When deaf, one-eyed Apache Kit-I-Chin killed a cowboy, his fellow Mescaleros found a solution
When Kit-i-chin, a Mescalero Apache, killed a cowboy in 1908 in what was then the New Mexico Territory, officials turned to the Mescaleros for help in tracking him down. A number of issues--racial, jurisdictional, political and cultural--led to the decision.
Тhe last thing in the world that the Mescalero Apaches wanted was more trouble with the whites. After years of turmoil, banishment, imprisonment and deprivation, they were finally adjusting to reservation life. Various livestock, agriculture and range-leasing ventures showed promise, and they had recovered from the ravages of smallpox and tuberculosis. Thus, the murder of a white cowboy by a Mescalero in the winter of 1908 caused many in the tribe great distress.
In south-central New Mexico Territory the 400,000-acre Mescalero Apache Reservation was nestled in the Sacramento Mountains, just east of Alamogordo. Bordering the reservation was the Felix Cattle Company (known by its "Flying H" brand), which leased grazing land from the Mescaleros. The foreman of the outfit was Roy McLane, who, with his 18-yearold brother, J.A."Tom" McLane, had come from Concho County Texas, to work for S.S. Ward, the ranch owner.
On Sunday, January 12,1908, Roy McLane sent his brother to round up cattle that had strayed from a leased Mescalero pasture on Tularosa Creek. When Tom failed to return by Monday morning, Roy set out to find him. The foreman had no luck, so he resumed the search on Tuesday with the help of several Mescaleros. Finally, on Wednesday, they found the half-butchered carcass of a Flying H steer on a ridge opposite the Bent mine. Lying beside it, frozen in the snow, was the body of Tom McLane. He had been shot through the head. His thirsty horse was nearby its reins tangled in heavy brush.
The maze of tracks at the murder scene was sorted out, and those of an unshod horse led toward the reservation. Roy McLane packed his brother's body to reservation headquarters, where Superintendent James A. Carroll quickly took charge of the situation. Carroll alerted Otero County Sheriff Henry M. Denney at Alamogordo and then sent several tribesmen to search the reservation for any Mescaleros who might have been involved. Carroll also provided a wagon to carry Tom McLane's body to the Felix ranch.
Soon it was reported that only two reservation members could not be accounted for-Kit-i-chin, sometimes called Kad-in-schin or Daga-in-ka, and his woman, Jah-tah-da-tosh. Neither had been seen since the previous Monday. In their hasty departure, they had shared Kit-i-chin's old horse, which left tracks leading south into the snow-covered Sacramentos. Kit-i-chin was a middleaged, deaf, one-eyed Mescalero who chose to subsist by hunting and trading. He held to the old ways and had not accepted his tribe's move to farming and raising livestock.
Sheriff Denney and Roy McLane returned to the murder site and determined that a single rustler had been caught butchering a stolen steer by the unarmed Tom McLane. Kit-i-chin, because of his flight from the reservation, became an obvious suspect in the murder. Unable to track the fleeing Indian, Denney and Roy McLane returned to reservation headquarters late on Thursday January 16.
The next day Superintendent Carroll, New Mexico Territorial Mounted Policeman William E. Dudley, Felix owner S.S. Ward and Roy McLane met with several other ranchers and tribe members. Carroll was worried about the possibility of strife between his wards and their white neighbors. So was Sheriff Denney who also realized that Kit-i-chin could only be tracked by other Apaches. It was bad enough that a white man had probably been killed by a Mescalero, but what if a white posse were shot up by Kit-i-chin? What if troops were sent in to restore order? Where would it end? There was a jurisdiction problem, too. Where exactly did the murder occur? Was leased reservation land under the authority of the reservation or the county in which it lay?
The field of law governing crime on reservations was not completely clear. Under early systems, the tribal councils were used as courts, but so many problems arose that Congress passed the 1885 Major Crimes Act. While this legislation set guidelines for jurisdiction of crimes between whites and Indians, it failed to answer many questions about who had authority and responsibility to arrest lawbreakers.
