Shame & Endurance

"The Chiricahua Apaches fought valiantly as well as violently for many years to preserve their way of life in the face of Anglo encroachment on their lands. When Geronimo and his followers surrendered on September 4, 1886 - their only alternative to certain annihilation - it marked the end of the Apache wars but the beginning of a sorrowful period for this proud people." "First removed from Arizona to Florida, the prisoners were eventually relocated to Mount Vernon Barracks in Alabama, where, in the words of one Apache, "We didn't know what misery was until they dumped us in those swamps." Pulmonary disease took its toll - by 1894, disease had killed nearly half of the Apaches - and after years of pressure from Indian rights activists and bureaucratic haggling, Fort Sill in Oklahoma was chosen as a more healthful location. Here they were given the opportunity to farm and here Geronimo, who eventually converted to Christianity, died of pneumonia in 1909 at the age of 89, still a prisoner of war. In the meantime, many Apache children had been removed to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for education - despite earlier promises that families would not be split up - and most eventually lost their cultural identity." "Henrietta Stockel has combed public records to reconstruct this story of American shame and Native endurance. Unabashedly speaking on behalf of the Apaches, she has framed these documents within a readable narrative to show how exasperated public officials, eager to openly demonstrate their superiority over "savages" who had successfully challenged the American military for years, had little sympathy for the consequences of their confinement. Many of the medical reports and news items have never before been compiled in one volume, and readers will find their collective impact sometimes surprising, often shocking."--BOOK JACKET.