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In "Prince of the Comancheros," Forrest accuses Tafoya of trading the Comanches "cattle, horses, rifles, ammo, whisky, and anything else he could steal," and claims General Mackenzie tied him to a wagon wheel and tortured him for the location where the Comanches were camped in Palo Duro Canyon. Forrest says that after this, Tafoya figured it was time for him to retire back to his ranch, "where he died in 1913." I say that's kinda a bad rap. Get it?
There's a lot more to the story than this. Tafoya was actually an enlisted man on many of these campaigns, and if he was working outside the law it was because the government agents he was having to get permission from to do trade were also working outside the law. Then when the law closed up its loopholes on him and confiscated 900 head of his cattle, Tafoya may have retired from the comanchero business but he remained in service to the U.S. Army. (General John Bullis, who Forrest mentions in "Apaches in the Garage," was familiar with Tafoya, too.)
"To his superiors, Mackenzie described Tafoya as "very reliable," and "brave, intelligent and sagacious," recognizing the New Mexican's vast knowledge of the Southern Plains and recruiting him as a scout during several decisive campaigns. He thought enough of Tafoya to keep track of Tafoya's whereabouts, in 1879 asking his superiors to detach Tafoya from duty at Fort Clark and send him to Mackenzie at Fort Garland, Colorado. He stated that Tafoya had "been in my employ ... for a number of years" as a scout and added that "it is very desirable to have him here.""
Tafoya was a corporal at Fort Sill under Mackenzie in 1879 and was discharged in 1882 -- more than seven years after the incident at Palo Duro Canyon that supposedly sent him into hiding. And the thing about this is that, after all those years as an Army scout, Tafoya was denied his pension! He died in 1913 and his widow kept trying, but it was still 16 years after Tafoya's death that she was finally awarded a pension of $30 per month!
"Tafoya's life was the stuff of legend, however fragmentary and mundane the written record. His military service was rewarded with a small pension, awarded to his wife after twenty-seven years of applications, and when Tafoya himself had been dead for sixteen years. Tafoya, as husband and father, professional scout, soldier, and man of property, bears no resemblance to the stereotype of the comanchero. An American trying to improve his condition and adapt to changing times, he applied special knowledge and skills to frontier circumstances. Although Tafoya served in wars and military campaigns, survived in lawless regions, and undoubtedly saw much cruelty and crime, witnesses characterized him as "honest" and "reliable." His life seems most remarkable for the absence of the transgressions often associated with the term comanchero."
I'm sure Forrest knew these things, too, because of his friendship with J. Evetts Haley, who accompanied Forrest to Palo Duro Canyon one time, and who is one of the references cited in the above paper. I'm calling "Aberration!" on this one.
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