The Fort Bayard Historic Preservation Society will celebrate the 153rd anniversary of the founding of the historic fort, with a special program on August 17. At 6:30 p.m., scholar Sherry Robinson will present her talk entitled “The Mystery Apaches”, in the New Deal Theater, on the grounds of Fort Bayard National Historic Landmark. The fort was established on August 21, 1866 by Company B, of the 125th Colored Infantry, marking the beginning of a history that has included involvement in the Apache Wars, serving as the Army’s first tuberculosis hospital, and being home to a massive hospital complex operated by the Veterans Administration and the State of New Mexico.

This year’s birthday celebration will feature Ms. Robinson as the keynote speaker. She is a long-time New Mexico journalist and author. Her book, "I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches", is the result of 12 years of research and describes Apaches living on the plains as well as their allies, the Lipans and Mescaleros. She is also the author of Apache Voices and El Malpais, Mt. Taylor and the Zuni Mountains. She’s given talks about the Apaches as a speaker for the New Mexico Humanities Council since 1999.

According to Ms. Robinson, Apaches were living along the Pecos and Canadian rivers long before the Spanish explorer Coronado entered the region in 1540. They've gotten little attention from historians, but they're every bit as interesting as Geronimo. Lipan Apaches, as well as groups of unnamed and unknown Apaches, continued to live in Eastern New Mexico and West Texas over hundreds of years. The Spaniards gave them various names, and American military officers, not knowing who they were, referred to them simply as "Apaches." When the Comanches drove other Apache groups from the buffalo plains, some held their ground for decades. Well into the 1800s the Pecos region was little known and unexplored. Even after the arrival of the U.S. Army, the Pecos provided refuge not only to the people who considered it their country but also to numbers of renegades, as the Army attempted to move tribes onto reservations. Who were these people? Several scholars have attempted to identify these shadowy groups. Sherry Robinson, in years of research on Eastern Apaches, will share her knowledge, which is based on the written record and Apache oral history.

Ms. Robinson’s appearance is made possible by the New Mexico Humanities Council, and the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico.

Admission to the program is free.  Donations to the FBHPS are welcome.  For more information, contact Dr. Doug Dinwiddie at 575-388-4862.