The Legend of Tucumcari Mountain

The legend of Tucumcari Mountain is one which had been past from generation to generation through the Apache Folklore of Chief Wautonomah.  Chief Wautonomah was dying, and he had a daughter named Kari that needed to be married.  Two men loved Kari, Tonopah and Tocom and their love for her made them bitter rivals.

Both of these men, Tonopah and Tocom, were also fine braves and warriors and their rivalary was not limited to their love for Kari, but also to become the next Chief of the tribe.  Since the chief was dying and knew he was dying, he called the two rivals together and told them they must meet with large knives to battle for position of chief as well as for the hand of His daughter Kari in marraige.

As the Legend of Tucumcari Mountain has it, Kari, who was the center of this contest, was madly in love with Tocom and on the night of the contest, she hid in the bushes to watch the fight to see who would become her suitor.  I'm sure with every swing of the knife blade she cringed for Tocom, her one true love, but as the fight ended it was Tonopah who won the battle and she watched her love die that night.

In grief, she ran from her hiding spot in the bushes, stabbed Tonopah in the heart with her own knife, then took Tocoms knife and took her own life at her lovers side. Chief Wautonomah was taken to the scene of the fight, saw his daughter lying there dead by Tocom, He then took Kari's knife and took his own life.  His dying words were Tocom-kari. Thus the legend of Tucumcari Mountain was born and the name has stayed with it ever since.

Is this a true story?  Perhaps we cannot be sure, but being handed from generation to generation it is likely that perhaps some of the details got lost or modified, but there is no reason to believe that the heart of this story is true.  Indians did name things by what they saw so it is not unlikely that this mountain was named at the death of Tocom and Kari by Chief Wautonomah.