Riding With Cochise
The Apache Story of America's Longest War
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Riding With Cochise brings the violent drama of the American Southwest to life through the eyes of the legendary Apache chieftain Cochise and three other tribal leaders, Geronimo, Victorio, and Mangas Coloradas. Relying largely on the oral histories told by relatives of these great warriors as well as personal diaries of others who were involved, veteran author Steve Price takes the reader deep into the Cochise Stronghold, through Massacre Canyon, and across Apache Pass. You’ll sit beside the campfires of Tom Jeffords, the only white man Cochise ever fully trusted, and touch the faded stone walls of Fort Craig, the rock cairns at Dragoon Springs, and the magnificent cottonwoods at Ojo Caliente. You’ll be with General George Crook and Lt. Charles Gatewood as they pursue Geronimo through New Mexico, Arizona and even into Mexico’s Sierra Madre, and learn how a handful of Apache warriors could disappear into open desert, ride and sleep on horseback, and outwit thousands of American and Mexican troops for months at a time. Thoroughly researched and written in the author’s easy but fast-paced story-telling style, Riding With Cochise presents a sweeping history of how one Native American tribe fought desperately to keep its land and its culture in the face of America’s westward expansion known as Manifest Destiny, then spent 27 years in exile and captivity before finally being allowed to return to their beloved homeland.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The Apache Wars are a tragic story of a people who fought long and hard to keep their homeland and their culture despite decades of betrayal by enemies who never really wanted or seriously tried to understand them," writes journalist Price (The Horse Catalog) in this well-intentioned yet disorganized history. Focusing on five legendary chieftains—Cochise, Victorio, Nana, Geronimo, and Mangas Coloradas—Price documents numerous battles and conflicts between the Apache peoples and the American government between 1849 and 1886 and vividly describes the Southwestern landscape where these clashes took place. While the pairing of each chieftain with his American counterpart offers insights—for example, Geronimo's pursuer Gen. George Crook "did his best to destroy the Apache culture while at the same time harboring a growing sympathy for the very victims he created from that destruction"—chapters recommending "Places to See" feel out of place and Price's frequent repetitions (the kidnapping and murder of Cochise's family members by Lt. George Nicholas Bascom is covered multiple times) make for a disjointed reading experience. Readers will appreciate the thoroughness but wish it came in a more polished package. Illus.