The Ojo Caliente reservation — established at the Warm Springs area that the Warm Springs Apache regarded as their homeland — was created and then eliminated, with the band being relocated to the San Carlos reservation in Arizona.

San Carlos was, by most accounts, one of the worst-managed reservations in the system: overcrowded, poorly supplied, plagued by disease, administered with a combination of incompetence and corruption that made survival difficult and misery ubiquitous.

Victorio had argued, petitioned, and negotiated for years for the right to remain at Ojo Caliente or to be relocated to a reservation that corresponded to the Warm Springs Apache’s actual homeland.

He had cooperated with the reservation system when cooperation seemed possible.