"Chief Victorio of the Warm Springs Apache has recounted the turbulent life of his people between 1876 and 1886. This eyewitness account . . . recalls not only the hunger, pursuit, and strife of those years, but also the thoughts, feelings, and culture of the hunted tribe. Recommended as general reading."—Library Journal "This volume contains a great deal of interesting information."—Journal of the West "The Apache point of view [is] presented with great clarity."—Books of the Southwest "A valuable addition to the southwestern frontier shelf and long will be drawn upon and used."—Journal of Arizona History "A genuine contribution to the story of the Apache wars, and a very readable book as well."—Westerners Brand Book "Shining through every page is the unquenchable spirit that was the Apache. Inured, indeed trained, to suffering, Apaches stood strong beside Victorio, Nana, and finally Geronimo in a vain attempt to maintain those things they held more dear than life itself—freedom, homeland, dignity as human beings. A warm and vital people, the Apaches had, and have, a great deal to offer."—Arizona and the West

A steadfast champion of his people during the wars with encroaching Anglo-Americans, the Apache chief Victorio deserves as much attention as his better-known contemporaries Cochise and Geronimo. In presenting the story of this nineteenth-century Warm Springs Apache warrior, Kathleen P. Chamberlain expands our understanding of Victorio’s role in the Apache wars and brings him into the center of events. Although there is little documentation of Victorio’s life outside military records, Chamberlain draws on ethnographic sources to surmise his childhood and adolescence and to depict traditional Warm Springs Apache social, religious, and economic life. Reconstructing Victorio’s life beyond the military conflicts that have since come to define him, she interprets his character and actions not only as whites viewed them but also as the logical outcome of his upbringing and worldview. Chamberlain’s Victorio is a pragmatic leader and a profoundly spiritual man. Caught in the absurdities of post–Civil War Indian policy, Victorio struggled with the glaring disconnect between the U.S. government’s vision for Indians and their own physical, psychological, and spiritual needs. Graced with historic photos of Victorio, other Apaches, and U.S. military leaders, this biography portrays Victorio as a leader who sought a peaceful homeland for his people in the face of wrongheaded decisions from Washington. It is the most nearly complete and balanced picture yet to emerge of a Native leader caught in the conflicts and compromises of the nineteenth-century Southwest.

Jim Doolen discovered his father's fate in Written in Blood and met Billy the Kid in Ghost Moon. Now, in the final installment of The Desert Legends Trilogy, he's a scout for the Army in the middle of a brutal war to force Victorio's Apaches onto a reservation far from their traditional lands. Deeply troubled by the violence he's witnessed and been a part of, and having lost so many friends, Jim feels trapped between the two worlds he's encountered over the past three years. Captured by his nemesis Ghost Moon and forced to flee with an Apache band of warriors, Jim is only saved from a slow and torturous death when his old friend Wellington adopts him as his son. But now he's on the wrong side. Will he be branded a traitor? Or killed in a battle with the 10th US Cavalry or the Mexican Army? Jim finds his loyalties now divided, and he begins to understand the plight of his captors. But as supplies and ammunition run out, Jim's fate is tied to that of the doomed Apache warriors and survival seems unlikely.

The US Army has often been called upon to conduct operations in in-hospitable climates on rugged terrain against elusive and determined foes. Some of the more famous of these characters were Emilio Aguinaldo of the Philippines, Pancho Villa of Mexico, and in recent times Muslim terrorist Osama bin Laden. Each of these men faced the superior weaponry and materiel of the US Army but put up a persistent struggle nonetheless. All of these operations were costly in manpower, were bitterly frustrating, and took months of hard campaigning. The areas of operation were in foreign lands and often featured a porous border or areas of sanctuary for the enemy to receive logistics support and recruits. The Army also faced extreme public scrutiny and at times a hostile press. The Victorio Campaign bears many parallels to ongoing operations against Islamic terrorist movements. Victorio was a charismatic leader who many indeed considered a terrorist. On the other hand, his followers considered him a freedom fighter and gave him their unswerving loyalty. These warriors were fanatical in their support and willingly endured extreme hardship and depredation in the fight against their enemies. Victorio s band was not self-sustaining and received replenishment from fellow Apaches that remained on the reservations when operating nearby. When ranging over the mountains the band relied on its defeated enemies captured arms, ammunition, and horses. Like today s terrorist leaders, Victorio used an international border, that between the United States and Mexico, to great effect. He knew that both countries were unable to coordinate their efforts through the stifling bureaucracy and political rivalry that so often poisoned amicable relations. As a result, Victorio was able to raid into one country and avoid pursuit by simply recrossing the border.

With attention to the nineteenth century, the history and the culture of the Apaches since the era of the Spanish Conquest are surveyed

After the end of the U.S.-Mexican War in 1848, the Southwest Borderlands remained hotly contested territory. Over following decades, the United States government exerted control in the Southwest by containing, destroying, segregating, and deporting indigenous peoples—in essence conducting an extended military campaign that culminated with the capture of Geronimo and the forced removal of the Chiricahua Apaches in 1886. In this book, Janne Lahti charts these encounters and the cultural differences that shaped them. Wars for Empire offers a new perspective on the conduct, duration, intensity, and ultimate outcome of one of America's longest wars. Centuries of conflict with Spain and Mexico had honed Apache war-making abilities and encouraged a culture based in part on warrior values, from physical prowess and specialized skills to a shared belief in individual effort. In contrast, U.S. military forces lacked sufficient training and had little public support. The splintered, protracted, and ferocious warfare exposed the limitations of the U.S. military and of federal Indian policies, challenging narratives of American supremacy in the West. Lahti maps the ways in which these weaknesses undermined the U.S. advance. He also stresses how various Apache groups reacted differently to the U.S. invasion. Ultimately, new technologies, the expansion of Euro-American settlements, and decades of war and deception ended armed Apache resistance. By comparing competing martial cultures and examining violence in the Southwest, Wars for Empire provides a new understanding of critical decades of American imperial expansion and a moment in the history of settler colonialism with worldwide significance.

"Describes the violent history between the frontiersmen and the Native Americans in the Southwestern borderlands by following Mickey Free, a mixed-blood warrior who played a pivotal role in the fighting as he pursued the Apache Kid,"--NoveList.

Apacheria ran from the Colorado to the Rio Grande and beyond, from the great canyons of the North for a thousand miles into Mexico. Here, where the elusive, phantomlike Apache bands roamed, life was as harsh, cruel, and pitiless as the country itself. The conquest of Apacheria is an epic of heroism, mixed with chicanery, misunderstanding, and tragedy, on both sides. The author’s account of this important segment of Western American history includes the Walapais War, an eyewitness report on the death of the gallant lieutenant Howard B. Cushing, the famous Camp Grant Massacre, General Crook’s offensive in Apacheria and his difficulties with General Miles, and the formidable Apache leaders, including Cochise, Delshay, Big Rump, Chunz, Chan-deisi, Victorio, and Geronimo.