Cry of Eagles (29 page)

Some have written that Falcon MacCallister was a cold-blooded killer who terrorized the West, killing hundreds of men for sport after his wife's death in 1876. Actually, the number of men who fell under Falcon's guns was much lower than that and there was no sport involved.

It is true that Falcon was a gunfighter, and it is also true that he was a skilled gambler, but it is not true that he was an outlaw and highwayman. That is nonsense, for Falcon was a rich man at the time of his wife's death.

He began riding what some called the ‘owlhoot trail' through no fault of his own.

Falcon MacCallister was the spitting image of his father, Jamie. He stood six feet and three and was heavy with muscle. Just like his father, Falcon literally did not know his own strength.

And just like his father, Falcon was quick on the shoot. Jamie and Falcon were both known as bad men. In the West, being a bad man did not necessarily mean being a brigand. It just meant that he was a bad man to crowd.

And Falcon was a bad man to crowd.

* * *

Historical figures depicted in
Cry Of Eagles
are shown as faithfully as possible, as was the fight at the OK Corral. Doc Holliday and the Earps, Johnny Ringo, the Clan tons, and events around Tombstone during that era are described as most historians have recorded them, with only slight changes for dramatic effect.

Naiche and Chokole were real characters. Naiche was a son of Cochise, who was the most widely known Chiricahua Apache chieftain in their history. Naiche's actual fate, and Chokole's, are unknown or unproven, although some spotty records do exist, claiming they lived to a ripe old age, others describing their bloody demises. Naiche became Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches after Cochise's death and the death of his older brother Taza.

Fort Thomas was a military post and Apache Indian agency in southwestern Arizona Territory during the period, regarded as one of the worst of all Indian reservations when it came to conditions and cruel treatment at the hands of military leaders and Indian agents. Apaches wore metal tags around their necks, even the babies, in order to be counted. Rations at Fort Thomas were meager and usually spoiled: a handful of weevil-ridden meal or moldy flour, a slice of half-rotted beef, and water. Starvation and sickness often drove many Apaches to escape this brutal treatment by their white captors, and almost certain death as a result of malnutrition or disease.

Delshay, Chief of the Tonto Apaches, was beheaded by a commanding officer at Fort Thomas, and his head was placed on top of a pole in the middle of the fort's parade grounds, remaining there for years as a grinning, fleshless skull, a reminder to Fort Thomas' Apache prisoners of what could happen to troublemakers.

The most infamous and deadly of all Apache warriors was most certainly Geronimo. During one of his many captures, President Grover Cleveland ordered Geronimo hanged. The order was later rescinded. Geronimo served as a role model for many resentful younger Apache boys for his unparalleled skill as a guerilla fighter, whether in irons or roaming free in the Dragoons, or in Mexico.

Geronimo escaped many times, and led the last vengeful bands of Apache renegades in battles against white men in the southwest until his final surrender, when making war against superior numbers of white soldiers with better weapons made his struggle all but hopeless.

Many older Apaches remained stubbornly unreconstructed during imprisonment, even after they were moved to Fort Sill in what is now Oklahoma. Geronimo was one of the worst, often taunting soldiers, “You could never catch me shooting when I was free!”

Naiche was no different while in captivity, and Chokole was certainly one of the bravest Apache women in history, a skilled guerilla fighter until the last, a rare example of women as warriors when record numbers of defeats against army patrols thinned Apache ranks.

Tom Horn knew Naiche and Geronimo, and most likely, Chokole. Horn warned President Theodore Roosevelt that Geronimo was known among his people as The Human Tiger, and that he would never give up his old ways. The same was said of Naiche, albeit not as often, since Naiche made more efforts to live in peace with whites until the final wars broke out over inhumane treatment at the San Carlos and Fort Thomas reservations.

An Apache named Nana died at Fort Sill in 1905, to the end accepting nothing the white man had to offer. His last words were “I can see the mountains of our homeland!” But there is some doubt this was the same Nana who fought with Naiche and Geronimo. Nana was a fairly common Apache name, and at the time few white citizens cared about the actual identities of Apache prisoners. They were regarded as little more than captive animals, heathen savages who had to be incarcerated, or killed outright to allow for expanding white settlement of the West.