In an attempt to satisfy all these concerns, a mixed posse-consisting of lawmen, ranchers and Mescaleros skilled in tracking-was created. Carroll selected 12 Mescaleros, several of whom were members of the reservation's police force. They included San Per, a subchief; Sam Chino, Charlie Threefingers and Muchacho Negro, who were tribal policemen; Willie Magoosh; Crookneck; Caje; Willie Comanche; and Antonio Joseph. To this group, Sheriff Denney added Roy McLane and Gus Ostic, whom he deputized. Carroll also requested that a member of the Territorial Mounted Police be included because of that organization's proven skill in handling delicate Indian problems-as well as its prestige, should the chase cross county lines or involve negotiations in Texas or at the Mexican border.
The New Mexico Territorial Mounted Police was formed in 1905 with 11 officers commanded by Captain John Fullerton. These policemen soon developed a fine reputation for dealing with sensitive Indian situations on the reservations. The resident officer at Alamogordo, William Dudley, was assigned to the posse.
The possemen spent Saturday gathering supplies and equipment for a winter expedition into the Sacramentos, where elevations exceeded 8,000 feet. On Sunday the 19th, exactly one week after the murder, the posse left reservation headquarters in pursuit of Kit-i-chin. Meanwhile, Carroll had requested that New Mexico Governor George Curry establish a reward for the wanted man's capture. The governor declined, saying that he had already provided the assistance of the Territorial Mounted Police. The Felix Cattle Company then offered a $500 reward.
The posse soon found tracks indicating that Kit-i-chin and his woman had gone south along Nogal Canyon. The couple apparently took turns riding and walking; snow banks and ice fields had greatly slowed the pair's flight. The posse camped that night just 10 miles east of Alamogordo.
The search continued south on Monday, January 10. Tracks suggested that Kit-ichin was stopping often and then circling back to lie in wait on his back trail, a classic ambush maneuver. On Tuesday morning, the posse found Kit-i-chin's horse. It had been shot, butchered and skinned to make moccasins and a food sack to carry the horse meat. The store-bought shoes worn by the pair were discarded. Kit-ichin, the Mescalero trackers had decided, felt the horse and shoes were leaving a trail too easy to follow, and moccasins would make faint or less visible imprints. He spent a whole day at this task, and the time he lost combined with his otherwise slow pace may have sealed his fate.
Tuesday afternoon, in Grapevine Canyon, the Mescalero trackers stopped and told Roy McLane that he and the other whites must remain behind. San Per made it clear that his group would go no farther unless allowed to proceed without the others. Kit-i-chin, they explained, was not far ahead and was likely to try to ambush his pursuers soon. Officer Dudley, in the absence of legal advice, ruled that the tribal policemen had the authority to go make the arrest. He and the other whites then sought such shelter as they could find and waited.
Within several hours a burst of gunfire echoed throughout the canyon. In time, the Mescaleros returned with Jah-tah-datosh but not Kit-i-chin. San Per explained that when they found Kit-i-chin, he had fired at them instead of surrendering. Charlie Threefingers and Muchacho Negro had then riddled the wanted man with rifle fire.
Jah-tah-da-tosh told her story. She had been forced to flee with Kit-i-chin under threat of death. He had needed her to serve as his eyes and ears. Even though she had slowed his escape, he was so deaf and his eyesight was so poor that her help had been more important than speed. Kit-i-chin, she said, had told her how the killing had happened. After stealing several steers and driving them to the area of Bent mine, he had realized he could not conceal the cattle anywhere, so he had killed one and begun to butcher it. He had not seen or heard Tom McLane approach, and when startled, he had shot the cowboy with his rifle. Then he had fled to their rancheria near reservation headquarters and forced her to pack supplies on the horse and flee with him.
The possemen now began the long trip back to Alamogordo with the dead Mescalero tied across a spare pack horse. They arrived tired, cold and hungry. The Mescaleros were permitted to sleep in the county courthouse. Late Wednesday the 21st, an inquest ruled that Kit-i-chin had been killed lawfully while resisting arrest by tribal police, although off the Mescalero Reservation at the time.
Roy McLane provided a beef barbecue for the Mescaleros who had been in the posse, and S.S. Ward, owner of the Felix Cattle Co., gave each of them a $25 gold piece. There is no record of whether Ward also rewarded the white posse members.
