By Ruben Leyva

I come from the Leyva and Elías Apache families. I was not raised on a reservation. Many of my ancestors evaded capture by the U.S. and Mexican governments in the Mogollon Uplands and the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental. My Leyva Chihene (Číhéne) Apache roots are in Quemado, New Mexico, over 250 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. I am also an Elías descendant with ancestors closely connected to the Leyva and other families, who together fled rather than be removed east by the U.S. as prisoners of war.

We call ourselves Chihene or Red Paint People. Some of us have been called "Broncos" or "Sierra Madre Apache." Bronco is used pejoratively to dehumanize us as wild, untamable horses, knowing our families resisted abandoning our homelands. Historians align the Sierra Madre name with the Nednai band of Mexico. This description isn't entirely incorrect, but it neglects to describe our continued presence in the U.S.

While nothing is wrong with being from Mexico, we existed here before borders. We are not an immigrant ethnic group. Our families once hid together in the Tularosa Mountains of New Mexico and Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental. Authors like Lynda Sanchez and Neil Goodwin have written about my family. But how did we arrive at this point? Is it due to the widespread belief that all the Gila (Čílaa') Apache, a.k.a. "Chiricahua," were relocated to the east of their homeland?

In 1958, Major U.S. Army General Thomas E. de Shazo directed historian Gillette Griswold to compile his data on the Fort Sill Apache. Griswold categorized groups by band identifier but never used the band name Chihene, instead settling for non-Apache names like Warm Springs and Mimbreño. Using coding, he identifies locations like "F" (Fort Sill) and "M" (Mescalero). He uses "C" for Carlisle (Indian School), and "I," "L," and "FS" for prisoners of war who enlisted as U.S. Army Apache Scouts. In 1961, Griswold completed his work, which historians consider reliable.

His Code "X" for "Other disposition" encompasses Apaches who were not relocated to the East as prisoners-of-war, those who lost their prisoner-of-war status, those who passed away while not at their designated location, or those who relocated shortly after being released. His creation of Code X indicates visitors at Fort Sill by those never removed. Griswold wrote, "... for the purpose of contemporary classification, the Bedonkohe and Nednai (bands) are regarded as Chiricahuas and the Mimbreños (band) as Warm Springs." He admits the groups had been erroneously grouped as one, "Chiricahua."

He accounts for my ancestors using the following codes: WS (Warm Spring band), ND + BD (Nednai & Bedonkohe bands), and X (lost band). Griswold does little to account for the history of the Code X Apache. But what of the lost band of Apache who remained in their homeland? Apache Massai jumped from the train heading east and returned.

Natcułbaye, aka 'El Apache Elías,' my 3rd-great-grandfather, escaped before arriving at Fort Bowie, Arizona with Geronimo. Elías was mentioned in the journal of U.S. Army Lieutenant Leonard Wood during the Geronimo campaign in 1886. He served as a scout and translator for the U.S. Army and noted that he spoke better Apache than Spanish. He was rumored to have been an Apache captive from a young age, and later, he married an Apache, my 3rd Great-grandmother.

In August 1886, other Apache women sought his wife's help through his wife, in brokering a safe surrender for Geronimo. Elías, who had posed for photos at Cañon de los Embudos with Geronimo's people earlier that year, was present for his surrender to General Nelson Miles. Wood described a strange demeanor that had come over Elías immediately afterward. On September 4th, Elías acted "rather ugly... causing some trouble." Could Elías have learned everyone was due to be exiled east? Despite his emotions, he accompanied the march toward Fort Bowie, Arizona.

On September 7, an Apache, possibly his wife, whose genealogy identifies her as pregnant at the time, gave birth on the march. The collective of Apaches and military personnel halted for the baby's delivery. The march continued while a pale-looking mother carried her newborn in her arms. Was this mistreatment of Elías' wife the reason for his ugly behavior and their desertion before reaching Fort Bowie, Arizona? On September 8, 2024, the soldiers discovered Apaches missing from the group. The number varies, but Elías appears consistently as one of the adult males. Wood reported that in addition to the men, a teenage boy, three women, and one child were missing. They were said to have returned to Mexico.

The Elías and Leyva families kept close ties. The families have a storied history. In 1855, they signed the U.S. Treaty with the Mimbres Bands of Gila Apache. They lived together on different temporary and permanent reservations. Elías lived temporarily at Fort Apache, Arizona, with Geronimo and later served the U.S. Army as a scout in the Geronimo Campaign. His family's history in the U.S. and Mexico makes him a historical leader of the X band. In Shadows at Dawn, Karl Jacoby writes, "Considerable evidence from Inņaa archives and Nnēē oral tradition alike suggests that one or more groups of the People survived in Sonora's rugged, sparsely inhabited Sierra Madre Mountains well into the twentieth century." Jacoby contends our Elías family was one such group. In 1888, Sonoran officials tried to make peace with Elías. After he died in 1903, the Elías and Leyva descendants remained in their homeland and decades later reconnected with the freed prisoners of war on reservations.

In Mexico, the Apache-Mexican conflicts started to decline in the 1940s. This summer, the Mexican federal government formally acknowledged the Apache as an indigenous group native to Mexico. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Apache band, previously lost by the Army, is now pursuing federal recognition under the name Chihene Nde Nation. Despite divergent experiences after 1886, they remain distinct yet interconnected, sharing a common cultural context and identity.