[This Letter to the Editor of Frontier Times Magazine is found in this issue]

Mr. Martin Christensen, of Apache, Oklahoma, is a regular reader of Frontier Times, and, like other readers, he finds much interesting historical material in it. In a recent letter to the editor, Mr. Christensen says:

I received my copy of Frontier Times Friday, and I am very glad that you have resumed publication of your very interesting magazine. I have missed it in my reading. There was an article in the October, 1942, issue, 'The Last Apache Tribe in Mexico,' taken from the El Paso Times, which excited my curiosity, especially that portion relating to the slaying of Judge McComas and his family. In May of 1941, two friends of mine, Roy Stuemley and Sam Haozons, and myself made a trip to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. Sam is a Warm Springs Apache, about 76 years of age. He was with Geronimo at the time of his surrender and afterward during his imprisonment in Florida, Alabama, and at Fort Sill. After Geronimo's death, Sam, with several others of the tribe was allotted land near Apache (Oklahoma). When we reached the San Carlos country, where Sam had lived as a boy, he told us many stories of their life in that country. One of the stories was of a Judge, his wife, daughter and son, who were traveling through the country when met by a band of Apaches. The Indians stopped the party and the Judge at once began to fire with the result that he and his wife were then killed and the daughter later killed in a horrible manner. The boy was taken along with the band with the intention of raising him up with the tribe. Some time after that a group of Indian women and children, of which Sam was one, was traveling near the Arizona-Mexico border. They came to a small hill, a pile of rocks, as he describes it, and there thrown in between the rocks and beaten terribly was this boy. He was delirious and calling for water, and Sam wished to give him water, but Sam's mother forbade him for fear that the tribe would become angry with them, and they passed on, leaving the boy to die. Afterward several attempts ware made by white people to learn what had become of the boy. Inquiry was made of some of the Indians who had taken part in the fight, but they, fearing punishment, denied all knowledge of the affair. All these Indians hav e now passed away, and Sam believes he is the last living Indian who saw the boy alive, and if there is now anyone interested in the matter he is willing to talk to them. He gave me permission to write to you to that effect."