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Victorio ( Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and tribal chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central in what is now the United States states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mexico 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.
Victorio grew up in the Chihenne 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".
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.
Within a few months, Victorio led an impressive series of other fights against troops of the 9th, 10th, and 6th U.S. Cavalry near the Percha River (Rio Puerco) (January 1, 1880), in the San Mateos Mountains (January 17, 1880) and the Cabello Mountains near the Animas Creek (January 30, 1880), and again near Aleman's Wells, San Andres Mountains west of White Sands, (February 2, 1880), then again in the San Andres Mountains (perhaps near Victorio Peak) routing the cavalrymen and chasing them to the Rio Grande (February 9, 1880), then (April 4, 1880) at Hembrillo Canyon, San Andres Mountains. In April 1880, Victorio was credited with leading the Alma Massacre – a raid on United States settlers' homes around Alma, New Mexico. During this event, 41 settlers were killed. Victorio's warriors were finally driven off by the arrival of American soldiers from Fort Bayard. However, Victorio continued his campaign with the attack on Fort Tularosa, where his warriors had to face a detachment (K troop) of the 9th Cavalry and were repulsed by the "Buffalo Soldiers" after a harsh fight.(nd) Alma Massacre . Retrieved 6/11/07. Victorio's camp near the Rio Palomas, in the Black Range, was surprised and attacked on May 23–25, 1880, but the Mimbreños and Mescaleros succeeded in repulsing the soldiers. After the Rio Palomas battle, Victorio went on some raids to Mexico repeatedly fording the Rio Grande, after having been intercepted and beaten off, with a 60 warriors' party, at Quitman Canyon (July 30, 1880). Chased by more than 4,000 armed men (9th, 10th, 6th U.S. Cavalry, 15th U.S. Infantry, Texas Rangers), Victorio evaded all of them for more than a month. On August 9, 1880, Victorio and his band attacked a stagecoach and mortally wounded retired Major General James J. Byrne.
An 1886 appendix for Papers Relating to the Foreign Nations of the United States states that, contemporaneously, the Tarahumara Scout credited with killing Victorio in 1880 was Mauricio Corredor. The Apache version states that Victorio actually committed suicide with a knife rather than face capture, and historians such as Kathleen Chamberlain note that the Mexicans at the battle could not identify which body was Victorio's.
In the Philippe Morvan's novel, Ours, published in 2018 by Calmann-Lévy, Victorio is an important character of the plot. Un Ours à plume(s), Stéphanie Buttard, Le Quotidien de la Réunion
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