After being issued uniforms, guns, ammunition, and horses, he felt the cavalry soldiers' training was very thorough.
[1] He worked as a tracker, specifically looking for Apache Indians, and he served in this capacity until he left the service on December 5, 1894.
In the last years of his life, he lived in a hogan with his wife at the Red Lake Trading Post near Tonalea, Arizona on Navajo Nation land.
At that time, he was a sheep herder, drove his own wagon, and claimed he could hear an approaching automobile from 10 miles away, although his eyesight was no longer good.
There is also a mountain summit named after him called John Daw Mesa,[3] which is located just east of Red Lake.