This for a very long time has been the home of my people; they came from the darkness, few in numbers and feeble. We were a hunt
ing people, living on the animals that we could kill. We came to these mountains about us; no one lived here, and so we took them for our home and country. Here we grew from the first feeble band to be a great people, and covered the whole country as the clouds cover the mountains. Many people came to our country. First the Spanish, with their horses and their iron shirts, their long knives and guns, great wonders to my simple people. We fought some, but they never tried to drive us from our homes in these mountains. After many years the Spanish soldiers were driven away and the Mexican ruled the land. With these little wars came, but we were now a strong people and we did not fear them.
At last in my youth came the white man, your people. Under the counsels of my grandfather, who had for a very long time been the head of the Apaches, they were received with friendship. Soon their numbers increased and many passed through my country to the great waters of the setting sun. Your soldiers came and their strong houses were all through my country. I received favors from your people and did all that I could in return and we lived at peace.
At last your soldiers did me a very great wrong, and I and my whole people went to war with them. At first we were successful and your soldiers were driven to the mountain hiding places; but these did not protect us, and soon my people were flying from one mountain to another, driven by the soldiers, even as the wind is now driving the clouds. I have fought long and as best I could against you. I have destroyed many of your people, but where an Indian has been killed, there has been none to come in his place, so that the great people that welcomed you with acts of kindness to this land are now but a feeble band that fly before your soldiers as the deer before the hunter, and must all perish if this war continues. I have come to you, not from any love for you or for your great father in Washington, or from any regard for his or your wishes, but as a conquered chief, to try to save alive the few people that still remain to me. I am the last of my family, a family that for very many years have been the leaders of this people, and on me depends their future, whether they shall utterly vanish from the land or that a small remnant remain for a few years to see the sun rise over these mountains, their home.
from "I am alone" by Cochise
1. This passage is a retelling of a speech made by Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache leader. Cochise is sad because
the Spanish soldiers refuse to trade goods with the Apaches.
his people are being driven off their land by the white settlers.
he is going to miss the many settlers who have welcomed him.
the Mexican people are terrorizing his family and friends.
