“Geronimo With His Band in the Chiricahua Mountains” by Charlie Dye.
Our compañero Lane Batot filled a significant hole in the Frontier Partisans library. The Pony Express arrived last week with his gift of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ two Apache novels (plus a bonus book on lions in Africa). They will be my nightstand reads in the coming weeks.
So THOSE Apaches are here.
We’ll have to wait till May 27 for Black Barrel Media to launch their next season of Legends of The Old West: Apache Wars. That was supposed to happen this week, but they delayed it to switch hosting services. Eagerly looking forward to this. Their series on the Powder River War was first rate — and I happened upon it just after I returned from visiting Fort Phil Kearny and the Fetterman Battle Site, so it was especially vivid for me.
I will post a reminder when the podcast launches. I think many of you will enjoy their work. Waugh!
Matthew says
I did not know there was going to be another season of Legends and about the Apache Wars no less. That’s good news.
.lane batot says
Dang! Them Pony Express fellers done ran them hosses hard! Glad they got there okay–and the book about lions–it is much more of a book about how trophy hunting(especially of lions) has gone bad due to greed and corruption–especially in Tanzania–than it is about lion behavior or incidents(though there are a few of those, too). A lot of it is like reading a government spy account! And the author, Craig Packer, was FOR trophy hunting of lions, in most respects, IF it is done above board and by the rules–which alas, it rarely is anymore. I used to concede it had it’s place, despite my own aversion to killing for “sport”–but after reading this account, I can’t say that anymore…..Nothing ever really is black-and-white, is it?
David Wrolson says
Re-Trophy hunting of lions. I have read the Packer book and many others. Obviously, I come down on the side of trophy hunting being needed to help conserve wild lands. A weakness we have in the west is that we focus on the lion and forget about the large amount of land needed to keep him there.
We, in the west, also forget about the main player in the game. The bush African-who fears and hates lions-and will poison or trap them in the absence of other means of making money from them.
We can arrange the desk chairs on the Titanic with discussions on conservation and trophy hunting and other related topics all that we want to-but it is all academic if we forget about the bush African with his poison and snares and goats and cattle and his totally understandable desire to protect his herds and family from lions and other predators.
I have mentioned “Game Changer” by Glen Martin many times-but I have never read a book that put me in modern Africa like this one did. He shows what is happening in Kenya-where wildlife has no value.
In a recent National Geographic there was a figure quoted that said 300,000 elephants were in Chad in our lifetimes. Considering that there are only about 600,000 total elephants in Africa now-that figure is mind blowing.
The Chad elephants just went away in the wind to the elephant poachers and most of the rest of the game in Chad ended up in the cooking pots-all gone with very little to no trophy hunting.
The more I see about how much wildlife there was in southern Francophone Africa-not so long ago-my heart breaks.
.lane batot says
Yes, I concede that the rural folk MUST be considered in conserving any wildlife, but as Packer pointed out, often only a few politically controlling people are benefiting(where corruption has taken over), and the rural populations that must live cheek-to-jowl with dangerous wildlife are STILL not benefiting, despite the platitudes about the trophy hunting business being lauded(I got and read “Game Changers” on your recommendation, too! Great, informative book–but it illustrates the best possible scenarios, which are not always what is really happening everywhere), so the local rural folks STILL have little incentive to tolerate the proximity of the dangerous wildlife–perhaps only the greed of the few in charge trying to suppress any poaching by the locals might have any protective benefit for wildlife, but then that only cements the resentments of the poorer class rural folks–which cannot but have destructive consequences for the wildlife in the end. And corrupt trophy hunting is depleting game every bit as much as poaching for profit or subsistence–you COULD view corrupt trophy hunting as a FORM of poaching! IF trophy hunting in Africa is to survive, it MUST clean up it’s act and REALLY live up to the high standards SOME hunting companies do practice. Alas, whenever big money gets involved with ANYTHING, though, greed and corruption tend to take over. The whole point being–it’s complicated! Perhaps THE BEST solution would be some intensive trophy hunting of POLITICIANS, both in Africa and elsewhere!
.lane batot says
….And I hope you enjoy the character of Shozdijiji as much as I have, and be as pleasantly surprised as I was at how well Burroughs depicted the Apaches–with only a few glaring historical glitches–which don’t take away from the tales at all, and it was always a GOOD STORY that old Ed was most interested in writing. And anyone that wants to accuse Burroughs of being a “racist”(a popular rant these days) needs to read THESE books–he wrestles with racism in many of his books, but never more blatantly than in these two. If anything, he seems rather prejudiced against the Pindah Lickoye–the White Eyes!!!
David Wrolson says
I expect the Kit Carson/Sante Fe Trail/Jicarilla Apache book to show up tomorrow. It will jump to the top of the stack.
Just finished planting. Planning a family drive through the scenic Sheyenne River Valley in eastern North Dakota on Sunday.
After watching what has happened with the large hog slaughter plants going down due to Covid-I am in Wendell Berry mood so I might see what I have there.
Looks like Namibia is out for the year.
BTW-I am enjoying the first Yellowstone Kelly book. Also, I need to read more of the Casca series (done with #2).
John Roberts says
My obsessive-compulsive attention to detail forces me to inform you that the painting of Geronimo is set in June, the time when the blooming period for ocotillo and yucca overlap. Ocotillo blooms March-June and yucca June-fall. Just so you know.
JimC says
Your obsessive-compulsive attention to detail is welcome here.
