Battle of Bear Valley

Part of the Yaqui Wars, American Indian Wars

10th Cavalry soldiers holding Yaqui prisoners at their camp in Bear Valley, January 9, 1918.

Date	January 9, 1918
Location	Bear Valley, Arizona
Result	United States victory, successful Yaqui delaying action.

Belligerents

United States

Yaqui

Commanders and leaders

Frederick H.L. Ryder

unknown

Strength

~30 cavalry

~30 warriors

Casualties and losses

none

1 killed
9 captured

The Battle of Bear Valley was a small engagement fought in 1918 between a band of Yaquis and a detachment of United States Army soldiers. On January 9, 1918, elements of the American 10th Cavalry Regiment detected about thirty armed Yaquis in Bear Valley, Arizona, a large area that was commonly used as a passage across the international border with Mexico. A short firefight ensued, which resulted in the death of the Yaqui commander and the capture of nine others. Though the conflict was merely a skirmish, it was the last time the United States Army engaged hostile Native Americans in combat and thus has been seen as one of the final battles of the American Indian Wars.

By 1918 the Yaqui people had been at war with Mexico for several years, the former hoping to establish an independent state in Sonora, centered on the Rio Yaqui and its confluence with the Gulf of California. Many Yaquis were driven north by the war and some crossed the Arizona border to work in Tucson's citrus groves. After receiving pay, the Yaquis would spend their money on weapons and ammunition and then return to Mexico to continue fighting. The fact that Yaquis were buying arms in Arizona and smuggling them across the border became so well known that the military governor of Sonora, General Plutarco Elías Calles, informally requested help from the United States government in dealing with the problem. Furthermore, Arizona ranchers began reporting in larger numbers their encounters with armed Yaquis on their ranch land or the finding of butchered livestock on the range. Since the United States Border Patrol did not yet exist, the task of protecting the border was that of the army, which operated out of Fort Huachuca. The Nogales, Arizona subdistrict commander, Colonel J.C. Friers, 35th Infantry, responded to the reports by issuing orders to increase patrolling in the area. American forces in the area included the 35th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Camp Stephen D. Little in Nogales, and the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, who were spread out to protect the various towns near the international border. A squadron size force from the 10th Cavalry was encamped about a half mile from the 35th Infantry at Nogales and a second squadron split up to occupy Lochiel and Campini. Smaller posts were also established at Arivaca and Oro Blanco and, finally, a troop of about thirty men maintained a camp at Atascosa Canyon, a "strategic natural crossing" within Bear Valley.

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