Joseph E Tietjen

BLUEWATER - "I can remember when they captured old Geronimo." Mrs. Maud S. Tietjen said as we sat together in the living room of her adobe home in Bluewater. Her eyes brightened with memories of early childhood in the Apache country of the Southwest as she continued: "It was at Pine Top, Ariz., or what was Arizona Territory in those days. United States troops were carrying him through to Holbrook, Ariz., where he would be sent by train to Oklahoma. "He was on what was called an ambulance, chained hand and foot and surrounded by 50 or 60 Negro guards. "The Army captain who was in command of the troops, asked the teacher in charge of a school nearby if the children would like to see the marauding Apache whose name struck terror in the heart of every white settler of the Southwest. "There were some 40 of us and child fashion, we surrounded the fallen chief and stared at him as only children can stare. "Geronimo stated back at us. He was a very intelligent Indian, and he knew we were only there out of curiosity. "Finally, when he could stand it no longer, he pulled himself up as far as his chains would allow and snarled at us like a wild animal." But as black as was Geronimo's reputation, there was one other Apache who out-did him in cruelty and savage warfare, Mrs. Tietjen said. That was the Apache Kit, who was half Indian and half Irish. "Even the Apaches were afraid of the Apache Kit," she said. Mrs. Tietjen's contact with hostile Indians came early in life. Born Maud Hunt in Payson, Utah, in October 1880, she moved with her family to Idaho where they lived until she was five. They moved again to Arizona Territory, then to Colorado and then to New Mexico. Mrs. Tietjen's father, Tom Hunt, was killed by Apaches when he and three men were trapped in a mine at Tucson. One man escaped and reported what had occurred. Later her mother married again and they came to Pine Top, 60 miles from Fort Apache. It was there when she was nine years old, that she had her first brush with the hostiles. She was out tending cows when she saw a large heard of cattle stampeding over the nearby hills. There was something in the way the cattle ran that didn't seem quite natural. It was as if they were being driven. Something made the child hide behind some bushes, and none too soon, for the cattle were being driven by an Apache raiding party that took along her cows. Later three cows that had calves found their way back. She married Joseph Tietjen in Gallup on July 4, 1898, and went to live in what is now Prewitt. Later they moved to her present home in Bluewater. Mrs. Tietjen had a small child when she had an experience with the Indians that rivals any hair-raising wester ever screened in Hollywood. Joe Tietjen had been deputized to take an Indian charged with murder to Santa Fe and hand him over to the law. He got as far as the railroad station in Chaves when, waiting for him at the Santa Fe depot were about 1500 Indians led by Old Biscente. Besides Tietjen and his wife, there were five white men, five white women and seven white children. Old Biscente backed the 19 whites up against the bunkhouse and told them if Tietjen attempted to board the train with his prisoner they would all be killed. Tietjen spoke to Old Biscente in his own language and told the Navajo chief that if he killed them, Uncle Sam would send Negro troops that would wipe out the Indians and their women and children. For some reason the Indians were more afraid of Negro troops than of the whites. Old Biscente refused to believe what the white man told him but finally he pointed to Mrs. Tietjen and said, "Send her to the depot and let her talk with Uncle Sam." Tietjen told his wife to do as Old Biscente ordered. "When I got to the depot I found the telegrapher hiding under a table," she recalls. "I told him to come out from under there and call Uncle Sam. What I really meant was to call Captain Wingate at Santa Fe, in charge of troops there, but I had to be careful as Old Biscente had sent an Indian boy along with me who spoke and understood English. "Mr. Hall, that was the telegraph operator's name, crawled out from where he was hiding and called 'Uncle Sam' in Santa Fe. "This was in 1903, and telephones were just being installed out here. It was a good thing the station had one." When Mrs. Tietjen was finally connected with Captain Wingate she told him the situation at Chaves. The Indian boy standing by heard the captain tell the frightened woman that Negro troops were already on the train en route at that very moment and that all the Indians would be killed if the whites died. The boy ran screaming with fear and told Old Biscente what he had overheard. As Mrs. Tietjen left the railroad station, the Indian chief picked her up on his horse and rode her through the howling Navajos and stood her upon a barrel. "Now," he ordered, "tell us what Uncle Sam said." She repeated Captain Wingate's message and the frightened Indian boy confirmed it. As quickly and as quietly as they had come, the Indians rode away. "I was so paralyzed with fear I couldn't get down off that barrel. Some of the other women had fainted and some of the men were crying. My husband came and took me down," she related. "He got his prisoner safely to Santa Fe." Mrs. Tietjen had six children, five of whom are living. They are: Mrs. Tom Elkins and Mrs. Ina E.kins of Grants; Volton Tietjen of Prewitt; Jeff Tietjen of Bluewater and Mrs. Gladys Berryhill of Ambrosia. By Fran Kelly, Journal Correspondent.from the Albuquerque Journal newspaper, 30 April 1956, page 18, column 1, top of page: