Josanie's War: A Chiricahua Apache Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)

536 Pages·1998·1.11 MB·English

by  Karl H. Schlesier

Josanie's War : A Chiricahua Apache Novel
title: American Indian Literature and Critical
Studies Series ; V. 27
author: Schlesier, Karl H.
publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
isbn10 | asin: 0806130652
print isbn13: 9780806130651
ebook isbn13: 9780585169880
language: English
Chiricahua Indians--Fiction, Apache
Indians--Wars, 1883-1886--Fiction,
subject Reservation Indians--Arizona--History--
Fiction, West (U.S.)--History--1860-1890--
Fiction, Historical fiction.
publication date: 1998
lcc: PS3569.C5128J67 1998eb
ddc: 813/.54
Chiricahua Indians--Fiction, Apache
Indians--Wars, 1883-1886--Fiction,
subject: Reservation Indians--Arizona--History--
Fiction, West (U.S.)--History--1860-1890--
Fiction, Historical fiction.
Page i
American Indian Literature
And
Critical Studies Series
Gerald Vizenor and Louis Owens,
General Editors
Page iii
Josanie's War
Page iv
Other books by Karl H. Schlesier
Nonfiction
The Wolves of Heaven: Cheyenne Shamanism, Ceremonies, and
Prehistoric Origins (Norman, 1987)
Plains Indians, 5001500: The Archaeological Past of Historic
A.D.
Groups (Norman, 1994)
Page v
Josanie's War
A Chiricahua Apache Novel
by
Karl H. Schlesier
UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Norman
Page vi
Though some historical materials with notes are included, this is a work
of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product
of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schlesier, Karl H.
Josanie's war: a Chiricahua Apache novel / by Karl H. Schlesier.
p. cm. (American Indian literature and critical studies
series; v. 27)
ISBN 0-8061-3065-2
1. Chiricahua IndiansFiction. I. Title. II. Series
PS3569.C5128J67 1998
813'.54dc21 98-6212
CIP
Josanie's War: A Chiricahua Apache Novel is Volume 27 in the
A I L C S S .
MERICAN NDIAN ITERATURE AND RITICAL TUDIES ERIES
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources, Inc.
Copyright © 1998 by the University of Oklahoma Press, Norman,
Publishing Division of the University. All rights reserved. Manufactured
in the U.S.A.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Page vii
To Iszánádle-sé and Tóbáshi-scinén, who may still be listening,
even if I misspell their names. And for Claire.
Page viii
The white man makes two wars. One to kill us.
And one to make sure no one will remember.
Black Kettle, Cheyenne chief, 1867
Page ix
Introduction
On May 17, 1885, five small bands of Chiricahua Apaches left their
camps on Turkey Creek, seventeen miles southwest of Fort Apache,
Arizona, and fled the reservation. Three of these bands were of the old
Chokonen division of the tribe, led by Chihuahua, Naiche, and
Geronimo. The other two bands were of the old Chihenne, or Warm
Springs, division of the tribe, led by Nana and Mangus. Together they
numbered 35 men, 8 boys tagged by reservation officials as subadults
capable of bearing arms, and 101 women and children. Charles F.
Lummis, a journalist who accompanied the commanding officer of the
Department of Arizona, Brigadier General George Crook, during
some of his attempts to recapture or kill these Apaches, called them
"the deadliest fighting handful in the calendar of man."
These Chiricahua men, women, and children were the same who had
surrendered to Crook in the Sierra Madre of Mexico on May 20, 1883,
after they had been worn down by constant warfare against them on
both sides of the border. For two years they had lived without fear of
imminent death, but they had paid a heavy price for it. With the
surrender they relinquished any hope of ever keeping for themselves a
fraction of the great and wealthy country that they had held and
defended for many generations, through the Spanish and Mexican
periods and into the American period.
Originally mountain people, they had been imprisoned on sun-
drenched, disease-infected desert lands that were foreign to them.
They had been subjected to rules considered unlawful anywhere
outside the reservation boundaries. Every aspect of their culture and
religion had been assaulted by civilian and military authorities.
Corrupt reservation officials had become rich by defrauding them.
They had seen many of their people die of European-introduced