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From Fort Marion to Fort Sill: A Documentary History of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, 1886–1913 by Alicia Delgadillo, Miriam A. Perrett

2015; Volume: 35; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/gpq.2015.0042

2333-5092

Joyce M. Szabo,

Archaeology and Natural History

Reviewed by: From Fort Marion to Fort Sill: A Documentary History of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, 1886–1913 by Alicia Delgadillo, Miriam A. Perrett Joyce M. Szabo From Fort Marion to Fort Sill: A Documentary History of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, 1886–1913. Edited and annotated by Alicia Delgadillo with Miriam A. Perrett. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. viii + 359 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $70.00 cloth. Although bearing a somewhat misleading title, this painstakingly researched volume begins well before the 1886 imprisonment of Chiricahua Apache people at Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida. Perrett’s extensive introduction relays the history of Chiricahua encounters with military and civilians in the United States and Mexico that led to both the Fort Marion exile as well as the longer one at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Chiricahua homelands crossed the borders between what are now New Mexico and Arizona and the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. These people lived off the land, hunted, and gathered wild food. Chiricahuas were also well known as raiders, which ultimately led to several forced relocations followed by the Florida exile of various groups. After a report by the Indian Rights Association revealed unacceptable conditions at Fort Marion, most prisoners were moved to Pensacola, then Mount Vernon, Alabama, in 1887. In 1894 they were transferred to Fort Sill. In the early twentieth century, a battle ensued over whether the Chiricahua would remain at Fort Sill or would relocate to Mescalero. In December 1912 the government gave the Chiricahua the choice to move to Mescalero or stay in Oklahoma. With this background, readers can follow an alphabetized catalog of entries that includes every Chiricahua known to have been imprisoned at either Fort Marion or Fort Sill. To whom people were related along both maternal and paternal lines, who their spouses were, who their children were, and birth and death dates as far as are known appear, as does other information about the people whose presence is documented. From well-known figures like Naiche and other members of Cochise’s and Mangas Coloradas’s families to people no less important in their culture but previously invisible to those outside Chiricahua life, hundreds of people with individualized records appear in this archival work. Acknowledging the foundational genealogical studies of Gillett Griswold, director of the US Army Field Artillery Museum at Fort Sill from 1954 to 1979, Delgadillo and Perrett, who from her home in Wales had been working on a project similar to Delgadillo’s, joined their research efforts with Griswold’s to produce the current volume. The authors credit Griswold with recording often ignored information about marriages and family connections that provide a more complete view of Chiricahua people. Of particular importance is the deeper knowledge about women in Chiricahua families; relationships through the mother’s line and women’s influence in Apache life are vital factors recognized here. The introduction will be of considerable value to readers who do not have extensive knowledge of the military history of the Southwest and Plains or nineteenth-century Chiricahua life. For others, both academic and nonacademic, the volume offers a unique compilation of information about individuals affected by military actions and resulting relocations. The volume also includes previously unpublished photographs and reproductions of paintings that add significantly to the written record. [End Page 318] Joyce M. Szabo Department of Art and Art History University of New Mexico Copyright © 2015 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln