Description

Portrait of Indian scout Mike Burns "Hoomothya" (b. c. 1865 - d. 1934).

Born around 1865, the Kwevkepaya Yavapai Hoomothya (“Wet Nose” or “Moist Nose”) was orphaned as a result of the slaughter of his extended family at Skeleton Cave during December of 1872. Captured by the troops who killed this band of Yavapais, he was taken in as a temporary ward by Captain James Burns, who renamed the child Mike Burns or as he also was known-- “Apache Mickie.” Mike Burns remained with the U.S. Army for many years, then was sent as one of the first student to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. After that he pursued additional education but in spite of his academic efforts he always was hard pressed to survive in the white world. He eventually served several enlistments as an Indian scout, and then returned to his native Arizona where he married a woman from his tribe and took up residence at several places including Fort McDowell.

As early as 1910 he sought aid in telling his story, and in that year wrote to territorial historian Sharlot M. Hall asking for help to publish his autobiography. Just before the First World War part of his memoir appeared in Thomas Farrish’s multi volume history of Arizona, and a longer version prepared by Burns was drafted in the 1920s. This latter document served the basis for version produced by retired U.S. Army surgeon William Corbusier, who significantly edited Burns’s original as is evident when comparing the Corbusier manuscript with the typescript Burns provided to Sharlot M. Hall in the 1920s. Burns did not live to see his memoir published, he died on November 26, 1934 at the Fort Whipple hospital that is now the VA Center in Prescott.