Nana

Nana

Kas-tziden (“Broken Foot”) or Haškɛnadɨltla (“Angry, He is Agitated”), more widely known by his Mexican-Spanish appellation Nana (“grandma” or “lullaby”) (1800? – 1896), was a warrior and chief of the Chihenne band (better known as Warm Springs Apache) of the Chiricahua Apache. In the 1850s and 1860s he was one of the best known leaders of the Bedonkohe and Chihenne, along with Tudeevia (Dudeevia, better known as Delgadito - “Little Thin”, “Skinny”),^[1] Cuchillo Negro, Ponce and Loco (“crazy”, “mad”). He was a nephew of Delgadito, and married a sister of Geronimo.

Early Fights

He fought alongside Mangas Coloradas and his mixed Chihenne-Bedonkohe band until Mangas was killed whilst in the custody of the California militia in January 1863. In Mexico he also undertook many joint raids with the Nednhi of Juh and Natiza against the Mexicans. After Ponce, Cuchillo Negro and Delgadito were killed too, Victorio took over the Chihenne leadership, joined by the leaderless Bedonkohe. Nana, although at least 20 years older than Victorio, married the latters daughter, cementing his position as a leader.

Victorio's War

After several failed attempts to peacefully live on a reservation in their own country, Victorio and Nana gave up trying and fought back against the Americans and Mexicans. The Bedonkohe and Chihenne were joined by more than 80 warriors of the Mescalero Apache under their old chief Caballero and some Comanche of the Southern Plains. Victorio and Nana therefore had about 200 warriors.

During the Apache Wars and especially Victorio's War he raided areas of Texas and Mexico with Victorio until Victorio and his band were surrounded and killed by soldiers of the Mexican Army under Mauricio Corredor at Cerro Tres Castillos - 68 women and children were captured by the Mexicans and sold as slaves in Mexico.

Nana’s Raid

Nana and his followers, counting only about 30 warriors, had been able to escape and hiding into the Sierra Madre, because he had been on a scouting mission. After the death of Victorio several prestigious leaders and warriors such as Fun (Yiy-gholl, Yiy-joll, Yiy-zholl, also known as Larry Fun), Ka-ya-ten-nae (Ka-e-te-nay, Kadhateni or Kieta - "Fights Without Arrows", "Cartridges All Gone") took the leadership of the Chihenne, Bedonkohe and south of the American border living Chokonen and Nednhi bands beside the already established leaders Nana, Loco, Mangas, Naiche, Geronimo and Juh. Nana, now almost 80 years old (according to some reports, nearly 90-years), formed his own war party with the Chihenne (Warm Springs Apache), enlisting loitering warriors in the reservations. His band joined by 15 Chokonen and 12 Mescalero warriors, began raiding Army supply trains and isolated settlers. In less than a month Nana fought eight battles, killing 30-40 Americans, at least as many Mexicans, captured about 200 horses to replace 100 ridden to death and then fled back to Mexico. He escaped more than 1,000 soldiers, not counting the three or four hundred militia volunteers and Indian Scouts.^[2]

Nana was captured in a surprise attack and sent together with 374 Apaches to the San Carlos Reservation, but he escaped in 1885 together with Mangas and Chihuahua, joined forces with Geronimo in Mexico, and fought with him during his last days of resistance. In 1886, he surrendered along with Geronimo and was sent to Fort Marion, Florida. In 1894, he was allowed to return west to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Nana died at Fort Sill on May 19, 1896, at the age of 96. He had the longest fighting career of any of the Apache warriors.^[3]

Legacy

Nana is unique among the war chiefs. In an age where one left the fighting to the younger warriors, he had a tenacity, stamina, courage and cruelty, which characterized a true Apache warrior. Nana was half blind, crooked from arthritis and moved the foot behind, but once he sat in the saddle, he rode "like the devil." Nana was the last great, free leader (Nantan) of the Chihenne.

Notes

References

• Nana's Raid: Apache Warfare in Southern New Mexico, 1881 (Lekson, 1987)

External links

• Nana, Apache Chief at the Arizona Memory Project
• Nana (Kas-tziden) from the Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, via Google Books
• Nana in photograph of the Council between General Crook and Geronimo from the U.S. government's American Memory website
• Warm Springs Apache Leader Nana: The 80-Year-Old Warrior Turned the Tables at the Weider History Group's historynet.com