Native American, Cochise - Essay Example

However, this traditional system of governance was gradually disrupted by the whites. In their quest to overturn the traditional, the white settlers faced some form of fierce resistance from the Native Americans under the leadership of their chiefs and these conflicts resulted in bloodshed in different situations. One of the chiefs remembered for his sworn hatred and resistance to American dominance is Cochise. The history of Cochise is a must read since it enlightens the readers about the events that took place in the 17th century before the birth of ‘democracy’ in America which characterises the present day government in this country.

Cochise was an Apache Indian Chief and his territory covered parts of Arizona and New Mexico (HistoryNet, 2013. There are various key events that defined Cochise such as his involvement in different battles against the white settlers. When the white settlers invaded America, they were resisted by the natives which culminated in different battles. Cochise played a significant role in waging some of these battles in defence for their peace. The critical event in the history of Cochise happened in 1872 when a high powered delegation was dispatched to negotiate with him in order to stop Apache war in the Southern Arizona.

According to Sweeney (n.d), the top officials sent from Washington had realised that Cochise was the key person to approach in order to obtain lasting peace with the Chiricahua apaches. Thus, it can be seen that this person was critical in as far as the attainment of peace was concerned. Born around 1810, Cochise grew up in the native America but somehow during his mid thirties, things began to change as they started experiencing some conflicts with the Mexicans as well as the white settlers.

Having assumed chieftainship around this age, Cochise had no problem settling with these new comers. However, the turning point was in 1860 when cattle belonging to whites were raided and a child was kidnapped. Cochise was suspect in this incident and was summoned together with his family to try to address this issue. This led to the arrest of his family but he managed to escape and from then started to wage war with the whites in revenge for killing members of his family. After the incident, various battles ensued between Cochise’s people and the Americans and Mexicans and these resulted in loss of life.

Cochise declared hatred against the white Americans for killing his people and he dedicated himself to fight until the bitter end in defence of his homeland and people. Originally, the Indians lived in the mountainous mountains in the Southwest and they managed to defend their homeland territory under the chieftainship of their great king until a peace treaty was signed in 1872. Up until today, Cochise is one of the few people recognised in the American history for waging a bitter war against the whites in defence of their territorial integrity and sovereignty.

He is one of the natives to cause sleepless nights to the Americans since they could not easily subdue this great fighter who had a combative battalion. Up until the end, Cochise came to be admired by the Americans for his outstanding guerrilla warfare skills that resulted in the death of many Americans. Though he also lost a great number of his own people through these conflicts, Cochise was not defeated in his cause for defending the territorial integrity of his homeland. He is remembers as one native fighter who defeated the