By Ruben Leyva

I have ancestors from the Chihene (Red Paint Apache), whose homeland is in the Black Range Mountains, west of the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The Chihene are one of four bands within a larger group historically known to themselves as the Chi'laa (Gila) Apache. The Chihene were organized into local groups of several extended families. One of the most notable Chihene leaders was Victorio. From 1879 to 1880, the military relentlessly pursued Victorio on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Archaeologist Karl Laumbach's book Hembrillo: An Apache Battlefield of the Victorio War details these encounters.

On October 14-15, 1880, Lieutenant Colonel Joaquin Terrazas's troops attacked Victorio and most of his band at Tres Castillos in northeastern Chihuahua. U.S. Colonel George Pearson Buell, whose troops pursued Victorio south across the border, returned to the U.S. only to learn that Victorio and several of his followers had been killed. Many women, children, and elders were captured and taken to Chihuahua City, where they were sold into slavery. Some escaped capture and fled to the Sierra Madre Occidental, the western boundary between Chihuahua and Sonora. During a recent visit to Chihuahua, Mexico, a conversation with contemporary Apache leader Cristobal Rojas reminded me of something I had heard long ago: Victorio's Segundo (Lieutenant) Nana (also known as Nané) was likely related to me through my Elías line. I humbly recognized that this issue required further investigation.

The relationship between Nana and the Elías line did not seem strange since most of us are connected. Chihene Apache leader Justo Elías was a historical figure born in 1805, mentioned in Arizona in the '50s by Captain James H. Tevis. Captain Tevis, who traveled with Kit Carson's brother Mose, started fighting Native tribes in 1857. In his notes, Tevis suggested that Mangas Coloradas and Justo Elías were ready to ally with the leader Cochise against settlers and miners, highlighting the kinship relations among the groups. Tevis points out that Justo Elías conducted raids alongside the Mescalero Apache against settlers along the Rio Grande. Tevis provided supplies and tobacco to Justo Elías, hoping Justo could use his influence to persuade the Mescalero Apache not to disturb the whites. However, this arrangement never materialized, as Tevis ordered one of his men to shoot and kill Justo Elías.

In the spring of 1860, Tevis made his way to the camp of Mangas Coloradas at Santa Lucía, now known as Mangas Springs in Grant County (not to be confused with Mangas Springs in Catron County). During Tevis's journey, a roving Apache band in Pinos Altos stole and ate one of his mules. Although the Apache believed it belonged to Tevis, the mule belonged to one of the miners accompanying him. Captain Tevis and his men tracked the culprits to the Mimbres Valley. Tevis observed brush huts lining the foot of the mountain for about 200 yards. It was Justo Elías's people whom Tevis held responsible.

Justo Elías was camped near the home of a German friend living along the Mimbres River. The riverbed separated Tevis from the angry Justo Elías, mounted on his horse. Justo Elías cursed Captain Tevis in proper English, believing he was out of range of Tevis's gunfire. Tevis asked Davis (one of his companions) if he could shoot Justo Elías from that distance. Davis responded affirmatively, raising his rifle and taking aim. A shot rang out, and Elías fell dead from his horse. Justo Elías's horse ran back to his ranchería. After the ensuing battle, Tevis and his miners took Apache stock and captured many members of Elías's band.

During this same period, Tevis and his miners were captured by the Chokonen band leader Esquinaline near Santa Lucía Valley. The Chokonen, like the Chihene, were one of the four major bands of Chiricahua. While skinning a freshly killed bear, Tevis and two friends were caught off guard by Esquinaline's warriors, who rounded up the miners and tied their hands behind their backs. Tevis and the miners were taken to a nearby spring and bound to oak trees. A prominent warrior on horseback approached them; it was the Chokonen leader, Cochise. Although Tevis found himself in Mangas Coloradas' territory, he likely knew that Cochise had married one of Mangas Coloradas' daughters, granting him more jurisdiction than Esquinaline. Cochise held greater authority over the fate of the white men. He took custody of Tevis, giving Esquinaline the mules belonging to Tevis' group and assuring the miners that they would not escape from Cochise's band camped in the nearby canyon. Surprisingly, Tevis survived the encounter.

Justo had a younger brother named Ramon Elías, who was born in 1810. Scholars Stephen H. Lekson and Edwin R. Sweeney note that Nana was born around this time. This date conflicts with the one on Nana's headstone at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Bob Hagan from Wild West Magazine, a former newspaper reporter, agrees with Lekson and Sweeney that Nana was about 70 years old when Victorio was killed at Tres Castillos. After losing Victorio and other capable leaders like Blanco and Suldeen, Nana took over as chief of the young band of Chihene remnants. Nana led his followers to the Sierra Madre Mountains before re-entering the U.S. in July 1881 with his warriors during what would later be known as Nana's Raid, with the U.S. Army in close pursuit.

A senior citizen on the run and causing chaos along the way, Nana suffered from rheumatism and an injured foot. Mexican historian and author Manuel Rojas, in the second edition of Apaches... Fantasmas de la Sierra Madre proposed that Nana and José María Elías were the same person. I disagree; however, they are likely related. This is because Justo Elías had sons, and one of them, José de la Cruz Elías, also known as José María Elías, did not surrender at Cañon de Los Embudos nor board the train to Florida, as did Nana. Nana died and was buried at Fort Sill in 1896.

Instead, José María Elías fled to the Sierra Madres, marrying into the same Leyva family with whom his father, Justo Elías, had signed the 1855 Treaty at Fort Thorn. He led the remaining groups of Nana's Chihene and Geronimo's Ndendahe, known as the Elías band of Sierra Madre Apaches. There is substantial documentation that many Apaches were baptized with the well-known Spanish surname Elías. José María Elías retired in Santa Rosalía, Chihuahua, the site of Ramon Elías's baptism. He died in his sixties from "falleció de ingestion," a phrase that could refer to poisoning or choking.

Coincidentally, Lieutenant Thomas Cruse, in his memoirs from his time in the U.S. Military, offered an alternative version of Victorio's death. Lieutenant Cruse informed his Army superiors that Mexican Lieutenant Colonel Joaquin Terrazas had persuaded some townspeople in Santa Rosalía to alert him if Victorio and his followers arrived. It is said that this occurred, and during a celebration in Santa Rosalía, Victorio and his group were ambushed and killed. In his book Horses Worn to Mere Shadows, Robert Watt reflects on the unconventional accounts of Victorio's death from Cruse and others, observing, "It has to be said that some of the stories have a ring of truth to them in their broad direction, if not in some of their details." There seems to be a strong connection between the Apache and Santa Rosalía.

Interestingly, as I have mentioned, Ramon Elías was baptized in 1810 in Santa Rosalía. While we know that Justo Elías and Ramon Elías were part of the same band as Nana, we may never know if Nana and Justo were brothers. Before his death, José María Elías led the remaining Apaches in the Sierra Madre, also known to some Mexicans as the Bronco Apache. Researcher and author Neil Goodwin wrote about anthropologist Tom Hinton's interview with Anglo rancher Neil Parker, who is credited with discovering 30 families of self-identified Apaches in the Sierra Madre in the late 1940s.

The Apaches told Parker they were partly descended from Chief Nana. If the Elías band is descended from Chief Nana, it's possible that José María Elías was not only Justo's son but also Nana's nephew. This corresponds with what the contemporary Apache leader Cristobal Rojas told me during my visit to Chihuahua.