Pas-Lau-Tau

Pas-Lau-Tau (died March 1890), also known as "Pash-ten-tah" and "Bach-e-on-nal", was a 19th-century Apache army scout.

Background Pas-Lau-Tau's date and place of birth are unknown, though he was likely from the San Carlos Reservation.

It is unknown at what time Pas-Lau-Tau became associated with or enlisted in the United States Army.

Biography San Carlos firefight Pas-Lau-Tau was an comrade of Haskay-bay-nay-ntayl, an Apache scout in the US Army better known as the "Apache Kid" or simply "Kid". To exact revenge on the killer, he and some comrades deserted their posts for five days to track down and kill Gon-zizzie as well as his brother, Rip, who had murdered Kid's grandfather six months earlier.

Pas-Lau-Tau and the rest of Kid's group followed the San Pedro River until they were just barely north of the US-Mexico border, but abandoned their retreat and five of them surrendered to US forces on 22 June to be tried by court martial. All were convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad for mutiny and desertion, but this was reduced to ten years in prison by General Nelson A. Miles. They were transported to Fort Alcatraz where they served sixteen months before their sentences were remitted by Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott on 29 October 1888 due to the prejudices of the jury, the severity of the sentences, and the likelihood that it was Diaz who had instigated the conflict. Four of the five convicts - including Pas-Lau-Tau - were returned to San Carlos, where they were welcomed back by the 10th Cavalry Regiment band.

Kelvin Grade massacre Infuriated that Pas-Lau-Tau and the other convicts had been freed, friends of Al Sieber stoked outrage in the community and demanded they be tried by a civilian court.

Following their convictions, the four men were to be transported to Yuma aboard a stagecoach driven by Eugene Middleton and escorted by Sheriff Glenn Reynolds. Reynolds asked William A. "Hunkydory" Holmes to assist him on the trip, as his more regular deputy Tom Horn was in Phoenix for the weekend. Sieber asked that either he or a company of his scouts be allowed to accompany the procession but was refused by Reynolds, who was later said to have told Sieber: "I don't need your scouts, I can take those Indians alone with a corn-cob and a lightning bug".

After leaving Globe for Casa Grande on 1 November 1889, the stagecoach stopped overnight at Riverside Station in Kelvin before the final day of travel to the Casa Grande train station, where they would catch the 16:00 train to the prison. On the journey, Holmes read the prisoners some of his original poetry. Around dawn on 2 November, they reached a sandy ascent in the Tortilla Mountains known as the "Kelvin Grade". Seven passengers - including Pas-Lau-Tau, Avott, three other prisoners, and the two guards - were forced to disembark so that the wagon could overcome the hill, while two prisoners - including Kid - remained on board. The bronco Apache remained in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains for decades, raiding on both sides of the border and never surrendering. Pas-Lau-Tau and the other escapees were among those who joined the bronco Apache at this time.

Death As the group of outlaws continued to raid the countryside, an army detachment led by Lieutenant James Waterman Watson and a number of Apache scouts tracked Pas-Lau-Tau and the others to a camp on the Salt River. Pas-Lau-Tau died as a result of his injuries sometime after the fighting ended.

Josh, one of the Apache scouts instrumental in tracking down the outlaws, decapitated Pas-Lau-Tau and exhibited his head on a spike at the San Carlos Reservation. The Apache Kid was present at the firefight, but escaped; sightings of him would continue until 1899, and he was never captured.

Contemporary accounts suggest that Captain Carter Johnson also took credit for killing Pas-Lau-Tau, alleging that he did so in a July 1890 battle against five Apache soldiers, including Say-es, "some thirty-five miles northeast of San Carlos near Gila Peak and Ash Creek"; later versions of this story suggest it was another Kelvin Grade escapee, El-cahn, who was killed. 20th-century historian Jess G. Hayes suggested the date of the Gila River battle actually occurred in May 1890.