The Chiricahua Apache

This rock wilderness was Chiricahua Apache homeland long before it was a monument. The Chiricahua ranged across southeastern Arizona from the late 1600s, hunting and moving with the seasons through the mountains that still carry their name. Their resistance to American and Mexican expansion, led by Cochise and later Geronimo, ended with Geronimo's surrender in 1886. Afterward the entire Chiricahua people, including scouts who had served the United States, were removed to prison camps in Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma and held as prisoners of war for twenty-seven years. The land kept their name; they did not keep the land.

What the plaque says

The Chiricahua Apache. Chiricahua National Monument. This was the homeland of the Chiricahua Apache. From out of the north came these semi nomadic hunters. Separating from other Apache groups in the 1690's, the Chiricahua Apache moved into southeastern Arizona.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chiricahua National Monument — 0.9 mi
  The Land of Standing-Up Rocks — Cochise and Geronimo's stronghold

More markers nearby

• Faraway Ranch — 0.9 mi
• Ed Riggs — 0.9 mi
• Neil and Emma Erickson — 0.9 mi