A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

ALCHESAY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS (DZIŁ ŁIGAI SI’ÁN N’DEE)

- JOHN LANGELLIER

“He was “a perfect Adonis in figure, a mass of muscle and sinew, of wonderful courage, great sagacity, and as faithful as an Irish hound.”

—Captain John Bourke, Third U.S. Cavalry

Captain John Bourke, a Medal of Honor recipient for “gallantry in action” during the Civil War Battle of Stones River, Tennessee, recognized a fellow fighting man when he described the Sierra Apache Alchesay, also known by other names including Tsáj (“Swollen One”). And Bourke claimed this impressive young man was a marvel of “physical endurance and manly beauty.”

Related to the venerable Chief Pedro (Eskeh-yan-iltklindn, “Angry He Shakes Something”), Alchesay began life around 1850 on the upper north fork of Carrizo Creek in north central Arizona. He grew up among the tac tci dn (red rock strata) clan in the Cibecue Creek Valley near the town of today’s Whiteriver. Little is known of his formative years, but he undoubtedly learned the survival skills of hunting, tracking and warfare. Mastery of this Apache male trinity served him well after 1871, when Lt. Col. George Crook assumed command of the Department of Arizona.

After centuries of conflict, first with the Spaniards, then the Mexicans and, finally, the white American settlers, the Apaches faced a determined enemy in the United States Army. At first, they held their own, but with Crook’s arrival, the tide began to turn.