The greatest of wrongs ever done: an archaeological examination of a "just" Apache resistance

Abstract

Without question, the Apache Wars remain an essential topic for understanding the evolution of conflict in the American Southwest (Hass 1990; Kintigh 2014; LeBlanc 1999; McGuire and Villalpando 2015; Vandkilde 2015). However, the examination of the Apache Wars by archaeologists has been, for the most part, marginalized in the American Southwest. The epic tales of Geronimo’s resistance against the U.S. Army make up most of what is known to the public. Yet, this war was not fought by one man; instead, a people fought it to maintain cultural identity and way of life. Thus, I propose that the Apache Wars fought against the U.S. from 1862 to 1882 were fought justifiably using asymmetric warfare. Moreover, they occurred to protect the existence of the Apache people. The intended outcome of this research is to answer three questions. First, how did the colonial entanglement with the Spanish and Mexicans lay the groundwork for the Apache Wars? Second, how did the Apache war shape Apachería, and was it justifiable? Finally, how does the Battle of Big Dry Wash represent Apache resistance? Historical and cultural analysis, oral traditions, and modern Military Intelligence methodologies applied in an archaeological context answered these questions. First, the colonial entanglements with the Spanish and Mexican empires created a collective memory of oppression and warfare among the Apache people that lasted three hundred years. This memory created a need for them to evolve forms of resistance that included a more asymmetric style of warfare to protract the United States into a long war, to escape policies of scalp hunting, extermination, and confinement to reservations lands, providing the Apache ample justification for warfare under European ideals of “Just War” theory. Lastly, the Intelligence Preparation of an Archaeological Battlefield (IPAB) at the Battle of Big Dry wash depicts this resistance and the complexities of warfare that occurred as part of a revitalization movement that exhausted the Apaches will to fight