A high school and college teacher, Ball moved to Ruidoso, New Mexico, in 1942. Her house on the edge of the Mescalero Apache Reservation was a stopping-off place for Apaches on the dusty walk into town. She quickly realized she was talking to the sons and daughters of Geronimo, Cochise, Victorio, and their warriors. After winning their confidence, Ball would ultimately interview sixty-seven people.
Here is the Apache side of the story as told to Eve Ball. Including accounts of Victorio’s sister Lozen, a warrior and medicine woman who was the only unmarried woman allowed to ride with the men, as well as unflattering portrayals of Geronimo’s actions while under attack, and Mescalero scorn for the horse thief Billy the Kid, this volume represents a significant new source on Apache history and lifeways.
Sherry Robinson went through seventeen unsorted boxes of Ball’s papers left at Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library, realizing that Ball had not used all her transcripts in her published books. She also found that the generous, energetic, and strong-willed Eve Ball was as fascinating as her subjects, and she provides lively glimpses into Ball’s relationships with fellow Apache scholars Angie Debo and Dan Thrapp.
