I recently finished a trilogy by independent researcher Edwin R. Sweeny on Chiricahua Apaches. The books, listed below, .are part of the University of Oklahoma’s extensive, “The Civilization of the American Indian Series.”
Mangas Colorades: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief, and From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apaches, 1874–1886
After reading Sweeney’s trilogy, I have come to the conclusion that the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores beginning in the 16[SUP]th[/SUP] century, Mexicans after Independence, and Americans flooding west through New Mexico, in in hopes finding gold in San Francisco were as brutal and uncivilized, if not more so, than the Apaches.
Sweeney did not write the books in chronological order. Sweeney is an ardent admirer of Cochise. He wrote about Cochise first. Then he did a prequel on Mangas Colorades (Red Sleeves), who was Cochise’s father-in-law. The trilogy concludes with the volume, which covered the years 1874-1886.
Mangas Colorades was my favorite Apache. While the average Apache stood between 5’6” and 5’8”, Mangas was estimated between 6’4” and 6’7”. Sweeney describes him as generous man with a sense of humor. When not at war, he was apparently a kind and gracious man. In 1863, while under a flag of truce, the American military arrested Mangas. Soldiers killed him, claiming that he “tried to escape. The military buried Mangas, then dug up and mutilated his body, including decapitated. The mutilation incensed the Apaches as much as the death. According to Apache religion, the body enters “the happy place” and remains through eternity, just as it left this life. The betrayal and murder of Mangas Colorades lead in part to continuing hostilities that lasted another quarter century.
The third book, From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apaches, 1874–1886, is my favorite. The book on Cochise and Mangas Colorades describe endless battles in parts of Mexico and the United States. The third volume concentrates more on tribal life and then politics of resettling the Apaches.
I’ll mention few examples of Apache culture.
Unlike some Indian tribes, Apaches, for the most part, did not scalp people. By contrast, the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua offered bounties for scalps generally ranging from about 100 pesos for a warrior, 50 for a woman, and 25 for a child. Bounty hunters from the U. S. frequently trafficked in Apache hair.
Although women and children frequently perished in battles with the Indians, by custom Apaches did not rape captive women, and frequently adopted captive children as their own.
Although Apaches, including women, smoked they did not smoke peace pipes. Instead, they smoked cigarettes rolled in oak leaves.
I would recommend this trilogy to anyone interest in Apache history. Sweeney’s books are well documented, mainly with primary sources.
Sweeney sums things up nicely near the end of volume three, From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apaches, 1874–1886. Sweeney writes: Removal off the Apaches to Florida in 1886, then to Alabama, then to Oklahoma “…was just another in a litany of broken promise and treaties dating back to Puritanical times in colonial Massachusetts. It remains today a national betrayal and an egregious disgrace unworthy of a country founded on the democratic ideals of liberty, equality, and justice for all.” p. 575
And of course I love Christine, my first ever King novel.