(Editor’s Note from 2019: After reading my review of books I have used as resources in writing about local history in general and Apaches in particular, one of our newsletter readers, Tim Simmons, sent me an additional list from his own library. Several of these will be added to my own library soon. Thank Tim!)
Hi Jim,
I read your latest and really enjoyed it and, for the most part, agreed. But there are a lot of books about the Apaches that you may not be aware of.
Apache Medicine-Men, John G. Bourke (yes, THE John Bourke), Dover Publications, Inc., New York. This one is, obviously, about the different “medicine” and paraphernalia that Apache medicine men and women used.
Myths and Tales of the Chiricahua Apache Indians (Sources of American Indian Oral Literature), Morris Edward Opler, Bison Books. Opler is well-known among Apacheologists (I just made that word up). His book is about tales of the Chiricahuas concerning things like when the earth was new, many Coyote stories (You do know about Coyote among the Apaches, right? Supernatural beings, foolish people, etc.?)
Another woman besides Angie Debo and Eve Ball who has researched the Apaches a lot is Henrietta Stockel. Here are five of her books which I have read:
Survival of the Spirit: Chiricahua Apaches in Captivity, H. Henrietta Stockel, University of Nevada Press. This is endorsed by Dan Thrapp. This book speaks on the Apaches after 1886. From Florida to the Mescalero Apache Reservation. Very good. It is interesting to me what became of some of those Apaches who were not killed in warfare such as – Chihuahua, Naiche, Loco, Nana, Bonito, and, of course, Geronimo.
Geronimo’s Kids: A Teacher’s Lessons on the Apache Reservation (Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and Southwest), Robert S. Ove and H. Henrietta Stockel, Texas A & M Press. Robert Ove taught the Apache kids on the Mescalero Apache Reservation starting in 1948 and his insights are very interesting.
On the Bloody Road to Jesus: Christianity and the Chiricahua Apaches, H. Henrietta Stockel, University of New Mexico Press. What most people do not know is that Christian missionaries came to the Chiricahuas once they were on the reservation and many of the Apaches became Christians. Elbys Naiche Hugar was a Christian. I talked with her. For example, Naiche took the name Christian as his first name and became Christian Naiche. Quite a few of the Apache leaders did so as well. Geronimo struggled with it. He said he was Christian and then he wasn’t and then he was.
Women Of The Apache Nation: Voices Of Truth, H. Henrietta Stockel, University of Nevada. This one also has a forward by Dan Thrapp. This book is about Apache women warriors such as Lozen and Gouyen. It is also about women on the reservations at Mescalero and at Oklahoma.
Shame and Endurance: The Untold Story of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, H. Henrietta Stockel, University of Arizona Press. This one is about the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War at Fort Marion, Fort Pickens, Mount Vernon, Fort Sill and the Mescalero Reservation. I have found that reading only ONE book on a particular idea subjects the reader to the bias of the writer. Take a subject and have several writers expand on it, let the reader soak it in, and you get an all-round interpretation on the subject. (For example, was Geronimo a great leader or not, were the Apache women merely second-rate citizens or not, ideas on the Apache belief system. Believe it or not, it varied.) This book gives another look at the Apache capture. Did you know that the Apache Indians were the ONLY Indians to be treated as Prisoners of War by the U.S. government?
As you can see, Henrietta Stockel has written quite a bit on the Apaches and I think she has written even more.
The Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War: Fort Sill 1894-1914, John Anthony Turcheneske, Jr., University Press of Colorado. Another look at them in Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Many new and different ideas and concepts and stories are brought up.
Apache Chronicle: The Story of the People, John Upton Terrell, Thomas Y. Crowell Company. This book is very interesting to me because it deals with the white contact with the Apaches since 1535. They were not always known as “Apaches”. Back then other names for them were Teya, Jumano, Manso and Suma just to mention a few. And the Spaniards dealt with them quite differently than the Mexicans or Americans did.
Chiricahua Apache Enduring Power: Naiche’s Puberty Ceremony Paintings (Contemporary American Indians), Trudy Griffin-Pierce, University of Alabama Press. This is interesting in that it is about Apache artwork, more specifically the artwork of Naiche who was considered quite the artist, and also their concept of Power.
Apache Mothers and Daughters, Ruth McDonald Boyer and Narcissus Duffy Gayton, University of Oklahoma Press. This is interesting in that it is a look at the Apache wars and life thereafter through the eyes of four generations of Chiricahua Apache women from 1848 until modern times. It strongly portrays the women’s role in tribal life and history.
The Apache Diaries: A Father-Son Journey, Grenville Goodwin and Neil Goodwin,Bison Books, University of Nebraska Press. This is a fascinating book to me. It speaks of those Apaches who avoided the capturing net of the American Army in 1886 and continued to survive in the Mexican mountains for a number of years. In the 1930s there was a final clash between Mexicans and Apaches and so it ended.
Those are just some of the books that are printed about the Apaches. There are, of course, many others about them such as books strictly about the Mescalero Apaches and the Tonto and the Western Apaches and the Jicarilla. There are also many others written long ago, such as in the 1800s that don’t get much attention nowadays but are still quite interesting. (For instance, books about the founding of Prescott and their troubles with the Tonto Apaches.)
