Trejo's Walking Tours

05/02/2026

The Second Battle of Tucson
May 1, 1782, the Tucson Presidio, not fully built and poorly staffed, was attacked at about 10:00am by an estimated three to five hundred Apache. With no gate, a log palisade and a small adobe wall for protection, field tents and a handful of adobe buildings comprising the site, the reported garrison of 20 soldiers fought for 2 and a half hours to defend the makeshift fort.
The Apache meanwhile split their forces and chose to also attack the O’odham pueblito and mission site on the other side of the river at the base of sentinel peak. There, a Spanish soldier and O’odham residents were able to successfully repel the attack.
Miraculously, after suffering several arrow wounds to the leg, Captain Allande y Saavedra was able to access a platform, with the help of another soldier and end the siege by firing one of the cannons.
Although the exact number of Apache casualties is unknown, it is estimated that 8 died and many more were wounded. At least 3 Spanish soldiers were wounded with one succumbing to his injuries.
The incident, by all logic, should have defeated the Spanish colony. Training, tactics, and technology somehow saved the residents of the settlement and prompted the long-delayed completion of the full presidio structure by the next year.

05/02/2026

04/30/2026

April 30, 1871 - After a nearly 2 day journey from Tucson, just before dawn, a group of close to 150 private Tucson area residents (not military), executed a planned attack on a sleeping ranchería of Pinal and Arivaipa N’de (Apache) near Camp Grant, Arizona. The N’de group had voluntarily surrendered to the US and were under the protection of the US Army.
Accounts vary but between 110 and 150 people, almost all women and children, were murdered. They were stripped of clothing, rapes were reported, bodies mutilated and a total of close to 30 children were abducted by the Tucson group.
Eskiminzin, leader of the was one of the few to escape but lost two wives and five daughters. He spent years trying to get the abducted children returned to his people. Most had been sold off and some had been “gifted” to local families. In the end, only about 8 of the children were returned.
No one was ever held responsible although a farcical trial was held in Tucson to avoid federal intervention.
People like Atanascia Hughes, William Oury, Juan Elias and so many others, defended the massacre for the rest of their lives. One participant claimed they all signed oaths of secrecy.
One of the darkest events in Tucson’s history, it should never be forgotten. Collective vilification of people, mass-hysteria, and cycles of violence fueled by propaganda are all still very relevant issues.
The massacre and our collective memory of it in the “popular narrative” not only exemplifies the systematic erasure of the N’de (Apache) in Southern Arizona and Tucson history but it also underscores how “perspective bias” can move us further away from understanding the people and events that make history.

04/29/2026

Santa Cruz River Research Days
Good stuff.
I feel smarter.
I’m really not…but I feel like I am.