Cochise

Cochise was a leading chief of the Chiricahua Apache whose resistance shaped conflict in Arizona and New Mexico during the 1860s. The Bascom Affair of 1861, in which he was wrongly accused of kidnapping, helped trigger years of warfare. In 1872 he negotiated a peace with General Oliver O. Howard that established a reservation in the Chiricahua homeland.

Lucia St. Clair Robson’s Ghost Warrior places Cochise within the Apache world surrounding Lozen, Victorio and Geronimo. Historical fiction frequently portrays him as a formidable war leader but also as a negotiator responding to broken agreements, military intrusion and attacks on Apache communities. His career is especially useful for showing how individual incidents could widen into long frontier wars.