Yavapai Wars

Yavapai Wars
Part of the Apache Wars
Skeleton Cave
Date 1861–1875 Location Arizona Territory Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Yavapai: [note 1] Yavapai Allies: [note 2]
Commanders and leaders
Pauline Weaver George Crook Charles King	Delshay Nanni-chaddi†
Casualties and losses
	741 to 1,075 killed directly, Yavapai population declined by 4,000 to over 5,500 overall from various causes[note 3]

The Yavapai Wars, or the Tonto Wars, were a series of

With the Mohave people's power greatly diminished, Tolkepaya saw that they needed to make new alliances to protect their safety. In April 1863, Quashackama, a well-known Tolkepaya, met with Arizona Territory superintendent of Indian affairs Charles Poston, along with representatives of the Pimas, Mohaves, Maricopas and Chemehuevis, at Fort Yuma, to sign an agreement intended "to promote the commerce in safety between the before mentioned tribes and the Americans." However, the agreement was not an official treaty, so therefore not legally binding in any way.^[6]

Despite this, the growing numbers of settlers (very quickly outnumbering Yavapai) began to call for the government to do something about the people occupying the land that they wanted to occupy and exploit themselves. The editor of a local newspaper, the Arizona Miner, said "Extermination is our only hope, and the sooner it is accomplished the better."^[7]

Early in January 1864, the Yavapai raided a number of ranches that supplied cattle to the miners in the Prescott and Agua Fria area. As a result of this and a series of recent killings, a preemptive attack was organized to discourage future depredations. Therefore, a group of well-armed volunteers were quickly outfitted with King S. Woolsey as their leader. Their mission was to track the raiding party back to their rancheria. What followed was an infamous footnote in Arizona history known today as the Bloody Tanks incident.^{[citation needed]}

According to Braatz, "In December 1864, soldiers from Fort Whipple attacked two nearby Yavapé camps, killing 14 and wounding seven." The following month, Fort Whipple soldiers attacked another group of Yavapé, this time killing twenty-eight people, including their headman, Hoseckrua. Included in the group were employees of Prescott's US Indian agent John Dunn.^{[citation needed]}

Reservation wars

In 1864,

Not long after, in retaliation for the murder of a Pai headman by Americans, a group of Pai attacked some wagon trains, and closed the road between Prescott and Fort Mohave to all traffic. In response, the US Army declared all Indians in lands beyond 75 miles (121 km) east of the Colorado River (the great majority of traditional Yavapai territory) to be "hostile" and "subject to extermination".[10]

On November 5, 1871, the ambush of the Wickenburg stage – the

Yavapai War

Yavapai War
Part of the Yavapai Wars, Apache Wars
The rescue of Lieutenant Charles King by Sergeant Bernard Taylor during the battle at Sunset Pass in 1874.
Date 1871–1875 Location Arizona Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Apache
Commanders and leaders
George Crook Charles King	Delshay Nanni-chaddi  †

The Yavapai War, was an

In 1925, a group of Yavapai from the Fort McDowell Reservation, along with a Maricopa County Sheriff, collected the bones from the cave, by then named Skeleton Cave, and interred them at the Fort McDowell cemetery.^[14]

Exodus Day

In 1886, many Yavapai joined in campaigns by the US Army, as scouts, against