Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua.
In Victorio's War from September 1879 to October 1880, Victorio led a band of Apaches, never numbering more than 200 men, in a running battle with the U.S. and Mexican armies and the civilian population of New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico, fighting two dozen skirmishes and battles. He and most of his followers were killed or captured by the Mexican army in the Battle of Tres Castillos in October 1880. It was rumored among whites almost immediately that he faked his death and disappeared into the vast Mexican mountains of the Sierra Madre. Ironically enough, no body was ever recovered to verify his death and so the rumors persisted and there are actually some that claim to be direct descendants who were born in Mexico but moved back to New Mexico and identified as Mexicans on the US census which was technically true.
War leader and chief
Victorio grew up in the Cheyenne band. There is speculation that he or his band had Navajo kinship ties and was known among the Navajo as "he who checks his horse". Victorio's sister was the famous woman warrior Lozen, or the "Dextrous Horse Thief".
In 1853 he was considered a chief or sub-chief by the United States Army and signed a document. In his twenties, he rode with Mangas Coloradas, leader of the Coppermine band of the Tchihendeh people and principal leader of the whole Tchihendeh Apache division (who took him as his son-in-law), and Cuchillo Negro, leader of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh people and second principal leader of the whole Tchihendeh Apache division, as well as did Nana, Delgadito, Cochise, Juh, Geronimo and other Apache leaders. Mangas Coloradas taught Victorio how to create an ambush and to wait for enemies to enter the killing zone. As was the custom, he became the leader of a large mixed band of Mimbreños and Mescaleros (led by his friend – and probably brother-in-law as the husband of another daughter of Mangas Coloradas, as well the same Cochise – Caballero) and fought against the United States Army.
From 1870 to 1880, Victorio, chief of the Coppermine Mimbreños and principal leader of all the Tchihende, along with Loco, chief of the Warm Spring Mimbreños and second-ranking among the Tchihende, were moved to and left at least three different reservations, some more than once, despite their bands' request to live on traditional lands. Victorio, Loco, and the Mimbreños were moved to San Carlos Reservation in Arizona Territory in 1877. Victorio and his followers (including old Nana) left the reservation twice, seeking and temporarily obtaining hospitality in Fort Stanton Reservation among their Sierra Blanca and Sacramento Mescalero allies and relatives (Caballero was probably Victorio's brother-in-law and Mangus' uncle, San Juan was too an old friend and Nana's wife was a Mescalero woman), before they came back to Ojo Caliente only to leave permanently in late August 1879, which started Victorio's War. Despite Nautzili's efforts, many Northern Mescalero warriors, led by Caballero and Muchacho Negro, joined him with their families, and San Juan and other Mescaleros also left their reservation; many Guadalupe and Limpia Mescalero too (Carnoviste and Alsate were close allies to Victorio after 1874) joined Victorio's people. Victorio was successful at raiding and evading capture by the military and won a significant engagement at Las Animas Canyon in what is now the Aldo Leopold Wilderness on September 18, 1879.