey/Arizona State Parks

It’s been a tough year for the 28 sites within the Arizona State Parks system, particularly for the Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow, responsible for protecting and safeguarding the 4,000-acre cultural and religious site.

The park, originally home to the Hisat’sinom (the “long-ago people,” better known as the Anasazi of the 14th century), and closed since February because of statewide fiscal problems, is now in the final planning phase and about ready to announce a specific reopening date, expected soon.

“For over half a century, we have thrived as a department, but Arizona State Parks was not immune to the bumpy ride through our Great Recession during Fiscal Year 2009 – a year of significant change,” said its executive director, Renee Bahl.

Homolovi was one of 13 state parks forced to padlock its gates after the Arizona legislature, in response to a massive deficit, ordered a sweep of millions of dollars from conservation funds such as state parks gate fees. “These sweeps are catastrophic to the agency and will eliminate any hope of us operating the system,” said Parks Board Chairman Reese Woodling.

Anticipating some sort of belt tightening, the parks folks had already shut down camping and RV sites in October 2009, shortly before the Special Legislative Session officially ordered the money grab in mid-December. By February 2010, a phased series of park closures was started with Homolovi Ruins one of the first to close to the public.

Homolovi, a Hopi word meaning “place of the little hills,” features a cluster of some 300 archaeological sites including several separate pueblo ruins built by various prehistoric peoples from 1250 – 1400 A.D. The park serves as a center of research for tribal migration of that time period and while archaeologists study the area and confer with the Hopi to unravel area history, Arizona State Parks provided an opportunity for visitors to personally experience two of the seven ruins.

Most visited is the largest, Homolovi II, an excavated site with about 1,200 rooms, 40 kivas or underground ceremonial chambers, clusters of pit houses, and three large plazas. Petroglyphs can be found along certain sections of the nearby Tsu’vo trail.

Many of the early peoples paused their migrations to stay awhile in these high grasslands and find a home along the Little Colorado River, tilling the rich flood plain and sandy slopes before continuing north to join peoples already living on the mesas, peoples known today as the Hopi.

The migrations ended when the people settled at the center-of-the-world, the Hopi Mesas north of the park. Today’s Hopi tribal members, referred to as the world’s greatest dry farmers, still consider Homolovi and other Southwestern pre-Columbian sites to be part of their homeland and make pilgrimages to the locations to renew ties with the people of the land.

As new people, like the Diné, and later, Europeans, arrived, the Hopi watched as ancient dwellings in their homeland were destroyed through digging into sacred sites for curios and souvenirs to sell. Finally, in an effort to protect what was left, the Hopi people supported the idea of Homolovi Ruins State Park, established in 1986 and opened in 1993 – until operating budget funding disappeared and “Closed. Do Not Enter” signs showed up.

While the state remains deeply mired in red ink with no clear-cut direction on how to balance its budget, the Hopi Tribal Council, in a 12-0 vote in October, approved a resolution to reopen the park as part of an intergovernmental agreement with the Arizona State Parks Board to operate and maintain the park.

“The park would be operated by the State Parks Department for 12 months with an option to renew the agreement for two additional one-year periods,” according to the Arizona Department of Tourism. “The tribe will provide $175,000 to subsidize park operations and State Parks gets to retain fees collected from visitors.”

“When the park closed, the Hopi people became worried that once again pot hunters could start desecrating our ancient homelands,” said Hopi Land Team member and tribal council representative Cedric Kuwaninvaya, Sipaulovi. “Now, in partnership with park representatives, the City of Winslow, and others, we can again protect and preserve our ancient homelands and share our cultural heritage.”

According to the timetable, the wheelchair-accessible Visitor Center will be open daily, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. The center offers a museum of Hopi pottery, carvings, and other art forms and exhibits explaining the archaeology of Homolovi’s ancient peoples and a gift shop of books and artwork operated by the Arizona Archaeological Society. The park also maintains a collection of artifacts returned from elsewhere in the Winslow area, items such as prehistoric pottery wares, stone and bone tools.

If the event returns to the schedule in July 2011, the annual Suvoyuki Days will take on a special significance. Suvoyuki, translated in the Hopi language means “to accomplish work through a joint effort,” celebrating partners who protect and save the area’s archaeological and cultural sites from destruction, a success admirably demonstrated in the reopening effort.

“We took some hard hits, but we will persevere through this fiscally turbulent time and reemerge as bright as ever,” Bahl said.