Beyond the Hollywood Myth: the Untold Story of Apache Leader Cochise

A fresh look at Beyond the Hollywood Myth: the Untold Story of Apache Leader Cochise, offering readers expert commentary.

Cochise lived in hard-won peace on his homeland for less than two years. In May 1874, he fell gravely ill with severe abdominal agony, likely caused by stomach cancer. He died on June 8, 1874, at approximately 69 years of age. His warriors carried his body deep into the rocky crevices of the Dragoon Mountains, burying him along with his horse and arms. The exact location of his grave remains an unbroken tribal secret.

With Cochise gone, federal authorities swiftly reneged on their pledges. Mining interests discovered rich silver deposits near Tombstone, encroaching directly on the reservation's perimeter. In 1876, the Department of the Interior abolished the Chiricahua Reservation and ordered the forced march of all Apaches to the squalid, malarial concentration camp at San Carlos.

Cochise’s eldest son, Taza, complied under duress, dying shortly afterward during a diplomatic visit to Washington, D.C. Other leaders refused to submit. Geronimo, a Bedonkohe medicine man who had fought alongside Cochise at Apache Pass, bolted into the Sierra Madre with hundreds of warriors, launching a bitter campaign of resistance that lasted another decade until his capture in 1886. Geronimo’s defiant struggle ultimately came to dominate the public imagination, casting a long shadow that eclipsed Cochise’s far more successful diplomatic and military achievements.