Chiricahua Apache Enduring Power: Naiche's Puberty Ceremony Paintings

Chapter 3. Exile and the Construction of Cultural Identity

3 Exile and the Construction of Cultural Identity Other Indians have homes where they can live and be happy. I and my people have no homes. The place where we are kept is bad for us. . . . We are sick there and we die. —Geronimo PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, AUGUST, 2004 The contrast between Fort Marion and Fort Pickens could not be more profound . Even though each is located in a militarily strategic position on the coast with a lighthouse in the distance, they are on opposite sides of the state. Fort Marion is on the east coast of Florida and faces the Atlantic Ocean, while Fort Pickens is at the western edge of the state and faces the Gulf of Mexico. Fort Marion, built between 1672 and 1695, is an integral part of St. Augustine, a city that still re®ects its Spanish heritage. In contrast, Fort Pickens, constructed between 1829 and 1834 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , is isolated at the far end of Santa Rosa Island. Named after Revolutionary War hero General Andrew Pickens of South Carolina, Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and its navy yard. An hour’s drive from Mobile, Alabama, Fort Pickens is now part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. I see osprey soaring above, and, rolling down the car windows, I hear the rhythmic rise and fall of buzzing cicadas. Santa Rosa Island is a long, narrow island, and the two-lane road is edged with gleaming white sand that stretches off into huge dunes topped with sea oats that bend in the breeze (Figure 18). In between the dunes, I can see waves breaking on the shore. On my return drive, the air will be fragrant with suntan lotion as families swim and picnic on the beach. A few shrubs and scrubby pines cluster at the western end of the island where the low, rambling structure of the fort is located. Spotting the tall®ower stalk of a century plant rising from radiating, curving leaves, I immediately feel at home and begin to wonder if there were agave plants here when the Apaches arrived. If so, they must have been happy to see something as familiar as this major food staple. It was from the mescal, a species of the agave, that the Mescalero Apaches got their name. Even though Fort Pickens is surrounded by dark or opaque water, laden for the Apaches with a strong connection to death, the Chiricahua warriors may have felt more at home here than those at Fort Marion, hemmed in by the city on three sides. After their arrival in Pensacola, they took a steamer to Santa Rosa Island. During the passage one of the Chiricahuas, Beshe, was “delighted” when he saw porpoises cavorting in the water (1976:310). The Apaches were surprised that such graceful, playful creatures could live in what seemed to be the same substance as sinister alligators. Here they had room to roam and an abundance of nature as well as relative solitude (Figure 19). Most importantly, when they climbed the ramparts of the fort, they could see the horizon. One of the librarians at the fort told me that she likes to think that they came to feel the similarities between the great expanse of water and distance all around them and the space and light in the desert Southwest. I arrive early, before the visitor’s center has opened and wander around the fort. Even though the sun has not yet burned through the morning mist, there is still a sea breeze that provides far better circulation than the still, suffocating air of Fort Marion in St. Augustine. Entering through the sally port, I imagine the Chiricahuas posing for individual photographs framed by the tall archway (Figure 20). (Photographers from Pensacola came over to take pictures of each warrior.) Figure 18: Road to Fort Pickens, Gulf Islands National Seashore, Santa Rosa Island, near Pensacola, Florida. Photo by author. 72 Chapter 3 Figure 19: Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island, Florida. Naiche, Geronimo, and the warriors with them were imprisoned here between 1886 and 1888. Photo by author. Figure 20: Entrance to Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island, Florida. Photo by author. The large parade ground is framed by the archway; just to my left are plaster-lined rooms that once served as a hospital and later as quarters. Most of the...