The Apache Indians: In Search of the Missing Tribe - Hardcover

Ingstad, Helge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803225040 ISBN 13: 9780803225046

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2004

Synopsis

Available in English for the first time, The Apache Indians tells the story of the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad’s sojourn among the Apaches near the White Mountain Reservation in Arizona and his epic journey to locate the “lost” group of their brethren in the Sierra Madres in the 1930s.

Ingstad traveled to Canada, where he lived as a trapper for four years with the Chipewyan Indians. The Chipewyans told him tales about people from their tribe who traveled south, never to return. He decided to go south to find the descendants of his Chipewyan friends and determine if they had similar stories. In 1936 Ingstad arrived in the White Mountains and worked as a cowboy with the Apaches. His hunch about the Apaches’ northern origins was confirmed by their stories, but the elders also told him about another group of Apaches who had fled from the reservation and were living in the Sierra Madres in Mexico. Ingstad launched an expedition on horseback to find these “lost” people, hoping to record more tales of their possible northern origin but also to document traditions and knowledge that might have been lost among the Apaches living on the reservation.

Through Ingstad’s keen and observant eyes, we catch unforgettable glimpses of the landscape and inhabitants of the southwestern borderlands as he and his Apache companions, including one of Geronimo’s warriors, embark on a dangerous quest to find the elusive Sierra Madre Apaches. The Apache Indians is a powerful echo of a past that has now become a myth.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"The book is a splendid synthesis, careful, complete, dispassionate, and contains much . . . material from oral accounts of eyewitnesses, and from unpublished documents. It is entertaining, and is undoubtedly the best account for the general reader."— Christian Science Monitor.

"In the main it is a book for the general reader, though the student will find it well equipped with notes and references helpful for further research. The style is simple, clear, and at times . . . deeply impressive. The work reveals a thorough study of sources, and it aims to treat fairly the ever-baffling question of the rights and wrongs of two contending races."—New York Times.

Cochise. Geronimo. Apache Indians known to generations of readers, moviegoers, and children playing soldier. They enter importantly into this colorful and complex history of the Apache tribes in the American Southwest. Frank C. Lockwood was a pioneer in describing the origins and culture of a proud and fierce people and their relations with the Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans. Here, too, is a complete picture of the Apache wars with the U.S. Army between 1850 and 1886 and the government's dealings with them. When The Apache Indians was first published in 1938, Oliver La Farge called it "the best study we have of . . . the military campaigns." Dan L. Thrapp, noted historian of the Apache wars, has written a foreword for this Bison Book edition.

About the Author

After practicing law for four years, then selling his practice for “fear of becoming rich,” Helge Ingstad (1899–2001) became a self-taught ethnographer, historian, and world-renowned explorer. He is the author of the best-selling Land of Feast and Famine and coauthor (with Anne Stine Ingstad) of The Viking Discovery of America: The Excavation of a Norse Settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. Benedicte Ingstad is the daughter of Helge Ingstad. Thomas J. Nevins is a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Virginia.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0803225040
• ISBN 13: 9780803225046
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 188