Chiricahua Apache Enduring Power: Naiche's Puberty Ceremony Paintings (review)

346Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary The second section of the book (pp. 139-472), Que hablen ellos ("Let Them Talk"), is a collection of excerpts from primary sources, some of them previously unpublished. This section contains recurrent explanatory digressions through which the author expands on many ofthe topics oudined in the first section. The documents fall into six thematic chapters, respectively dealing with the natural scenery, the roles of the Crown and the Church, warfare, economy and society, and culture, with some overlap in dieir contents. In the closing chapter, the author discusses the relative lack of significance of this region in the historiography of Spain and Mexico, as compared to the pervasiveness of the Western frontier in U.S. historiography. Jiménez sets forth two aims; the first is to highlight die extension and complexity of New Spain's northern frontier dirough die use of documents from the colonial period. The second goal is to advocate an approach to the study of the Great North within the larger framework of the Spanish Empire. Through his discriminatory choice ofdocuments,Jiménez has, nevertheless, turned diis goal into an overbearing premise that, to some extent, inhibits the achievement of his first objective. By concentrating almost exclusively on letters audiored by ecclesiastical, military, and civil authorities, institutional similarities common to die different regions of northern New Spain, and even to other parts of the Spanish Empire, become apparent. A more diverse selection of sources could have been used to identify historical developments peculiar to some areas, or to unveil die miscellaneous experiences of the diverse ethnic and social groups diat coexisted in the region.Judicial depositions could have been utilized to incorporate perspectives of Native Americans or Hispanic women through dieir own testimonies. Quantitative data could have been instrumental in illustrating socioeconomic and demographic processes that deserve more attention dian they receive in die book (for example, Indian demographic decline). Jimenez's encyclopedic knowledge ofthe history ofnorthern New Spain, along with his admirable ability to synthesize, is evident throughout the book, making it particularly recommendable to the lay reader. Undergraduates and scholars will also find useful tools at the end of the volume: a comprehensive analytical index, and a carefully chosen bibliography. All in all, while readers familiar with the American historiography on the so-called Spanish Borderlands are not the target audience of El Gran Norte de México, Jimenez's work is a praiseworthy and much needed contribution to the Spanish-language literature on Northern New Spain. Texas State University-San ManosJoaquín Rivaya-Martínez ChxricahuaApacL·EnduringPower: Naiche'sPuberty Ceremony Paintings. ByTrudy GriffinPierce . (Tuscaloosa: University ofAlabama Press, 2006. Pp. 208. Maps, illustrations , color plates, references, index. ISBN 0817353674. $32.95, paper.) Although ostensibly a discussion of only a small number of die Chiricahua leader Naiche's paintings, Trudy Griffin-Pierce's book is far more than that. Drawing 2oo8Book Reviews347 extensively on theories by Clifford Geertz, Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, Keidi Basso, medical anthropologists, and odiers, she provides some of the freshest and most illuminating perspectives on both Apaches and Native art I have ever read. Describing herself as a Catawba descendant (but one who clearly has many ties to the Arizona Apache communities), she writes with a deep appreciation for the subject. Griffin-Pierce begins with a general narrative of Apache history. Though odiers have written about the topic extensively, her version is eloquendy written, told with clarity and sensitivity. Indeed, Griffin-Pierce's account could be used as a primer in Chiricahua history, social and political structure, and spiritual traditions for the novice. This narrative is followed by an intricate and moving description ofdie Chiricahua imprisonment at Fort Marion, Florida, showing the daily life during the Chiricahua diaspora. During their captivity at Fort Sill and Mount Vernon in Alabama, more dian one half of the Chiricahuas died, with especially high deadi rates from tuberculosis. Griffin-Pierce also discusses the experience ofChiricahua children at die boarding schools in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, provides a short biography ofNaiche, and explains the importance of the puberty ceremony in Apache life. Almost from the beginning of the Apaches' captivity, the general public's fascination with them as symbols ofallegedly dying primitivism led to the Apaches...