This changed in 1874, when the government decided to consolidate many of the smaller reserves into one giant reservation where the Indians could be isolated and controlled. That reservation was San Carlos, the southern part of the White Mountain Apache Reservation. San Carlos straddled the Gila River downstream from Safford where Mexican and Mormon farmers were already diverting the Gila onto their fields. From there it stretched northward over the Gila Mountains to Ash Flat and the Natanes Plateau. Then it descended into the canyons of the Black River, which joined with the White River to form the Salt about 20 miles (30 km) southwest of Camp Apache.
Before relocation, this was the territory of the San Carlos band of the Western Apaches, who were closely related to the Pinal Apaches to the west and the Aravaipa Apaches to the south. To the north and west of the Mogollon Rim were bands of Carrizo, Cibecue, and Canyon Creek Apaches. To the north and east were the Western and Eastern White Mountain Apaches. The mountains were sacred sources of supernatural power to the Apaches and were one of the deepest sources of Apache identity and culture.
The federal government established San Carlos in one of the lowest and hottest portions of the reservation, a flat where San Carlos Creek trickled into the Gila. The spot was chosen because it was relatively close to Tucson, where powerful freighters and merchants lived, and because the terrain was open and the army could keep an eye on the Indians confined there. The government conducted an experiment in relocation unmatched in Arizona history until the internment of the Japanese during World War II, throwing thousands of Yavapais, Chiricahaus, and Western Apaches together with little regard for cultural, political, or linguistic differences.
The first group removed against their will were Yavapais and Tonto Apaches living near Camp Verde and Date Creek. The forced march from Camp Verde to San Carlos began on February 27, 1875. For eight days, 1,400 Yavapais and Tonto Apaches trudged across 180 miles (290 km) of the roughest country in their territory. By the end of the journey, more than 100 Indians had died. Afterward the Indians at Camp Apache, from which Crook recruited his earliest scouts, were moved 60 miles (100 km) southwest to San Carlos.
During the early 1870s the reservation escaped much of the upheaval wracking the rest of the Apachería. The Dutch Reformed Church, which was given jurisdiction over the Apaches by the Grant administration, appointed James E. Roberts as an agent in December 1872. Roberts encouraged stock raising and agriculture among the White Mountain people, convinced that the Indians would "become civilized just as soon as they became lovers of money." By the spring of 1874, Roverts's charges had dug more than five miles (8 km) of canals and were irrigating more than 500 acres (2 km²) of land around Camp Apache. The military responded by purchasing 100 bushels (4 m³) of beans, 6,000 bushels (210 m³) of corn, and 150 tons of hay from the Apache farmers. In Roberts's mind, the first steps toward Apache capitalism had begun.
Then the soldiers started interfering in the internal affairs of the reservation. They undercut Roberts's authority to issue passes and took over the dispensation of rations. In 1874, Roberts became caught up in a complex scheme to reduce the size of the reservation because copper ore had been discovered near modern Clifton. Territorial officials, including Governor A.P.K. Safford and Delegate to Congress Richard C. McCormick, were attempting to return the area to public domain. Roberts grew increasing unstable, which gave the military a convenient excuse to occupy agency buildings, remove Roberts from office, and seize control of the reservation itself.