TREATY OF SANTA FE, Chiricahua Apache Nation and the United States of America (1 July 1852, ratified March 1853)

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By the 1840s, the American people, armed with a sense of entitlement and an ideological commitment to the principle of Manifest Destiny, were encroaching into lands over which the Chiricahua Apache Nation had stewardship responsibilities.  Miners and settlers, encouraged by the U.S. government, caused unprecedented conflict with the Chiricahua Apache Nation.  By the late 1840s, the Chiricahua Apache Nation was fighting a war against the U.S. to stop territorial expansion miners into Chiricahua lands and aggressive wars against the Chiricahua people.  Skilled Chiricahua warriors, with extensive knowledge of the battlefield and superior tactics, could not be defeated militarily by the U.S., but nor could the Chiricahua Apache Nation match the resources and numbers of the U.S. Army.

In 1852, in the spirit of mutual recognition, the Chiricahua Apache Nation and the U.S. negotiated a way to live alongside each other peacefully.  The Treaty of Santa Fe, entered into by the Chiricahua Apache Nation and the United States of America on 1 July 1852, is a solemn treaty still in force as the law of the United States, the law of the Chiricahua Apache Nation, and the law of the international legal system.  The express purposes of the Treaty of Santa Fe are to accord mutual recognition of the sovereignty of both parties, terminate the state of war between parties, and establish peace, commerce, and friendship between the Chiricahua Apache Nation and the U.S.

By negotiating and entering into the Treaty of Santa Fe, the Chiricahua Apache Nation and the U.S. reciprocally recognized that the other party met the four required criteria for recognition as a state/nation under international law:  (1) the existence of a defined people that (2) live within a defined territory with a (3) government that exercises authority over its territory and its people while (4) engaging in relations with other states/nations.  

Furthermore, in the spirit of peace and friendship, the Chiricahua Apache Nation and the U.S. pledged to take measures to perpetuate their mutual desire for peace and harmony, including by preventing the citizens of one nation from attacking those of the other and by defining and punishing offenses against the peace. 

The Treaty of Santa Fe did not expressly delineate the territory of the Chiricahua Apache Nation as the parties did not see it necessary to do so.  The absence of definitive boundaries, however, coupled with U.S. violations of the Treaty occasioned by repeated refusal of the United States to enforce its own laws against trespass within Chiricahua lands and to punish crimes against Chiricahua people, led to a war between the parties.  After a decade of vicious warfare, the parties met in 1872 at Council Rock in Arizona to resolve differences and further elaborate the meaning of the Treaty of Santa Fe.

The parties, represented by Cochise and General Oliver Howard, in what came to be known as the “Cochise-Howard Agreement,” negotiated a peace that recommitted them to abiding by the terms of the Treaty of Santa Fe but also clearly delineated a “Chiricahua Reservation” in Arizona. Other reservations had been established in New Mexico.  In exchange for accepting peace with the U.S. and agreeing to cede much of Chiricahua ancestral lands, Cochise secured U.S. recognition of, and a commitment to defend and protect against unauthorized use or entry of any third parties, a large area of land that includes much of southeastern as sovereign Chiricahua territory.  The U.S. further committed to punish crimes against the Chiricahua Apache Nation and to otherwise redress violations of Chiricahua reserved rights.

The Cochise-Howard Agreement is best understood as a further elucidation, clarification, and codification of the principles and articles of the Treaty of Santa Fe, but it is not itself a treaty because Congress, in 1871, the year prior to the Agreement, passed a statute removing the power of the President to enter into treaties with Native nations and lodging that power solely with Congress.

Rregrettably, the U.S. neither kept its promises under the Treaty of Santa Fe nor under the Cochise-Howard Agreement.  In fact, the U.S. withdrew its promised protection, leaving a vacuum for illegal, criminal, and destructive encroachment by invading miners, ranchers, settlers, swindlers, and profiteers from both the private and public sector.  Moreover, the U.S. never provided justice, compensation, or reparations as promised.

Despite a century of subsequent practice in which the U.S. inflicted internment as prisoners of war, captivity on diminished reservations, forcible relocations, and genocide on the Chiricahua Apache Nation, the U.S. remains bound to its obligations to fulfill the terms of the Treaty and the Agreement, both of which have never been abrogated by Congress. In short, the Treaty of Santa Fe, and all subsequent agreements made in furtherance of the Treaty, remain in force as the law of the United States, and the U.S. government, despite nearly 140 years of noncompliance with the Treaty, remains legally bound and responsible under U.S. and international law. No purported cession or sale of Chiricahua land, nor surrender of rights nor settlement of claims by any individuals or groups over such land, is of any legal force or effect.

Accordingly, the sovereign Chiricahua Apache Nation retains the authority as well as the stewardship obligation to defend and protect the lands, waters, air, plants, animals, and the spirits of Nde benah.  We continue to honor the freedom of all beings respectfully to live with us on Nde benah, but also to protect the sanctity of sacred ceremonial sites within our unceded lands. 

For reasons of politics and economics, the U.S. has failed to fulfill its treaty obligations to t he Chiricahua Apache Nation. We hope to work with all parties to help the U.S. live up to the entirety of its commitment under the Treaty of Santa Fe, the Cochise-Howard Agreement, and applicable principles of domestic and international law.

Shii-kayo.

[Link to the Articles of The Treaty of 1852]
[Link to the US Government Executive Orders Act of Congress Relating to Indian Reserves, 1855 to 1902] [Link to the Articles of The Treaty of 1852]

[1] For the Chiricahua Apache Nation f/k/a “The Apache Nation” Cuentas Azules, Blancito, Negrito, Capitan Simon, Capitan Vuelta, and Mangus Colorado, chiefa; for the U.S. Army, Col. E. V. Sumner, 9th Department (commanding) and Executive Office of New Mexico; for the U.S., John Greiner, Indian agent in and for the Territory of New Mexico, and acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs of New Mexico.