This is a short autobiography of the legendary Apache leader Geronimo. For those who don’t know, Apaches were a tribe of fearsome Indian warriors who lived on the territory spanning from present-day South-Western USA to northern Mexico, although their bands travelled occasionally much farther than that. Geronimo was one of their principal leaders and he became something of a thorn in the American and Mexican side in the second half of the 19th century.
Before I continue, I just want to say that I will be using the word “Indian” rather than “Native American” because that is the term used in the book. This book was written more than a century ago, and back then the term “Indian” was widespread and, generally speaking, not pejorative.
The book is quite short. It comes to some 130 pages, 30 of which are writer’s comments. (Geronimo narrated it, but he didn’t write the book himself.) Geronimo spends a lot of time describing the culture, religion and customs of the Apaches. I found this more interesting that the part about his life (I will get to that later) because beforehand I knew next to nothing about Apaches other than what I saw in westerns. They were a fascinating people. Some of their customs I approve of, some I disapprove, of and some are neither good nor bad but merely different. In some ways they were the way they are portrayed in movies, and in some other ways they were totally different. The book does dispel the image of an Indian as a noble savage. Indians were human beings with all the virtues and vices that come with it. In some ways they were noble, and in some ways they were barbaric. For example, their customs required them to always keep their word (something that we would all approve of), but any person not of their tribe could be killed or maltreated without any regret. This does not mean that they were psychopaths who killed at whim, but in the book we do find instances of them committing what to us is cold blooded murder and thinking nothing of it. By our modern values they did a lot of good things but also a lot of bad things. Does that make them good people or bad people? (Or just people?) I will let you decide.
The other “half” (the two accounts are intermingled) of the book is the story of Geronimo’s life as told to us by him. If you are expecting captivating blow-by-blow account of his adventures, you will be disappointed. If you hope that he will be discussing Apache fighting techniques and tactics in the “Sun Tzu: the Art of War” style of analysis, you will be disappointed too. Most of the time, when Geronimo talks, it goes something like this:
“In the spring me and two other warriors, we went to Mexico. We met some cowboys and we stole twenty horses from them. Then we hid in the mountains for two months. Then a meeting was called and we formed a war party. On our way we met some cowboys on wagons. We killed them all and took their stuff. They had a lot of food and some guns. A week later we were attacked by Mexican soldiers. We had to disperse. I shot two Mexicans in that battle.”
No, this is not a direct quote, but you get the idea. All that time Geronimo’s voice is very stoic and monotonous. I would not say that he is boring, because he certainly is not, but his account lacks emotion. Even when Geronimo talks about how his wife and children were ambushed and killed by Mexican soldiers, he expresses no emotion.
Is it because he feels no emotion, or because he is suppressing it, I cannot say. I would guess the later. I hate stereotypes, but the way Geronimo carries himself reminds me of all those calm, stoic Indians that you see so often in westerns. Could it be that this particular stereotype is grounded in reality?
I was going to say that this book offers an insight into the Indian mind, but that would be racist. Indians are human beings and they have personalities. There is no “Indian mind,” just as there is no such thing as “American mind” or “Chinese mind.” Still, I am sad to say that some stereotypes about Indians (Indians from that time period, that is) are confirmed by this book.
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Top reviews from other countries
J Mac
Definitely worth a read if you like to hear the other side of the story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2018