Some records indicate Naiche lived to be an old man, living in Mescalero, New Mexico, while others claim an imposter posed as Naiche to give the freedom-loving Apaches continued hope that he was with Geronimo in Mexico—until Geronimo's final surrender, at which time no record of an Apache named Naiche exists among the prisoners taken.

A number of the older warriors, who had known life as free men on the open prairies, killed their wives and then themselves when reservation life became too bleak. They had seen their people die by the hundreds, of the white man's diseases for which they had no natural immunity, of starvation, and in some cases, by execution for minor offenses.

But the annals of the American southwest will reveal that the Apaches killed more white settlers, travelers, and soldiers than almost any other plains tribe, with the possible exception of the far more numerous Comanche bands. Apaches were savage, brutal people toward their enemies. White men, paid to hunt down and kill the raiding Apaches, were rare, and their careers were most often very short.

Mickey Free is an actual historical figure, and his skill at tracking and killing Apaches is well documented. Men like Free, and the fictional Falcon MacCallister, were appreciated by folks living in frontier outposts. Getting rid of the bloodthirsty Apaches became a celebrated event in small settlements. Free was in fact a twelve-year-old boy tending stock on a ranch in Arizona when Apache warriors swooped down on them, stole twenty head of stock, and took him with them. For the next ten years he lived as an Apache, learning to track, hunt, fish, shoot, and kill in Apache fashion. His real name was Felix Martinez. Al Sieber, the famed chief of U.S. Cavalry scouts, described Free as half-Irish, half-Mexican, half-Apache, and whole son of a bitch . . . he meant it as a compliment. It was said he could track a shadow on a rainy night. He had fiery red hair, a small red moustache, and a mug that “looked like a map of Ireland.” Most often described as ugly, his left eye was cocked at an odd angle, probably the result of a cataract. He let his stringy red hair fall over his face to hide it, and usually wore it in twin braids in the style of plains Indians.

MacCallister, and the real-life Indian fighters from which he is drawn, saw nothing wrong with fighting fire with fire. An uncounted number of Apache scalps were taken in Arizona and New Mexico Territories during the late 1800's by white, or half-white, bounty hunters. Monies were paid by territorial governments and the government of Mexico for Apache scalps, and few if any questions were asked as to how they were taken.

Geronimo died at Fort Sill in 1909. With him was Asa Daklugie, son of Ishton. His death is well-documented, and no doubts exist as to his fate.

Were the last of the free Apaches captured or killed by the soldier patrols in Arizona before 1896? No one can be certain.

In 1913, Pancho Villa told General Hugh Scott he knew of bands of “wild” Apaches still living in the high mountain valleys of the Sierra Madre. The Mexican government reported a raid on a Mexican village west of the Sierra Madre by “wild” Apaches in 1934—the last recorded, although poorly documented, attack by renegade Apache warriors anywhere. Yaqui Indians living there, lifelong enemies of the Apache, were positive in their identification of the raiders as North American Apaches.

Men with bitter scores to settle for Indian depredations against their families and friends roamed the West until the end of the century. Such was the man named Falcon MacCallister, a man haunted by bloody memories....

NEW YORK TIMES
AND
USA TODAY
BESTSELLING AUTHORS
W
ILLIAM
W. J
OHNSTONE
with J. A. Johnstone

 

 

Across the West, badmen know his name. The deadliest
bounty hunter on the frontier
,
Flintlock is armed with his
grandfather's ancient Hawken muzzleloader
,
ready to put
the blast on the face of injustice. As William and J. A.
Johnstone's acclaimed saga continues, Flintlock will
discover an evil too terrifying and deadly to even name.

 

 

The stench of death hangs over Happyville. When
Flintlock rides into town, he sees windows caked in dust,
food rotting on tables, and a forgotten corpse hanging at
the gallows. Citizens of Happyville are dead in their
beds, taken down by a deadly scourge, and Flintlock
must stay put or risk spreading the killer disease. His
quarantine is broken by Cage Kingfisher, a mad
clergyman who preaches the gospel of death. He orders
his followers to round up the survivors of Happyville and
bring them home to face the very plague they fled. To save
them, Flintlock must send Kingfisher to Hell. But the
deadly deacon has a clockwork arm that can draw a pistol
faster than the eye can blink. It will take the Devil to bring
him down. Or the frontier legend they call Flintlock.

 

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