Jean says
Looking firward to hearing more.
Bill Cavaliere says
The title of the painting should actually be “Naiche and his band in the Chiricahua Mountains.” Geronimo was never a chief and even said so in his autobiography, so the warriors could not be his band. I believe that must be Naiche on the horse in the background, wearing the black hat.
JimC says
It’s true that Geronimo deferred to Naiche.
Lynda A. Sanchez says
Mr. Cavaliere is correct. And Geronimo did defer to Naiche. It is good to mix up the characters in the Apache Wars so that leaders and warriors other than Geronimo are featured. I have written a short article on Adelnietze and a longer one on the doomed 1895 planned rescue of Apaches from the Sierra Madre. That is almost ten years after the end of the Apache Wars. Naiche and Adelnietze play roles here that few know about. All of these plus one on my research about the death of the Apache Kid are available electronically or via True West. I would also like to know your thoughts when you complete ERB’s two Apache novels.
Best regards and keep those stories coming.
JimC says
One of my pet peeves — which readers here may be tired of hearing me gripe about — is that popular history, especially TV History docos, retread the same stories and characters over and over again. There are so many interesting people/stories to explore. Where’s my damn Simon Kenton documentary or movie?
I know that Bob Boze Bell at True West has to deal with the reality that Billy the Kid or Wyatt Earp or Geronimo on the cover sells more magazines, while maybe Naiche and Adelnietze deserve their time in the spotlight. I think it’s great that True West publishes your articles, and give The Kid the cover; BBB and the editors do a pretty good job of letting the marquee names pull people in for the more “obscure” history.
I will post up on the ERB novels at some point.
Chokonen says
Hi there Linda! Where can I read it? I’m really interested.
Chokonen says
Hi there Linda! Where can I read it?
.lane batot says
Gotta beg to differ a BIT on some of this discussion…..Geronimo may have deferred to Naiche SOMETIMES,(he deferred to his cousin Fun during one episode, where Fun threatened to kill him otherwise!) it is true, and he may not have been a HEREDITARY chief, and, also true, he may have gotten more attention and credit from the media-of-the-times that other Apache leaders deserved at least as much, but there is still no denying that he was extremely influential and a skilled, crafty leader–he was not a “chief” but he WAS a War Shaman! And in times of WAR, the War Shaman often held sway politically! This was common in many tribes. And it was GERONIMO’S influence and leadership that led to so many reservation outbreaks and depredations afterwards, HIS knowledge of the land and his unquestionable experience on so many raids that his band(which was indeed, HIS band, made up of bits and refugees from many other bands in the end–some of the band remnants whose hereditary chiefs were DEAD!)) depended on and followed him for freedom and survival. Was he the best of leaders in all ways? Certainly not–but there should be no denying his skill at guerrilla warfare, and the fact that he WAS the LEADER, either by choice, or sometimes at gunpoint! And the U. S. military didn’t negotiate with other Apaches in his band, they negotiated with GERONIMO, and HIS decisions(with the consensus of his group) were what was followed. So he most certainly was the main LEADER. It is often stated that Naiche was NOT encouraged or trained by Cochise(his father) to be a leader, but to support his older brother Tazay, who unfortunarely died during a peace mission to Washington D. C., and this perspective is WHY Naiche tended to defer to Geronimo’s influence in those last wild days, even if, after both his older brother’s and father’s death, yes, technically he was the hereditary chief. But even in later reservation life, Naiche never was very dynamic or interested in being a leader(interesting and amazing an individual as he was in other respects, as in his beautiful ARTWORK!)
Bill Cavaliere says
All Chiricahua Apache men could be termed “leaders” if they were out on a raid or in a battle with a group of other warriors and he happened to be the dominant warrior at the time (see Morris Opler and Eve Ball). Naiche was known to have a quiet and stoic personality, unlike Geronimo, who was loud, boisterous and seemed to enjoy his reputation and the headlines he generated. While Geronimo made his own decisions when he was leading his group, he always deferred to Naiche when they were together, IF the occasion called for it. Naiche frequently allowed Geronimo to call the shots when setting up an ambush, for instance. He was well aware of Geronimo’s experience in battle and therefore didn’t expect him to defer to him in those kinds of situations.
Despite not having a dynamic personality, Naiche held total sway over his people, as can be seen at the Canon de los Embudos conference, when Geronimo became agitated and the other Apaches became restless. Naiche simply raised his hands up and, without needing to say a word, the Apaches all quieted down.
While the US Military did negotiate with Geronimo, even they knew that he was never a chief, as can be found in the documents of General Crook at Canon de los Embudos and General Miles at Skeleton Canyon. In the case of Skeleton Canyon, Miles mentioned that the surrender was not official until Naiche, the actual chief, surrendered. Geronimo surrendered on Sept. 3rd, and Naiche not until the following day, which is the date that the documents consider when the final surrender occurred: Sept. 4, 1886.
.lane batot says
Yes, Naiche had influence–so did Lozen, so did Nanay, so did Geronimo. For whatever reasons, Geronimo stole the spotlight historically and legendarily, but no doubt he still wielded great influence, especially in those last free wild days–that band was every bit as much Geronimo’s as Naiche’s(and everyone else who was part of it).
JimC says
Geronimo had POWER. That gave him prestige and influence. He seemed to have what Anglo-Celtic culture refers to as The Sight.
.lane batot says
Yup! Something most Pindah Lickoye never fully understood…..