Vincent Randall, Apache Culture director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, speaks at the Clarkdale Historical Society’s
“First Friday In Their Own Words” series at the Clark Memorial Clubhouse on Friday, Feb.
3. Randall spoke about the history of the Yavapai and Apache tribes who formerly inhabited
the land that makes up the Verde Valley today. Daulton Venglar/Larson Newspapers
The Clarkdale Historical Society & Museum presented the latest installment of its “First Friday In Their Own Words” series on Friday, Feb. 3, with speaker Vincent Randall.
As the Apache Culture director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, Randall discussed life in Clarkdale prior to the foundation of the town.
Randall started his discussion by correcting the pronunciation of Tuzigoot National Monument, stating that it should be pronounced “Tuzi-wood,” which means “cooking water.”
“Goot,” he said, means “knee,” so “Tuzigoot” now happens to mean “water on my knee.”
Starting in 1000 C.E., the Sinagua built the 110-room Tuzigoot pueblo. The tribe was largely agricultural and had trade routes that spanned hundreds of miles. It’s believed the Sinagua left the area around 1400 C.E. The pueblo at Tuzigoot is architecturally similar to pueblos that can be seen around the region, like Bandelier National Monument, Aztec Ruins National Monument, and Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, Mesa Verde National Park, Yucca House National Monument, and Canyons of the Ancients in Colorado, and many sites along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, including Wupatki and Walnut Canyon National Monuments, Honanki, Palatki, Sacred Mountain and Montezuma Castle. Photo courtesy of the Arizona Department of Tourism.
Randall then went on to describe the state of the Verde Valley’s inhabitants prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Yavapai believed their ancestors had lived underground before emerging from Montezuma’s Well and starting a new life on the surface.
Apache women ford a river on horseback. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Apache women fording.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
“An Apache babe” In Edward S. Curtis The North American Indian, vol. I. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Apache babe.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
According to Randall, the Spanish arrived in 1583, followed by European trappers in 1820. Next to come were prospectors.
After the discovery of gold in Yavapai territory near Prescott, miners asked the government to bring in U.S. Army soldiers to fight off the locals.
In 1868, the Yavapai surrendered and were restricted to a reservation. The final group of immigrants was made up of farmers and ranchers.
Randall described a few of the different types of tribal reservations that the federal government created. Treaty reservations originated in treaties negotiated between individual nations and the U.S. government and later ratified by Congress.
Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential administration introduced reservations created by executive order, which could be disestablished by the government at any time.
Throughout the 1950s, reservations were terminated and natives paid to forfeit their land claims, resulting in the passage of a bill in 1972 to create congressional reservations.
The Rio Verde Reservation was created in 1871. At that time, it covered around 900 square miles from Camp Verde to Paulden.
Two different tribes, the Yuman-speaking Yavapai and the Athabaskan-speaking Apache, which had no common cultural or linguistic background, were confined together within the reservation.
This stereograph image shows chiefs at Camp Verde. In February and March 1875, 1,400 men, women and children were forced marched by the US Army from the Verde Valley to the San Carlos Reservation near Globe.Courtesy: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Chiefs at Verde Reservation, Arizona.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1850 – 1930.
While on the reservation, the tribes were supplied with foods that were foreign to them. They were given flour, and the people did not know what they should do with it.
“Paint ourselves?” Randall joked.
Coffee was another tricky one.
This stereograph image shows Apache scouts in Camp Verde sometime prior to 1875. Courtesy the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Randall stressed that those who had previously been an independent people living off the land had become dependent upon rations, opening their hands instead of using them. Randall called it the worst thing to ever happen to his people.
“The federal government knows what’s best for us,” Randall said with irony.
George R. Crook [Sept. 8, 1828-March 21, 1890] was a career U.S. Army officer. He served in the 4th U.S. infantry as brevet second lieutenant in California from 1852 to 1861. He participated in the Pitt River Expedition in 1857, fighting the Achomawi, Atsugewi and Modoc peoples who were fighting with settlers brought west by the California Gold Rush. He fought with 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the American Civil War. After campaigning against the Snake Indians of Oregon in the 1864-68 Snake War, President Ulysses S. Grant placed Crook in command of the Arizona Territory in 1873 where he warred with the Yavapai. After fighting the Sioux from 1875 to 1882 and 1886 to 1888, he was ordered back to Arizona to quell the rebellion of Apache leader Goyaałé, aka Geronimo [June 16, 1829-Feb. 17, 1909] and earned from the Apache the nickname “Nantan Lupan,” or “Grey Wolf.” Crook spent his last years speaking out against the unjust treatment of his former American Indian adversaries.
In February 1875, the reservation was disestablished and both tribes marched 180 miles to the San Carlos Reservation, a date now known as Exodus Day. The army had to march between the Apache and Yavapai tribes. Food was scarce and fights broke out, while many died from starvation and exhaustion.
Randall described the San Carlos reservation as a concentration camp. Until 1886, the tribes were not permitted to leave it. Afterwards, when restrictions were lessened, many of them left to take jobs as farm workers, acknowledging that they needed money to survive in this new society. A number worked on the Roosevelt Dam.
“We are tied to the land,” Randall said, but as the land’s earlier inhabitants dispersed in search of survival, they were replaced by others. By 1905 their land had been made public and was governed by the U.S. Forest Service.
Around 1889, between 400 and 600 Yavapai and Apache living in the Camp Verde area served as scouts and were rewarded with permission from Gen. George Crook to return to their homes, although the American settlers tried to stop this.
Since American Indians were not allowed to attend the settlers’ school, they secured a teacher of their own, slowly regained some of their land and began reestablishing the old reservation.
In the 1960s, they recovered additional government trust land in Clarkdale. They were required to build a water system, a sewage system and new homes. Randall stated that the people of Clarkdale have been very supportive.
Randall reminisced about the times he spent in the auditorium where the lecture was held, recalling playing the trumpet in jazz band and basketball there in his youth.
Vincent Randall, Apache Culture director for the Yavapai-Apache Nation, speaks at the Clarkdale Historical Society’s
“First Friday In Their Own Words” series at the Clark Memorial Clubhouse on Friday, Feb.
3. Randall spoke about the history of the Yavapai and Apache tribes who formerly inhabited
the land that makes up the Verde Valley today. Daulton Venglar/Larson Newspapers
“You have to share your stories,” Randall said in a statement. “Otherwise, someone else will come along and tell them, someone who wasn’t there, didn’t live it.”
“Eskay De, Apache” from 1903, in Edward S. Curtis The North American Indian, vol. I . The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Eskay De.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