Superintendent Carroll and Sheriff Denney were happy with the results. Kiti-chin was dead and nobody else had been killed or injured. White ranchers and other area residents were assured that the Mescaleros were not a threat and that justice had been done. The Mescaleros had demonstrated what strong measures they would take to preserve order on the reservation and peaceful relations with their neighbors. The publicity a murder trial would have generated had been avoided. Such publicity might have been embarrassing to the management of Indian affairs and might have endangered range-leasing policy.
Had San Per been instructed by Superintendent Carroll to keep the white possemen away from Kit-i-chin to ensure that none of them would be shot? Had San Per been instructed to kill Kit-i-chin in order to avoid trial publicity? Had Roy McLane told San Per that if the Mescaleros did not kill Kit-i-chin, he would? Such questions naturally arise when trying to get a handle on the motivations of Carroll, Roy McLane and the tribal possemen, particularly San Per. The answers, however, will probably never be known.
Roy McLane took his brother's body back to Texas for burial. It is not known if Roy ever returned to his job at the Felix Cattle Company. Posse member Sam Chino remained active in tribal affairs and was appointed chief of the Mescalero Reservation police, serving with distinction in that position for more than 40 years.
Sheriff Henry Denney, a native of Tennessee, served out the balance of his term and then left public service to pursue his business interests. Later, in 1926, after Otero County's Sheriff Rutherford was killed while making an arrest, the community insisted that Denney be appointed to complete the late sheriff's term. Denney accepted, although he was over 60 at the time. He died in 1932, having been an Otero County resident for 33 years.
William Dudley was probably the besteducated of all members of the New Mexico Territorial Mounted Police. Born in Texas, he was a schoolteacher until appointed as an officer in 1905. He served in the Alamogordo district until promoted to sergeant in 1909 and then became the city marshal at Dawson, N.M.
James Carroll served as superintendent of the Mescalero Reservation from 1902 until 1912. During his term of office he was much respected by his wards and was credited with a vigorous defense of their interests. Superintendents were political appointees. Their tenure was often short. Some were removed for fraud and graft. Others were routinely replaced when the administration changed in Washington, D.C., but some were removed when their advocacy of Indian welfare conflicted with Western expansion. Coincidentally, Carroll left office the same year that Senator Albert Fall sponsored legislation to displace the Mescaleros. Fall had acquired land adjacent to the reservation, but his expansion plans were finally defeated in 1922 when the Mescaleros were given full title to their lands.
In south-central New Mexico Territory the 400,000-acre Mescalero Apache Reservation was nestled in the Sacramento Mountains, just east of Alamogordo. Bordering the reservation was the Felix Cattle Company (known by its "Flying H" brand), which leased grazing land from the Mescaleros. The foreman of the outfit was Roy McLane, who, with his 18-yearold brother, J.A."Tom" McLane, had come from Concho County Texas, to work for S.S. Ward, the ranch owner.
On Sunday, January 12,1908, Roy McLane sent his brother to round up cattle that had strayed from a leased Mescalero pasture on Tularosa Creek. When Tom failed to return by Monday morning, Roy set out to find him. The foreman had no luck, so he resumed the search on Tuesday with the help of several Mescaleros. Finally, on Wednesday, they found the half-butchered carcass of a Flying H steer on a ridge opposite the Bent mine. Lying beside it, frozen in the snow, was the body of Tom McLane. He had been shot through the head. His thirsty horse was nearby its reins tangled in heavy brush.
The maze of tracks at the murder scene was sorted out, and those of an unshod horse led toward the reservation. Roy McLane packed his brother's body to reservation headquarters, where Superintendent James A. Carroll quickly took charge of the situation. Carroll alerted Otero County Sheriff Henry M. Denney at Alamogordo and then sent several tribesmen to search the reservation for any Mescaleros who might have been involved. Carroll also provided a wagon to carry Tom McLane's body to the Felix ranch.
