Michael Steck (Indian agent)

Michael Steck (1818–1880) was a physician, Indian Agent (1852–1863), and Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1863–1865) in New Mexico Territory.[1]

Steck was the eldest son born to John and Elizabeth Steck, in Hughesville, Pennsylvania in October 8, 1818.[2][3] He graduated in 1842, from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. For a time he practiced medicine in Mifflinville, Pennsylvania where he met and married his first wife, Roseanna Harvey. He came to New Mexico in 1849, as a contract physician for the U. S. Army, paid $1,554, with his wife who suffered from tuberculosis. [4]

Steck became a temporary Indian Agent, for the Southern Apache (Chiricahua), at Fort Webster in 1853.[5] In 1854 his position became permanent, his work winning the trust of the Apache leaders, and working with the military forces in the area to keep the peace, brought with it the support of several military officers in the Territory, who wrote a recommendation to the president, citing his "...knowledge of the country, and the Indians, their language and habits." With the appointment the location of his agency was moved from the dilapidated Fort Webster to the new Fort Thorn where it would remain until 1859.[6]

In 1859, Steck proposed a reservation for the Chiricahua in the vicinity of Santa Lucia Springs in the upper Gila River. By 1860, the reservation had been approved but with the coming of the American Civil War and after the attacks on the Apache leader Mangus Coloradas by miners from Pinos Altos and the killing of Cochise's family members by the U. S. Army in the Bascom Affair in 1861 set off the Apache Wars, dooming the proposed reservation and Steck's hopes for a peace with the Apache.

Following the repulse of the Confederate invasion of New Mexico, Steck was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs in New Mexico Territory by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Steck, an initial supporter of General Carleton’s plan to defeat the Navajo to make New Mexico safe and to civilize, Christianize both the Navajos and the Mescalero Apaches by transforming them into sedentary farmers. John A. Clark, Surveyor General of New Mexico wrote to Steck in October 1863, there were only 4000 acres of arable land in the Bosque Redondo reserve. Later increased to 6000 acres, it was still far less than what would be needed to feed 9,000 Navajo and the Mescalero Apaches. When he realized the general had misjudged both the large size of the Navajo population (over 9000 captives) and the poor agricultural potential of the land near Fort Sumner, Steck opposed Carlton's plans. Steck argued that the Navajos should have a reservation in their own homeland and that it was impractical to resettle them in Apache territory on such inadequate lands. However, he was ignored by Carlton with disastrous results for the Navajo.[7]

In 1863, Steck's one-year-old son born in July 1862, died August 1862, in Santa Fe and was soon followed by his wife October 3, 1864. He subsequently married Elizabeth Wood and they had 3 children.[2] Following his resignation from the Superintendency in 1865, he became involved with the New Mexico Mining Company from 1865 to 1880, and upon his return to Pennsylvania, with the Muncy Creek Railroad from 1873 to 1877.[1] He purchased land in Winchester, Virginia in 1880 and died on October 4, 1881 in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia of a cerebral hemorrhage while fishing.[2][3]

References
  1. "UNM CSWR Michael Steck Papers". New Mexico Digital Collections. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  2. "Michael Steck 1856–1857". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  3. Meginness, John Franklin (1996). History of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania: Including Its Aboriginal History, the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, Early Settlement and Subsequent Growth, Organization and Civil Administration, the Legal and Medical Professions, Internal Improvements, Past and Present History of Williamsport, Manufacturing and Lumber Interests, Religious, Educational and Social Development, Geology and Agriculture, Military Record, Sketches of Boroughs, Townships and Villages, Portraits and Biographies of Pioneers and Representative Citizens, Etc., Etc. Heritage Books. p. 974. ISBN 978-0-7884-0428-3.
  4. Kiser, William S. (2013). Dragoons in Apacheland: Conquest and Resistance in Southern New Mexico, 1846–1861. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-8061-8895-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Kiser 2013, p. 149.
  6. Kiser 2013, p. 161.
  7. Wroth, William H. (2013-11-03). "Navajo Long Walk to Bosque Redondo-1864". New Mexico History.org. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
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