Great Leader: Naiche of the Chiricahua Apache, c 1857-1919
Most Native tribes in North America didn't have a royal or noble class. Even when leadership passed from father to son in patrilineal societies, or uncle to nephew in matrilineal ones, each man had to prove and keep proving his right to lead his people. Naiche, c 1857-1919, the son of Cochise, made good his claim as the last hereditary leader of the Chiricahua, succeeding his father and his older brother Taza. Naiche in Apache means mischief maker. He was the son of Cochise by his wife Dos-tes-y, meaning, Something Already Cooked in the Campfire, and born in the Chiricahua's home range of southern Arizona. With Cochise as a father, Taza and Naiche would have received their warrior's training from the best, a man beloved by his people and feared by the Army and Settlers. Naiche grew up to be tall and strikingly good-looking. Army officer Britton Davis described him as being 6'1" and carrying himself as though he were a royal prince. Naiche came...