Soon it was reported that only two reservation members could not be accounted for-Kit-i-chin, sometimes called Kad-in-schin or Daga-in-ka, and his woman, Jah-tah-da-tosh. Neither had been seen since the previous Monday. In their hasty departure, they had shared Kit-i-chin's old horse, which left tracks leading south into the snow-covered Sacramentos. Kit-i-chin was a middleaged, deaf, one-eyed Mescalero who chose to subsist by hunting and trading. He held to the old ways and had not accepted his tribe's move to farming and raising livestock.
Sheriff Denney and Roy McLane returned to the murder site and determined that a single rustler had been caught butchering a stolen steer by the unarmed Tom McLane. Kit-i-chin, because of his flight from the reservation, became an obvious suspect in the murder. Unable to track the fleeing Indian, Denney and Roy McLane returned to reservation headquarters late on Thursday January 16.
The next day Superintendent Carroll, New Mexico Territorial Mounted Policeman William E. Dudley, Felix owner S.S. Ward and Roy McLane met with several other ranchers and tribe members. Carroll was worried about the possibility of strife between his wards and their white neighbors. So was Sheriff Denney who also realized that Kit-i-chin could only be tracked by other Apaches. It was bad enough that a white man had probably been killed by a Mescalero, but what if a white posse were shot up by Kit-i-chin? What if troops were sent in to restore order? Where would it end? There was a jurisdiction problem, too. Where exactly did the murder occur? Was leased reservation land under the authority of the reservation or the county in which it lay?
The field of law governing crime on reservations was not completely clear. Under early systems, the tribal councils were used as courts, but so many problems arose that Congress passed the 1885 Major Crimes Act. While this legislation set guidelines for jurisdiction of crimes between whites and Indians, it failed to answer many questions about who had authority and responsibility to arrest lawbreakers.
In an attempt to satisfy all these concerns, a mixed posse-consisting of lawmen, ranchers and Mescaleros skilled in tracking-was created. Carroll selected 12 Mescaleros, several of whom were members of the reservation's police force. They included San Per, a subchief; Sam Chino, Charlie Threefingers and Muchacho Negro, who were tribal policemen; Willie Magoosh; Crookneck; Caje; Willie Comanche; and Antonio Joseph. To this group, Sheriff Denney added Roy McLane and Gus Ostic, whom he deputized. Carroll also requested that a member of the Territorial Mounted Police be included because of that organization's proven skill in handling delicate Indian problems-as well as its prestige, should the chase cross county lines or involve negotiations in Texas or at the Mexican border.
The New Mexico Territorial Mounted Police was formed in 1905 with 11 officers commanded by Captain John Fullerton. These policemen soon developed a fine reputation for dealing with sensitive Indian situations on the reservations. The resident officer at Alamogordo, William Dudley, was assigned to the posse.
The possemen spent Saturday gathering supplies and equipment for a winter expedition into the Sacramentos, where elevations exceeded 8,000 feet. On Sunday the 19th, exactly one week after the murder, the posse left reservation headquarters in pursuit of Kit-i-chin. Meanwhile, Carroll had requested that New Mexico Governor George Curry establish a reward for the wanted man's capture. The governor declined, saying that he had already provided the assistance of the Territorial Mounted Police. The Felix Cattle Company then offered a $500 reward.
The posse soon found tracks indicating that Kit-i-chin and his woman had gone south along Nogal Canyon. The couple apparently took turns riding and walking; snow banks and ice fields had greatly slowed the pair's flight. The posse camped that night just 10 miles east of Alamogordo.
The search continued south on Monday, January 10. Tracks suggested that Kit-ichin was stopping often and then circling back to lie in wait on his back trail, a classic ambush maneuver. On Tuesday morning, the posse found Kit-i-chin's horse. It had been shot, butchered and skinned to make moccasins and a food sack to carry the horse meat. The store-bought shoes worn by the pair were discarded. Kit-ichin, the Mescalero trackers had decided, felt the horse and shoes were leaving a trail too easy to follow, and moccasins would make faint or less visible imprints. He spent a whole day at this task, and the time he lost combined with his otherwise slow pace may have sealed his fate.
Tuesday afternoon, in Grapevine Canyon, the Mescalero trackers stopped and told Roy McLane that he and the other whites must remain behind. San Per made it clear that his group would go no farther unless allowed to proceed without the others. Kit-i-chin, they explained, was not far ahead and was likely to try to ambush his pursuers soon. Officer Dudley, in the absence of legal advice, ruled that the tribal policemen had the authority to go make the arrest. He and the other whites then sought such shelter as they could find and waited.
