Kas-tziden ("Broken Foot") or Haškɛnadɨltla ("Angry, He is Agitated"), more widely known by his Mexican-Spanish appellation Nana ("grandma" or "lullaby") (c. 1810 – May 19, 1896), was a

warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...

and chief of the Chihenne band (better known as ''Warm Springs Apache'') of the

Chiricahua Chiricahua ( ) is a band of Apache Native Americans. Based in the Southern Plains and Southwestern United States, the Chiricahua historically shared a common area, language, customs, and intertwined family relations with their fellow Apaches. ...

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

. A trusted lieutenant to Cuchillo Negro and

Mangas Coloradas Mangas Coloradas or Mangus-Colorado (La-choy Ko-kun-noste, alias "Red Sleeves"), or Dasoda-hae (c. 1793 – January 18, 1863) was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Mimbreño (Tchihende) division of the Central Apaches, whose homela ...

, in the 1850s and 1860s he was one of the best known leaders of the Chihenne (Tchiende), along with Tudeevia (''Dudeevia'', better known as ''Delgadito'' - "Little Thin", "Skinny"), Ponce and Loco ("crazy", "mad"). He was a nephew of Delgadito, and married a sister of

Geronimo Gerónimo (, ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands the Tchihen ...

Description

Captain John Gregory Bourke described Nana as having "a strong face marked with intelligence, courage and good nature, but with an under stratum of cruelty and vindictiveness".

Charles Fletcher Lummis Charles Fletcher Lummis (March 1, 1859 – November 25, 1928) was an American journalist, civil rights activist, preservationist, poet and librarian who promoted Native American rights and historic preservation. He founded the Southwest Museum ...

claimed that Nana wore gold watch chains in each ear lobe, presumably taken from dead victims.

Early Fights

He fought alongside

and his mixed Tchihende- Bedonkohe band until Mangas Coloradas was killed while in the custody of the

California Column The California Column was a force of Union volunteers sent to Arizona and New Mexico during the American Civil War. The command marched over from California through Arizona and New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and as far east as El Paso, ...

in January 1863. In

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

he undertook many joint raids with the Nednhi of

Juh Juh (c. 1825 – Sept/Oct 1883) was a warrior and leader of the Janeros local group of the Ndéndai (or Nednhi) band of the Chiricahua Apache. Prior to the 1870s, Juh was unknown in the areas controlled by the United States. He went to war to ...

and Natiza against the Mexicans. After Ponce, Cuchillo Negro and Delgadito were killed too,

Victorio Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas ...

took over the Tchihende leadership, joined by the leaderless Bedonkohe (Taklishim, old Mahko's son, had not been able to save his father's leadership in front of his competitors Mano Mocha and Luis). Nana, although at least 20 years older than Victorio, married the latter's elder sister, 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 Mescalero or Mescalero Apache () is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the M ...

under their old chief Caballero. Victorio and Nana therefore had about 200 warriors. During the

Apache Wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the Southwestern United States, southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as l ...

and especially

Victorio's War Victorios War, or the Victorio Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879. Faced with arrest and forcible relocation from his homeland in New Mexic ...

Nana raided areas of Texas and Mexico with

. While Nana and a small group was away on a scouting mission, Victorio and his band were surrounded and killed by soldiers of the Mexican Army under Joaquin Terrazas at the

Battle of Tres Castillos The Battle of Tres Castillos, October 14–15, 1880, in Chihuahua State, Mexico resulted in the death of the Chiricahua Apache chieftain Victorio and the death or capture of most of his followers. The battle ended Victorio's War, a 14-month long ...

in October 1880. 68 women and children were captured by the Mexicans and sold as slaves in Mexico.

Nana's Raids

After Victorio's death, Nana and his followers hid in the Sierra Madre. 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 Tchihende, Bedonkohe, Tsokanende and Nednhi bands beside the already established Apache band 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 Tsokanende, 12 Mescalero warriors and a couple of Navajo, plus women and children, began raiding Army supply trains and isolated settlers. In less than a month Nana fought seven or eight battles stretching over the course of 1,000 miles and killed 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 and his small force, evaded more than 1,000 soldiers, 300-400 civilian militia volunteers and Apache and Navajo Indian Scouts.Nana's Raid — Apaches in Socorro County

Nana's Death

Nana survived the Apache Wars. Upon surrender in March 1886 he, other Apache warriors and

Apache Scouts The Apache Scouts were part of the United States Army Indian Scouts. Most of their service was during the Apache Wars, between 1849 and 1886, though the last scout retired in 1947. The Apache scouts were the eyes and ears of the United States mil ...

were sent as prisoners of war to Florida and Alabama. In 1894, they were relocated to

Fort Sill Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (137 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost . The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark a ...

in the Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. Nana died of natural causes in 1896.

Legacy

Nana has a special reputation among Apache war chiefs. He was still an active warrior well into his eighties. He had tenacity, stamina, courage and an uncanny ability to improvise in a fight to minimize his losses. He showed no mercy in battle, yet could be considerate when dealing with civilians. When Nana was executing guerrilla tactics in the 1880s, he was half blind, crooked from arthritis, but once he sat in the saddle, he rode "like the devil."

References

Bibliography

*''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 Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

Nana in photograph of the Council between General Crook and Geronimo
from the U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Warm Springs Apache Leader Nana: The 80-Year-Old Warrior Turned the Tables
at the Weider History Group's historynet.com
Tracking Nana - Nana’s raid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nana 1896 deaths Chiricahua people Native American leaders Year of birth uncertain Native Americans imprisoned at Fort Marion