He was the son of Josè Miguel Maria del Refugio Sabas Muzquiz Gonzalez, who was captured by the Mescalero as a boy at what is now Melchor Múzquiz in Coahuila, Mexico, and raised among them, and his Indian[clarification needed] wife.
It was located on the Texan side of the Rio Grande near Presidio, Texas, largely extended on the surrounding grounds along the shore and equipped with warehouses and corrals, where the Apaches could get guns, gunpowder and ammunitions in exchange for the booty of their raids to Chihuahua and Coahuila.
Relations between the Indigenous people and the authorities on both sides of the border were generally peaceful at first, although Alsate was almost shot for stealing the coat of the trader John D. Burgess.
Young with Lt. John L. Bullis, trespassed the Rio Grande border running after Alsate's band in the Sierra Madre del Carmen, Mexico.
[3] Manuel Múzquiz wrote a note requesting clemency for Alsate, but could not release him; however, in December 1879 he and his followers were able to escape from the carts transporting them and vanish into the mountains.
[4] The following year Colonel Ortiz of El Paseo del Norte lured them into a trap at San Carlos of Chihuahua by promising a peace treaty; they were set upon after eating and drinking heavily at a celebratory feast, and while those few who were able to fight were killed, the rest were sold into slavery.