January 21
How could I have known? We have had a day of snow and more tonight. I am glad to have not clipped my horses' winter fur.

Today is the start of the Red Paint Pow Wow here in Silver City. The timing of this was perfect, as we could see before I left home. My wife Pam has joined me here for the week.

We just sampled the Pow Wow this afternoon, looking over the numerous vendors of jewelry. Tonight there is a special event of singing and dancing by Yaquis, Chiracahua Apache, Navajo and San Carlos Apache. Other tribes, some from great distance, will perform over the weekend.

I found it notable that the program asked for respect for the US flag. The official policy is a patriotic attitude towards the US. My own read imagining the position of the Chiracahuas, is that they have nothing to prove, and complaints about the government and history are too small a response for a history of misdeeds on the part of white folks, and the government. These are not people for trifles.

Silver City gives a strong clue in its name. This is a mining area even to the present. Copper is the product now, but some traces of gold and silver show up in the mining. The town was founded in 1870. Here is some history from Wikipedia:
The founding of the town occurred shortly after the discovery of silver ore deposits at Chloride Flats, on the hill just west of the farm of Captain John M. Bullard and his brother James. Following the silver strike, Captain Bullard laid out the streets of the Silver City, and a bustling tent city quickly sprang to life. Although the trajectory of Silver City's development was to be different from the hundreds of other mining boom towns established during the same period, Captain Bullard himself never lived to see even the beginnings of permanence, as he was killed in a confrontation with Apache raiders less than a year later, on February 23, 1871.

The town's violent crime rate was substantial during the 1870s, Grant County Sheriff Harvey Whitehill was elected in 1874, and gained a sizable reputation for his abilities at controlling trouble. In 1875, Whitehill became the first lawman to arrest Billy the Kid, known at the time as William Bonney. Whitehill arrested him twice, both times for theft in Silver City, and would later claim that Bonney was a likeable kid, whose stealing was a result more of necessity than criminality.

Me again: This was a town in the midst of Apache territory. In the 1870's and 80's, all in this town would be familiar with death by Apache. Of course, the history of the town indicates that the miners and townspeople were pretty good at killing each other, too.