Mickey Free

Mickey Free
Free (date unknown)
Born	1848 (1848) or 1851 (1851) Mexico
Died	1914 Navaho County Arizona
Other names	Felix Telles, Felix Ward
Occupation	US Army Indian scout

Mickey Free (b. 1847/1848; d. 1914), birth name Felix Telles, was an Apache Indian scout and bounty hunter on the American frontier. Following his kidnapping by Apaches as a child, he was raised as one and became a warrior. Later he joined the US Army's Apache scouts, serving at Fort Verde between December 1874 and May 1878 and was given the nickname, Mickey Free.

Telles' mother was Jesusa Martinez, a Mexican woman. His father was Santiago Telles. The two met and fell in love but Telles refused to marry Jesusa. His given name at birth was Felix. In 1858, Jesusa and her two children, Felix and his sister Teodora, met and moved in with John Ward, an Irishman who had migrated to the Arizona Territory and started a ranch. The August 26, 1860 United States Census for the Sonoita Creek settlement in the Arizona Territory indicates that Felix Ward was 12 years old, his sister Teodora was 10, and his sister Mary was 5 months. Jesusa Martinez was listed as 30 years old and John Ward as 54 years old. A half-brother, Santiago Ward, later claimed his birth as July 25, 1860, but this contradicts the census record. John Ward and Jesusa had five children before his death in 1867.

Felix was abducted at age 12 on January 27, 1861, by a Pinal Apache raiding party. He was later traded to the Coyotero Apache, who are also known as White Mountain Apaches. The kidnapping had lasting implications for relations between the Apache and the United States. John Ward was away from his home on Sonoita Creek on business. Returning home, he learned from neighbors that his cattle and step-son had been taken by Apaches.

He went immediately to Lieutenant Colonel Pitcairn Morrison at Fort Buchanan and believing that his stepson had been taken by Chiricahua Apaches, insisted on military intervention. Second Lieutenant George Nicholas Bascom, acting on orders set out on January 28 to find the trail. In the morning he could not locate it. In the afternoon, he located a trail leading east toward Chiricahua country and Apache Pass.

Bascom, commander of Company C, 7th Infantry, knew from experience that only Chiricahua would go east. What he did not realize was that the opening of Fort Breckinridge on Aravaipa Creek and the San Pedro River in the Pinal homeland was forcing all raiders to go east. The events which followed became known as the Bascom Affair and triggered the Chiricahua Wars.