Gen. Oliver 'The Christian General' Howard: The Bible I read preaches brotherhood for all of God's children.
Tom Jeffords: Suppose their skins weren't white. Are they still God's children?
Gen. Oliver 'The Christian General' Howard: My Bible says nothing about the pigmentation of their skin.

Tom Jeffords: Cochise can't even read a map, but he and his men know every gulley, every foot of every mountain, every waterhole in Arizona. His horses can go twice as far as yours in a day, and his men can run on foot as far as a horse can run. He can't write his name, but his intelligence service knows when you got to Fort Grant and how many men you got. He stopped the Butterfield Stage from running. He stopped the U.S. Mail from going through. And for the first time in Indian history, he has all the Apaches from all the tribes fighting under one command.

Tom Jeffords: The story started when I saw some buzzards circling in the sky. The buzzard is a smart bird. Something or somebody was getting ready to die. I figured it was a hurt deer or a rabbit or a snake.
[Jeffords spots a wounded Apache youth staggering in a ravine]
Tom Jeffords: Not a rabbit, not a deer... his kind was more dangerous than a snake. He was an Apache. For ten years we'd been on a savage war with his people - a bloody, no-give-no-take war.

Tom Jeffords: They found a pouch on one of the wounded men, and in the pouch were three Apache scalps. So they dug a pit in the ground and they rubbed his face with the juice of the mescal plant. And they made me watch the ants come.

Tom Jeffords: When the Indian wishes to signal his brother, he does so by smoke sign. This is the white man's signal. My brothers far away can look at this and understand my meaning. We call this mail. And the men who carry the mail are like the air that carries the Apache smoke signals.

Cochise: I break the arrow. I will try the way of peace.

Cochise: Now I say this: the Americans keep cattle but they are not soft or weak. Why should not the Apache be able to learn new ways? It is not easy to change, but sometimes it is required. The Americans grow stronger while we grow weaker. If a big wind comes, a tree must bend... or be lifted out by the roots.

Cochise: To talk of peace is not hard. To live it is very hard.

Cochise: White Painted Lady, I have old wounds.
Sonseeahray: Yes, but each scar is a mark of love for your people. The path of your people is stretched long behind you, and you are the head, and you are the heart, and you are the blood. Killer of Enemies was your father and you are his son. You will be well.

Cochise: You know what I am thinking? Maybe someday you will kill me, or I will kill you. But we will not spit on each other.