Coshise was an American Indian chief who fought white settlers in what are now Arizona and New Mexico. He led the Chiricahua band of the Apache Indians. The name Cochise means firewood in Apache.

During the 1850's the Chiricahua were friendly with the whites. The peaceful relations ended in 1861, when Cochise was falsely accused of kidnapping a settler's child. The United States Army captured Cochise and several members of his tribe and ordered him to return the child. Cochise escaped, but the troops seized six Chiricahua and threatened to kill them if the child was not returned. Cochise then took several whites as hostages and offered to exchange then for the captured Apache. The Army refused, and so Cochise hanged his hostages. He then went to war against the settlers.

In 1867, the frontiersman named Thomas J. Jeffords went to Cochise's camp and persuaded him to let mail carriers pass through the Indian land. In 1869, Jeffords led General Oliver O. Howard to Cochise to discuss peace. Cochise agreed to stop fighting and moved his band to a reservation in Arizona.