Within several hours a burst of gunfire echoed throughout the canyon. In time, the Mescaleros returned with Jah-tah-datosh but not Kit-i-chin. San Per explained that when they found Kit-i-chin, he had fired at them instead of surrendering. Charlie Threefingers and Muchacho Negro had then riddled the wanted man with rifle fire.
Jah-tah-da-tosh told her story. She had been forced to flee with Kit-i-chin under threat of death. He had needed her to serve as his eyes and ears. Even though she had slowed his escape, he was so deaf and his eyesight was so poor that her help had been more important than speed. Kit-i-chin, she said, had told her how the killing had happened. After stealing several steers and driving them to the area of Bent mine, he had realized he could not conceal the cattle anywhere, so he had killed one and begun to butcher it. He had not seen or heard Tom McLane approach, and when startled, he had shot the cowboy with his rifle. Then he had fled to their rancheria near reservation headquarters and forced her to pack supplies on the horse and flee with him.
The possemen now began the long trip back to Alamogordo with the dead Mescalero tied across a spare pack horse. They arrived tired, cold and hungry. The Mescaleros were permitted to sleep in the county courthouse. Late Wednesday the 21st, an inquest ruled that Kit-i-chin had been killed lawfully while resisting arrest by tribal police, although off the Mescalero Reservation at the time.
Roy McLane provided a beef barbecue for the Mescaleros who had been in the posse, and S.S. Ward, owner of the Felix Cattle Co., gave each of them a $25 gold piece. There is no record of whether Ward also rewarded the white posse members.
Superintendent Carroll and Sheriff Denney were happy with the results. Kiti-chin was dead and nobody else had been killed or injured. White ranchers and other area residents were assured that the Mescaleros were not a threat and that justice had been done. The Mescaleros had demonstrated what strong measures they would take to preserve order on the reservation and peaceful relations with their neighbors. The publicity a murder trial would have generated had been avoided. Such publicity might have been embarrassing to the management of Indian affairs and might have endangered range-leasing policy.
Had San Per been instructed by Superintendent Carroll to keep the white possemen away from Kit-i-chin to ensure that none of them would be shot? Had San Per been instructed to kill Kit-i-chin in order to avoid trial publicity? Had Roy McLane told San Per that if the Mescaleros did not kill Kit-i-chin, he would? Such questions naturally arise when trying to get a handle on the motivations of Carroll, Roy McLane and the tribal possemen, particularly San Per. The answers, however, will probably never be known.
Roy McLane took his brother's body back to Texas for burial. It is not known if Roy ever returned to his job at the Felix Cattle Company. Posse member Sam Chino remained active in tribal affairs and was appointed chief of the Mescalero Reservation police, serving with distinction in that position for more than 40 years.
Sheriff Henry Denney, a native of Tennessee, served out the balance of his term and then left public service to pursue his business interests. Later, in 1926, after Otero County's Sheriff Rutherford was killed while making an arrest, the community insisted that Denney be appointed to complete the late sheriff's term. Denney accepted, although he was over 60 at the time. He died in 1932, having been an Otero County resident for 33 years.
William Dudley was probably the besteducated of all members of the New Mexico Territorial Mounted Police. Born in Texas, he was a schoolteacher until appointed as an officer in 1905. He served in the Alamogordo district until promoted to sergeant in 1909 and then became the city marshal at Dawson, N.M.
James Carroll served as superintendent of the Mescalero Reservation from 1902 until 1912. During his term of office he was much respected by his wards and was credited with a vigorous defense of their interests. Superintendents were political appointees. Their tenure was often short. Some were removed for fraud and graft. Others were routinely replaced when the administration changed in Washington, D.C., but some were removed when their advocacy of Indian welfare conflicted with Western expansion. Coincidentally, Carroll left office the same year that Senator Albert Fall sponsored legislation to displace the Mescaleros. Fall had acquired land adjacent to the reservation, but his expansion plans were finally defeated in 1922 when the Mescaleros were given full title to their lands.
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