cover image Geronimo

Geronimo

Robert M. Utley. Yale Univ., $30 (376p) ISBN 978-0-300-12638-9

Meticulous and finely researched, Utley’s (The Lance and the Shield) account of Geronimo’s life attempts to dismiss the legend of an “Apache daredevil fighting for his homeland.” Compiled from various firsthand accounts and military records, the book traces the life of the Chiricahua warrior from fearless raider to subdued reservation Indian. Living free of government control until 1876, Geronimo ravaged the area of the present-day Arizona/Sonora border for decades, focusing particular vehemence on the Mexican side as retribution for the (assumed) massacre of his first family when he was 28. Not until the late 1870s did Geronimo gain notoriety on the American side of the border, when “he came to personify all the Apache raiders, both in the minds of victims and in newspapers throughout the nation.” He lived most of his life highly suspicious of everyone, even his own people, always “coiled to stampede to Mexico,” where he could hide himself in the nearly impenetrable Sierra Madre. Multiple breakouts from reservations in Arizona and New Mexico cemented his fame as one of the last Apache war heroes. At times detail cluttered and distant, the book occasionally glosses over horrific events. However, Utley achieves his goal of humanizing Geronimo, fastidiously showing the transition from bloodthirsty raider to subservient prisoner of war, fair attraction and, eventually, entrepreneur. Agent: Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents. (Nov.)