Home > Facts > Native American History Facts > Cochise Facts

Cochise Facts

Cochise Facts
Cochise was a chief of the Apache Indian tribe in the American southwest and the Mexican northwest in the mid to late 1800s. Along with Geronimo, Cochise played a major role in the Apache Wars (1849-1924), leading hit and run attacks on Mexican and American military detachments. Also like Geronimo, Cochise was feared and respected by all his enemies, which is how his name is still known today. Cochise was born in 1805 into the Chiricahua band of Apaches. He married a woman named Something-at-the-campfire-already-cooked, who was the daughter of the chief of another band of Apaches. The couple had two sons who became chiefs after their father.
Interesting Cochise Facts:
Cochise's first battles against non-Indians were during raids on Mexican settlements and ranches.
As a young man in his teens and twenties, Cochise would raid with his father and his warriors in Sonora, Mexico and then retreat to the Dragoon Mountains in Arizona.
Like Geronimo, Cochise developed a hatred early in his life for Mexicans. Mexican soldiers killed Cochise's father during a raid.
Cochise was captured during a raid on a Mexican fort in 1848, but was given his freedom in a prisoner exchange.
After the Americans acquired the southwest in the Mexican-American War in 1848, the Apaches' raiding began to focus on American targets.
Cochise began his war against the United States Army when he was wrongly arrested for kidnapping an American rancher's son.
The Apaches massacred numerous ranchers and defeated Army detachments until the late 1860s. The Apaches essentially conducted a guerrilla warfare campaign against the government.
Cochise fought in and helped lead one of the only true Apache head to head battles against the Army, known as the Battle of Apache Pass on July 15-16, 1862. The battle took place when Cochise and the Apaches attacked a detachment of California volunteers on their way to New Mexico to prevent Confederate attacks. The Californians won the battle with only two men killed in battle; the Apaches never again attempted to fight the Army in a head on battle.
Cochise led raids claimed the lives of hundreds of settlers and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage.
Cochise was said to be about six feet tall.
He surrendered to the Army on October 12, 1872 and was allowed to retire to the Chiricahua Reservation in New Mexico.
Cochise died in 1874, in his late sixties, on the reservation and was later buried in the Dragoon Mountains. It is believed he died of stomach cancer.
Interest in Cochise was rekindled in the United States during the mid-twentieth century when frontier culture became a fad. He was portrayed in numerous movies and television shows of the period as a sympathetic character.


Related Links:
Facts
Native American History Facts
Animals Facts