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Reviews
| Victorio: Apache Warrior and Chief, by Kathleen Chamberlain. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. $24.95, cloth.
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| One of the more predominant historiographical issues of the American West has been the plight of Native Americans and their representation in the nation's popular consciousness. In many ways, it has been the charge of historians to rectify the antiquated notion of the "savage Indian" who preyed upon innocent settlers looking to migrate to the West. These popular perceptions have slowly been overcome both in the eyes of popular culture and historians. Kathleen Chamberlain's work, Victorio: Apache Warrior and Chief, contributes to this dialogue by focusing on this elusive historical figure that played a prominent role in the Apache Wars of the late nineteenth century. Not as notorious as his contemporary Cochise or as gregarious as Geronimo, Victorio has generally remained in relative historical obscurity, yet Chamberlain produces an account of this Apache chief that proves him not to be the brutal warrior of historical memory, but rather a dutiful father and husband, as well as a peaceful leader who was pushed to war by an incompetent U.S. bureaucracy that neither protected nor understood his Chihenne band. It is Chamberlain central conceit that the actions of the government, and not the misperceived Apache predilection for violence, that forced this man of peace to campaign against the White Man. |
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As part of the ongoing Oklahoma Western Biographies series, the book serves not just as a history of Victorio, but also of the Southwestern Apaches from their origins in North America to their settlement in the New Mexico/Arizona region. It is in this arena they contended with the extension of the Spanish frontier, as well as the aftermath of Mexican Independence, which established a borderland that found the Apaches increasingly forced into contact and bartering with both Mexican nationalist and encroaching American traders. The increasing interaction with these people elevated Victorio into a figure of transnational infamy, as the Apache tradition of raiding villages for sustenance would make him the bane of not only citizens of the New Mexican territories, but also those of the Mexican state of Sonora, with the borderland town of Janos a favorite target. Raiding occurred so frequently on both sides of the border that the Sonoran government advocated the deplorable practice of scalp-hunting, which Apaches would later partake in as a means of retaliation, establishing their reputation of being scalpers themselves. |
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More troublesome for Victorio and his band was the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which created arbitrary borders that not only crippled the socio-economics of the tribe, but forced them to become increasingly dependant on the United States. Through U.S. subordination, Victorio became more familiarized with an Indian Office that was mired by corruption and minuscule budgets, which prevented the proper allocation of resources to the Chihenne band living in the Canada Alamosa region of the Warm Springs Reservation in New Mexico. It was in his increased dealings with this office that Victorio grew to distrust and abhor the White Man. His animosity was further amplified by the government's ill-advised policy of concentration, which entailed the moving of all Apache tribes, regardless of any linguistic or cultural difference, to a singular reservation. This policy was the final straw for this proud warrior who led his people off the San Carlos reservation, making him an enemy of the government. It was this defiance to a corrupt and absurd Indian policy that led to his death at the hands of a Mexican Calvery at Tres Castillos. |
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Chamberlain's monograph is well written, but she suffers from the same problem that anyone engaged in the research of Native American history would, which is the lack of textual sources. Records from the Department of War, which consist of those who both cooperated with and hunted down Victorio, "fall short and leave the picture extremely one-sided" (p. 221). Evidence is also culled from ethnographic sources such as oral histories, particularly those related to Eve Ball, who collected the testimonies of James Kaywaykla, an Apache whose recollections of Victorio were hampered due to his age. Because of these limitations, the picture that emerges of the Apache chief is unclear and undefined, and Victorio himself comes off as a reactive character who never has complete control of his destiny. |
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This book would be a great addition to any A.P. U.S. History course, as it serves to initiate students into the complex world of Native Americans in the in the nineteenth century American Southwest. Chamberlain's narrative flows well and there are maps that depict the borderland areas of the Apache culture that and add clarification. The book would also enhance undergraduate U.S. history courses to further covey the impact of American expansion on native populations. While Chamberlain concedes that this work is not meant to be a definitive account of his life, it does give Victorio relevance as a prominent actor in the theatre of the American West, one who merits further research. |
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| California State University, Long Beach |
Timothy Garvin |
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