Days of War, Days of Peace, Volume 2
Native American Literature, Biographical Fiction, Western
Date Published: 01-21-2025
Publisher: Hat Creek
Defying betrayal and hardship, Chato fights to save his family and his people's rightful place in the West.
As the Apache Wars roar toward their conclusion in the summer of 1886, renowned Apache army scout and leader Chato joins a delegation of scouts to Washington, D.C., to meet President Grover Cleveland. Their mission? To plead their case for the Chiricahua scouts to remain at Fort Apache and cultivate their lands in peace.
For his unwavering loyalty and service, Chato is awarded a silver medal from Cleveland, along with the implied promise that the scouts can stay where they are. However, after Geronimo's surrender, Chato and his fellow scouts are instead transported to the harsh confines of Fort Marion, Florida, as prisoners of war. They, and the Chiricahua people as a whole, will be deprived of their freedom and their way of life for the next three decades.
Excerpts from Proud Outcast
Excerpt 1 From Introduction
Proud Outcast is the second of two novels about the Apache chief and warrior Pedes-klinje, or as the Mexicans called him, Chato (meaning “Flat Nose”). The first book, Desperate Warrior, covered the years from 1877 to 1886, when Chato often rode with Geronimo as his segundo (second in command) in numerous raids and battles, especially in Mexico, after they escaped San Carlos Reservation in September 1881. During the years in Mexico, Chato lost a wife and two children to Mexican slavery after they were captured during a Rarámuri (aka Tarahumara) Indian attack led by Mexican military on the great Nednhi Chief Juh’s winter camp in January 1883.
Losing his family was a defining event in Chato’s life. He was desperate to get his family back and out of Mexican slavery. Five months after his family was taken, General Crook offered to get them back through high-level negotiations between the Chihuahuan state in Mexico and his big chiefs in Washington. Realizing this was his last, best hope of getting his family back, Chato
vowed allegiance to the Army and to General Crook.
Chato understood that for General Crook’s offer to work in retrieving his family, Geronimo had to stay peaceful on the reservation and not escape to raid in Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico. He told Geronimo that if he left the reservation, he would destroy Crook’s ability to get their families out of slavery, and he, Chato, would find and drag him back to the San Carlos guardhouse in chains. The White Eyes would imprison him there or on the little land in the western big water, Alcatraz, for years. Geronimo called Chato a traitor and a liar, and when he broke out of Fort Apache Reservation tried to have him killed. They remained enemies until Geronimo’s dying day twenty-four years later.
The lives of Chato and Geronimo show striking similarities. Some historians have called Chato “Geronimo’s doppelgänger.” Although Geronimo was about thirty years older than Chato, they both claimed supernatural powers, rode together on many raids, were on the same reservations at the same time, lost wives and children to Mexican slavery and were deadly rifle shots. Both men became Christians but then left the church to become again believers in the Apache creator god, Ussen. Geronimo was the acknowledged leader of the Chiricahua faction that wanted war to settle differences with the White Eyes. Chato was a major leader of the peace faction that believed peace with the White Eyes was necessary for Chiricahua survival.
Chato’s story of captivity and release to freedom is told in Proud Outcast, which covers the years from 1886 to 1934. During this time, Chato survived betrayal by the Army as a prisoner of war and endured, with his head held high, being treated as an outcast by some of his own People after they were freed. As Desperate Warrior said, Chato’s story is taken from history, but its truth is told through fiction as imaginatively seen through the eyes of Chato, whom Lieutenant Britton Davis, his former commander, described in 1929 as “the finest man, red or white, I ever knew.”
Excerpt 2 From Chapter 6
Chihuahua looked across his right shoulder at me and said, “Either you pulled the trigger or you were responsible for who killed my nephew, Ulzana’s son. Ulzana led a raid around Fort Apache. Found you and your wife working in a field and was enjoying the thought of how best to kill you when someone, somehow, warned you, and you and your wife got away. Now you are here, Ulzana is here, and I am here. By tribal law, my family has a right to avenge the killing of our son and nephew. But I stood in the shadows, listening, when you told your brother scouts that we must be patient and change with events to get out of here. These are my thoughts also, Chato. You may be a killer of boys, but you are a wise man and, for your People, a good chief.”
“Yes, I killed that boy. He was shooting at us and could have killed one of us. He didn’t have enough training to know how deadly and foolish it was to stand in the open and fire at his attackers. Whoever made him sentinel was a fool, and it got the boy killed. Both you and Ulzana are great, deadly warriors. I don’t fear you. Come for me when you want. I’ll kill you both. Are you saying now that you two will wait for your blood revenge until the White Eyes free us? If that is so, I say, Ch’ik’eh doleel (Let it be so). Let us work shoulder to shoulder until we are free, and then we can settle your case for revenge as men, not as snarling dogs tied to posts.”
Chihuahua slapped at little insects gathering on his arm and waved his hand to drive more away. Far away, west, on the big river running by the fort, a great horn sounded, its noise crawling away in the heat of the night. He said, “Yes, that is what I say. Nant’an Lpah said two years here and then we return. My brother and I will not seek your blood until we return. Do you agree?”
“There is nothing for me to agree to. I have no quarrel with you until you try
to strike. Then there will be blood.”
“As I said, you are wise, Chato. Now I ask that you help us.” He motioned to the tents crowded together on top of the wall. “Soon I believe these tents will be filled with our People. I don’t know why, but it’s the only reason I know for putting them up. If our People are sent here, this place will be much too small. They’ll be living on top of each other, and with nothing to do, the men will get in trouble and the women in their own peculiar kind of trouble. We must control them. We need strong chiefs to lead them and to work with the Blue Coat commander. We need you to help keep us out of trouble. When Geronimo and his People are brought here, the chance of trouble will grow, but we’ll just have to keep a tight fist against it. Do you agree?”
I nodded. “Geronimo is the reason Ishchos and my children will live out their lives in Mexican slavery. Yes, I will help you, and I’ll work even harder when he comes.”
I saw Chihuahua’s teeth flash again in the low light. “Enjuh (Good), Chato. Now we
are brothers. One sun, we will settle our quarrel as men. Coyote waits.”
I smiled. “Yes, Coyote waits.”
Excerpt 3 From Chapter 8
Bashdelehi (mother of Chato’s next wife), nervous, ran her tongue over her lips and said, “Now let us speak of important things.” I nodded and said, “Speak. I listen.” She looked down at the water below our feet as though she was ashamed of what she was about to say. “Soon the White Eyes will take our children, and we will never see them again. I lost much eye water in our blankets last night when Loco told us this after the council last sun. I have a fine daughter, Begiscleyaihn (later known as Helen – fifteen years old – Chato about thirty-six), who will be made to go to the place the White Eyes call ‘Carlisle’ and the school there. She is a good girl, sweet tempered, hardworking, knows cooking as well as me, and had her Haheh (womanhood ceremony) two summers ago in the Season of Little Leaves before Mohtsos followed Geronimo into Mexico, leaving me, Nahzitzohn, and the children. I heard he had another woman down there. Since then, I have refused six offers for Begiscleyaihn. She wanted none of those boys or young men, nor would I have wanted her to accept one. How can she know she marries a man who can provide for her if he has not been accepted as warrior? How can a young man prove he is ready as a warrior if he cannot raid as a novitiate to prove his worth with men who are truly warriors?”
I nodded and, looking out to the big water, saw the flashes of light in the clouds from unseen lightning arrows and wondered where Bashdelehi was going with this conversation. Every word she said was true. I had thought often of how our young men could be recognized as adults, as warriors, without becoming novitiates.
“Chato, we live in hard, confusing, uncertain times. Never have the White Eyes had such power over us. We seem so helpless, and they lie to us much and often. We can’t even keep our children near us and teach them if the White Eyes send them away to this school place. I want the best for my daughter. I know you lost a good wife in Ishchos and two of your children into Mexican slavery. Now you have only Nalthchedah, her child, Horace, the child of Ishchos, Maud, and your sister. Nalthchedah has not carried any more children in her belly since we left for Mexico with Geronimo five harvests ago. When will you have children with her again? Maybe Ussen gives her no more. You are a man respected by all, hated by a few. You need more sons for your memory. You need another wife. Take Begiscleyaihn as your second wife. She will not always be number-two wife, this I promise you. And I say the only thing for a bride gift I want is for her to be near me and not a long ride away on an iron wagon to the place called school in the land of Carlisle.”
About the Author
W. Michael Farmer combines ten-plus years of research into nineteenth-century Apache history and culture with Southwest-living experience to fill his stories with a genuine sense of time and place. A retired Ph.D. physicist, his scientific research has included measurement of atmospheric aerosols with laser-based instruments, and he has published a two-volume reference book on atmospheric effects on remote sensing. He has also written short stories for anthologies and award-winning essays. His first novel, Hombrecito’s War, won a Western Writers of America Spur Finalist Award for Best First Novel in 2006 and was a New Mexico Book Award Finalist for Historical Fiction in 2007. His other novels include: Hombrecito’s Search; Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright: The Betrayals of Pancho Villa; and Conspiracy: The Trial of Oliver Lee and James Gililland. His Killer of Witches, The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, Mescalero Apache, Book 1 won a Will Rogers Medallion Award and was a New Mexico–Arizona Book Awards Finalist in 2106. Mariana’s Knight, The Revenge of Henry Fountain won the 2017 New Mexico–Arizona Book Award for Historical Fiction and Blood of the Devil, The Life and Times of Yellow Boy, Mescalero Apache, Book 2 was a finalist.
These two novels have also won 2018 Silver Medallion Will Rogers Awards. Apacheria, True Stories of Apache Culture, 1860-1920 won the 2018 New Mexico–Arizona Book Award for History-Other (Other than New Mexico or Arizona), Best New Mexico Book in 2018, a gold medallion in the 2019 Will Rogers Awards for History-Young Folks, and named one of the twenty best books on the southwest by the Pima County (Phoenix and surrounding area) Library System. In 2019 Knight’s Odyssey and Knight of the Tiger won gold medallions in the Will Rogers Medallion Awards, and Knight of the Tiger won the 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Fiction-Adventure NM.
The author is continuing work on two histories and two novels to be released in 2019 through 2021 about the captivity and wars of Geronimo. Geronimo: Prisoner of Lies, Twenty-Three Years as a Prisoner of War is a history of what happened to Geronimo after he surrendered in 1886 and was published in October 2019. The Odyssey of Geronimo, a novel about his years in captivity, will be published in May 2020. The history of Geronimo’s last ten years of war and peace before his surrender, An Apache Iliad, and the companion novel, The Iliad of Geronimo, A Song of Blood and Fire are expected to be published in 2021.
Contact Links
Purchase Links
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comment here - or - share your views on Social Media Platforms of Choice..