By Ruben Leyva

Historically, people have not viewed the Gila Apache as residing as far north as the Navajo's southern boundary or imagined the Navajo traveling as far south as the border between the U.S. and Mexico. I will elaborate on how allies and adversaries shifted from cooperation to conflict. These records also highlight instances of negotiation and strategic coexistence. The Gila Apache adeptly navigated changing alliances with the Catholic Church and Spanish military presidios, leveraging these relationships to secure resources, protect their families, and uphold cultural traditions.

David M. Brugge, the late author of *Navajos in the Catholic Church*, published in 1983, examined writings by European Christians in New Mexico that documented the conversions and sacraments received by the Apache and our distant relatives, the Navajo, then documented as 'Apaches de Navajó.' As a result, many Apache, Navajo, and other tribes in the Southwest have Spanish-Christian surnames. While not all baptismal, burial, and marriage records specified the tribal affiliation of Indigenous peoples, many did. According to Brugge, the Apachean groups (Navajos and Apaches) significantly surpassed other tribes in New Mexico, with a recorded total of 2,652 baptisms between 1700 and 1870.

The Navajo accounted for the majority, with 1,623 baptisms. The records mention that specific Apache groups embraced the faith. Whether these individuals accepted conversion freely, under duress, or for how long they observed the faith after baptism varied. We know that once it became a part of our custom, some Apache willingly engaged in Catholic sacraments at birth, death, and periodically marriage. In *Apache at War and Peace* William B. Griffen insists, "After the mid-eighteenth century, Spaniards drew finer distinctions between Apache living west of the Rio Grande."

The *Memorial of Fray Alonso de Benavides* recounts that this tradition began with the story of Captain Sanaba, who was willfully converted by Fray Alonso de Benavides in 1626 at the Piro Pueblo Indian village in San Antonio de Senecú. The two men held each other in high regard. This encouraged future baptisms. By the 1650s, this deteriorated as Apaches were taken captive, traded, and enslaved. However, the children of these captives were presented for baptism for centuries to come. For example, the orphaned Apache Indian of unknown parents, Juan Joseph de la Cruz Ydalgo, was baptized in 1724 near Chihuahua City. Still, he would be a significant ancestor of many future Apache, both at war and at peace with Spaniards.

The Spanish, often confused by Apache raiding activities, created tensions between the Gila Apache and our allies, the Navajo. Griffen's book details the alliance between the Gila Apache and the Navajo, which the Spanish sought to disrupt. In June 1785, the Spanish persuaded 150 Navajo and 94 Laguna Pueblos to attack my people in the Datil Mountains of Catron County, resulting in the deaths of forty of my ancestors. Subsequent attacks in the San Mateo Mountains further decimated Gila Apache groups. These groups needed a safe space and agreed to become a part of Spanish-run peace establishments.

In 1786, my family from the Datil-Mogollon and Chiricahua Mountains agreed to settle among the priests and military at the presidio in Bacoachi, Sonora. A Spanish-sanctioned Apache farming community was created five years later at Sabinal, south of Belen, New Mexico. However, the Apache did not understand that this was the Spanish crown's method for making the Apache dependent on farming, Spanish resources, and Christianity. At these Spanish-run peace establishments, rations such as maize, meat, tobacco, and sweets were distributed. Matson's and Fontana's book *Friar Bringas Reports to the King* describes how, as part of the deal, the Apache were to be ministered to while being allowed to maintain our customs.

Some Apache, like the principal leader El Compa, aligned himself and his family with the Spanish and served as auxiliaries against hostile Apache. Franciscan friars at these peace establishments promoted Western agrarian practices, such as planting, tending, and harvesting crops like wheat, corn, and melons. During harvest season, surplus crops were sold to neighbors, mining communities, and other locations, while available grains were shared with the Apache community.

Religious syncretism is still a characteristic of my people today. Apache spirituality ranks the highest belief, acknowledging Ussen or Ya-sta-sita-sita-n-né as the Captain of Heaven. When combined, Christianity was viewed as a secondary option. When viewed as the sole source of spiritual guidance, Christianity is not regarded as traditional and is considered to be a threat to cultural survival.

The orphaned Juan Joseph, as mentioned earlier, left two widows, Bernalda and Bechesda, and many offspring listed on the Bacoachi records available from the University of Arizona Institutional Repository. However, many Apaches disapproved of living near the Presidio. The priests were also unhappy as it was reported the Presidio soldiers introduced peaceful Apache to vices like alcoholic beverages and gambling. One leader, Chigosté, AKA El Chiquito, was superstitious and wary of the Spaniards and aimed to revive the Navajo-Gila Apache alliance. In June 1787, he left Bacoachi, taking over half of the Apaches. El Chiquito returned to Sonora, possibly with Navajos, on February 7, 1788, attacking the peace establishment and killing a respected peaceful Apache leader.

In 1791, the Spanish sought to relocate some of my ancestors from Bacoachi to the peace establishment at the Janos Presidio (northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico). The late Juan Joseph Ydalgo's grandson, Santiago AKA Pisaho (sometimes documented Visago), and the faithful El Compa, whose families had created an alliance through the marriage of El Compa to Guadalupe Cee (Tzee) Ydalgo, relocated to Janos. El Compa died in 1794. His son Juan Diego succeeded him as the family's leader at Janos. In January 1805, the Spanish military under Antonio Narbona and his troops invaded Canyon de Chelly (Navajo Nation, west of Arizona-New Mexico Stateline), taking 33 Navajo women and children captive. Narbona gifted Sonoran troops a dozen of the captives. Brugge cites the research of L.R. Bailey, who suspects a dozen "Apache" baptisms at the Parish of Arispe were these same Navajo captives.

During the 1820s, Spanish and Apache relations eroded as Mexico took over government control from Spain. Rumors circulated in Mexico about Navajos and other Apache groups raiding with the Gila Apache. By 1831, the families of Juan Diego Compa and his younger bilingual brother Juan José, who had risen to political leadership at Janos, fled the presidio and returned to warfare as Governors of the states of Sonora and Chihuahua offered bounties for Apache scalps. The Compa brothers were murdered during the Johnson Massacre in 1837. After this tragedy, Mangas Coloradas and other leaders rose to lead our people. According to John C. Cremony, a translator for the U.S. Boundary Commission from 1849 to 1852, the leader Mangas Coloradas married his daughter to a Navajo leader, solidifying an alliance.

I have records of many ancestors and continue to collect them as part of my doctoral research. Generally, Spanish handwritten baptism records include the place, date, age group, child's name, legitimacy status, parents, and godparents, sometimes identifying Indigenous individuals by tribe, such as Apache/a (male or female Apache), Indio/a (Indian), Indigeno/a (Indigenous), along with terms signifying mixed Indigenous heritage like Coyote/a, Lobo/a, and Mestizo/a. Some ancestors are recorded as 'Indios/Yndios' (Indians) in one record and as mixed-race in others. By the first half of the 19th century, these Indigenous identifiers faded from the records. They became inconsistent, complicating research into older ancestors documented as Indigenous and necessitating further research to trace back in time.

Historically and today, Hispanicized Native Americans have often been viewed as Mexican and non-native. Notwithstanding baptism or proximity to Spanish-Mexican villages, the Gila and Chiricahua Apaches always retained a separate political and cultural identity from Mexican citizens. This is acknowledged in Spanish records and Apache oral histories alike. The once Chiricahua Apache prisoner of war, Asa Daklugie, the son of Juh (AKA Lino Leyva), told the author Eve Ball that present-day Apaches consider the Compas and those once residing at Janos as Apache. Whatever you think of us, we are still Apache today.