Once They Moved Like the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo, and the Apache Wars

Recounts the days of the Indian wars, when Anglo settlements spread into the land of the Apaches, and the U.S. cavalry repeatedly tried to subdue the great warriors led by Cochise and, later, Geronimo.

During the westward settlement, for more than 20 years Apache tribes eluded both U.S. and Mexican armies, and by 1886 an estimated 9000 armed men were in pursuit. Roberts ( Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative ) presents a moving account of the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest. He portrays the great Apache leaders--Cochise, Nana, Juh, Geronimo, the woman warrior Lozen--and U.S. generals George Crock and Nelson Miles. Drawing on contemporary American and Mexican sources, he weaves a somber story of treachery and misunderstanding. After Geronimo's surrender in 1886, the Apaches were sent to Florida, then to Alabama where many succumbed to malaria, tuberculosis and malnutrition and finally in 1894 to Oklahoma, remaining prisoners of war until 1913. The book is history at its most engrossing. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An absorbing account of a quarter century of conflict: the Apache resistance to the ``White Eye'' settlers encroaching on their Arizona lands. Clashes between US troops and Apaches broke out in 1861, but it was only after the Civil War that the army turned its attention fully to these skirmishes in the Southwest. Roberts (Jean Stafford: A Biography, 1988, etc.) sifts through contradictory memoirs and letters from the two sides to present a balanced version of why peace in the region was continually shattered--and why the outnumbered Apache were continually able to drive white settlers to hysteria. Complaints about Indian atrocities were sometimes valid, Roberts explains, but the Apache chief Cochise was often accused of crimes that he couldn't have committed. Meanwhile, the Apaches felt betrayed when agreements with troops were cavalierly broken by Indian land agents. Roberts's narrative is considerably enhanced by its briskly written portraits--including those of the fierce, and fiercely honest, Cochise; of General George Crook, the army's best Indian fighter, who found the key to ending the Apaches' flight (to catch an Apache, use Apache scouts); of John Clum, an Indian land agent whom the Apaches nicknamed ``Turkey Gobbler'' for his arrogance; Lozen, the woman warrior who could equal any man in riding and shooting; and Juh, the chief afflicted with a terrible stutter but gifted with military genius. And, above all, there is the presence of Geronimo, vengeful, untrustworthy, and vacillating, but also capable of leading a band of 34 men, women, and children that, before it surrendered in 1886, managed to elude five thousand American troops and another three thousand Mexican soldiers. Geronimo rightly feared the fate in store for his people: They were deported on sealed railroad cars to Florida, where they remained POWs for 27 years, never to see their homelands again. A history that never loses its sense of drama even as it separates myth from truth. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Roberts, whose previous books have focused on mountaineering and travel, tells the story of the Chiricahua Apache resistance to the encroachments of the whites in post-Civil War frontier America. Using contemporary letters and reminiscences, he relates the story from the Apache point of view, focusing on the leadership of Cochise and Geronimo. Rather than emphasizing troop deployments and Apache raids, Roberts explains why the principals on both sides acted as they did and shows how misunderstandings led to tragedy and warfare. He has mined the available sources and woven them neatly into his well-written tapestry. Best suited for lay readers and undergraduates, this worthy reexamination of the topic is recommended for all libraries.
- Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.