Apache Tears
Many years ago, a tribe of Native American Indians called the Pinal Apache rode free across the valleys and mountains of Arizona near an area known today as Superior. The land was rough, and everyday they worked hard to make a living in the harsh desert sands where only the toughest plants could survive, but this choice of home, this choice of landscape and this choice of life, allowed them to remain safe for much longer than other tribes who opted to settle in more open and fertile places.
Despite the inhospitable nature of the location, encroachers eventually made their way into these lands, looking to find their fortune from the deposits of precious metals found buried in the ground. The resilient Apache didn’t give in easily, though. Their hearts were fierce, and regardless of the odds being against them, they fought hard to protect the life they’d given so much to create, sending out small groups of warriors to raid campsites, steal horses and ambush supply caravans. They did everything they could to slow the advance of their enemy, but the lure of gold and the determination to establish settlements was too strong, and before long, a large cavalry unit was sent out to hunt them down.
The unit managed to track down a band of warriors, who galloped their horses up a nearby mountain. As they reached the top and were confronted with a sheer cliff face plummeting hundreds of feet to the desert floor below, the Apache wheeled their horses around to find themselves surrounded by a vastly outnumbering mass of cavalry officers with their rifles in hand. They had nowhere to run and no way of defending themselves, and when they refused to surrender, the signal was given to release the first round of shots, killing more than half of the warriors instantly. Even after having their brothers, sons and fathers shot dead right in front of their eyes, the unwavering fighting spirit of the remaining Apache still refused to submit, and rather than facing death at the hands of their enemies, they turned their horses and rode over the cliff edge to take their own lives.
When the women and children of the departed warriors discovered their bodies at the foot of what is now known as Apache Leap and realised what had happened, the devastating pain cut so deep that it brought them to their knees, and they cried buckets of tears for a whole moon. Not only had their loved ones been cruelly taken from them, but the heavy losses inflicted an irreparable dent in their resistance effort to maintain their freedom and their hard-earned way of life. In acknowledgement of the deep burden of sorrow that they carried, the Great Father had each one of the tears shed turn itself into a rounded black obsidian stone as it hit the scorched sand, and these ‘Apache Tears’ as they're known, can still be found in abundance today all across the area. Although they appear to be completely black, they're actually translucent, so holding each stone up to the light reveals the tear hidden inside. It's said that anyone who finds one will never need to cry again, for the Apache women have already grieved and shed tears in place of yours…
