The Loose Cannon – Susan the Apache, Part 1
I’ve been writing the Loose Cannon column for almost two years now. Many of you have already read some of my past columns. My hunch is that my most read and enjoyed columns were and are those about Yountville’s nefarious past. For the coming weeks, I had planned to republish those columns. They were definitely fun columns to write and read!
But for historical purposes, I take more pride in my columns on Susan the Apache (Parts 1 and 2) and The Klansman Buried in Yountville.
Susan the Apache Part 1, republished here, will leave you asking questions.
Next time, Susan the Apache Part 2 will answer lots of those questions and leave you asking new questions. But for Part 2, I worked closely with Yountville Cemetery Historian Denise Ratterman Jackson, and we were able to put the pieces together for a much more accurate picture of the life of Susan the Apache.
I was very moved when researching Susan’s story and its significance in American history. Not only did I feel it was a story worth telling, I felt it was a story we owed to Susan to be told.
Susan the Apache Part 1 (originally published in the Yountville Sun, Dec. 21, 2023)
I spend a lot of time researching topics for this column. During these searches, I happen upon interesting stories unrelated to the topics I am researching. As I was browsing through the archives of the Napa Valley Register, my attention was drawn to a poor quality picture of a headstone with a caption in the March 30, 1963 edition. The only words I could make out from the picture were “Susan” and “Apache.” But it was the caption that drew me in:
“Who adopted the Indian girl who lies buried under this simple, weathered headstone in the old Yountville Cemetery? To adopt and ‘redeem’ an Indian child in an era when the redmen were considered subhuman savages was probably unusual.”
I was hooked. I wanted to know more about Susan. I entered “Yountville Cemetery Susan” on a search engine. I am amazed daily by the information so readily available on the internet.
The first link offered was for Susan C. “Sue” Willson Cole on the Find a Grave website. She was a 62-year resident of Yountville who worked for the town of Yountville for 32 years before retiring in 2005.
I stayed on that site and did a search with the only information I had: First name “Susan” and cemetery location “Yountville – Napa County.” Not much to go on. BUT, the search returned three Susans. The last Susan was “Susan Unknown – birth and death dates unknown.” Bingo! I had found Susan the Apache. The website included a clear picture of the headstone and the wording on the headstone:
“Susan
Our Adopted and Redeemed Apache,
From Arizona, Aged 16 Years.
I have found redemption through the precious merits of Christ.”
We don’t watch a lot of TV, but we did watch the Taylor Sheridan series 1923.
From the website screenrant.com:
Though the Dutton family storyline is certainly filled with violence, the so-called Indian Schools in 1923 make for the show’s most harrowing scenes, and all the more horrific as they are based in fact. These scenes depict the physical and emotional abuse inside a Catholic boarding school for Indigenous American youth in Montana.
So, I then went to the website Montana History Portal (mtmemory.org) for the following:
The essence of the Indian boarding school was cultural assimilation, boiled down in a phrase Pratt coined: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” To accomplish this, children were taken from their parents and often moved hundreds of miles from their home to live and attend school at a boarding school. Government funding enabled religious schools to function. Every essence of Native culture was stripped from these small children, and they lived difficult lives full of school, prayer, work, punishment and hunger.
We know lots about the Yountville VIPs buried in the cemetery, but almost nothing about Susan the Apache. So, what was Susan’s full story? What was her life like in Arizona? Under what conditions did she leave Arizona? And how did she end up being buried in the Yountville cemetery? What were her ties to the Bancroft family whose plot she is buried in? Why did she die at the young age of 16?
I was in over my head trying to put all the pieces together. So, once again, I reached out to Yountville Cemetery resident historian Denise Ratterman Jackson. In a future column, I will share what Denise found out about Susan the Apache. Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss it!
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