Alsate

Alsate, also known as Arzate, Arzatti, and Pedro Múzquiz, (ca. 1820 – 1881/1882) was the last chief of the Chisos band of Limpia Mescalero Apaches.

He was the son of Josè Miguel Maria del Refugio Sabas Muzquiz Gonzalez, who was captured by the Mescalero as a boy at what is now Melchor Múzquiz in Coahuila, Mexico, and raised among them, and his Indian wife. When he came of age and proved himself, Alsate became the leader of a Mescalero band. They ranged through the Limpia Mountains (later rebaptized Davis Mountains by Anglo-American newcomers), Chisos Mountains and Chinati Mountains in the Big Bend area of Texas, the Sierra del Carmen of Coahuila and the Sierra Alamos in Chihuahua north of the Bolsón de Mapimí. Victorio's breakout from San Carlos Reservation in September 1877 alarmed the troops in the whole Apache territory, and, in November–December 1877, Alsate's warriors clashed twice with 8th Cavalry. On November 30, companies A and K, respectively led by Capt. A.B. Wells with Lt. F.E. Phelps, and by Capt. S.B. Young with Lt. John L. Bullis, trespassed the Rio Grande border running after Alsate's band in the Sierra Madre del Carmen, Mexico. They killed or wounding some Apaches, destroyed the camp and captured some horses, donkeys and mules. On December 4, Capt. Young, with troop K, and Lt. Bullis, with a detachment of Black Seminole scouts, after chasing the Chisos for several weeks, attacked the Apache group led by Alsate and his sub-chiefs Zorrillo (Chisos Limpia Mescaleros) and Colorado (probably the chief of a smaller Lipan band joint to the Chisos Mescaleros, and likely to be identified with Avispa Colorada, connected to Alsate e Carnoviste in 1874). Alsate led his people to Chihuahua.

Alsate felt himself safe in his stronghold near San Carlos of Chihuahua, but, in 1878, complaints to the Mexican authorities about the band's raids on farms and traders brought President Porfirio Díaz to order Alsate's arrest. Colonel José Garza Galán de Santa Rosa was dispatched with a force of a hundred men and surprised him and his followers at his farm near San Carlos de Chihuahua, and they were extradited to Mexico City to be jailed in la Acordada. Alsate's father was in the group and was freed after convincing his brother Manuel of his identity. Manuel Múzquiz wrote a note requesting clemency for Alsate, but could not release him; however, in December 1879 he and his followers were able to escape from the carts transporting them and vanish into the mountains.

Last standing and death The following year Colonel Ortiz of El Paseo del Norte lured them into a trap at San Carlos of Chihuahua by promising a peace treaty; they were set upon after eating and drinking heavily at a celebratory feast, and while those few who were able to fight were killed, the rest were sold into slavery. Alsate and his war chiefs Colorado and Zorillo were executed at Ojinaga.