From Fort Marion to Fort Sill: A Documentary History of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War, 1886-1913

Acknowledgments

xvii Acknowledgments I am grateful to many people whose help is appreciated and I would like to recognize them. Two people in particular, Edwin R. Sweeney and Miriam A. Perrett, are foremost for helping me achieve my goals. I met Ed in 1987 at Cañon de los Embudos, Sonora, Mexico, the site where the Chiricahuas negotiated their surrender terms in March 1886, a fortuitous place to begin an extraordinary journey into all things Chiricahua . He was completing his research for the biography of Cochise, the celebrated Chiricahua Apache chief. From that time onward, we found mutually beneficial activities that blended well. We made numerous excursions to historic sites pertaining to the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apaches in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico, often in the company of ex-prisoners of war and prisoner-of-war descendants. Our respective research topics inevitably became the subject of the next excursion with the Chiricahua. While Ed pursued Mangas Coloradas and Geronimo as relentlessly as he had researched Cochise, we corresponded and spoke by phone regularly . In most of our conversations and letters we had some new information to discuss. Those exchanges invariably ended with his encouragement that what I was doing would matter. I am not from an academic background , and such an endeavor gave me pause. His encouragement and faith in me was inspiring. Unfortunately, a severe, chronic illness occurred from which I am still recovering. As I regained my strength, my desire to complete the book manuscript was rekindled. Ed’s friendship during those years had not waned. His comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism have been a tremendous help. I consider him a mentor from whom I have learned much. I am indebted to him in so many ways, and I feel privileged to call him a friend. Miriam Perrett, who lives in Wales in the United Kingdom, first wrote xviii | acknowledgments to me in 1993. At the time I was living in Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains. The letter miraculously arrived from Wales addressed to “Cochise Stronghold, Arizona, USA.” Thus began a flurry of correspondence . We discovered that our respective studies on the Chirichuaa Apaches dovetailed nicely. On her first trip to Arizona we visited Chiricahua place names known well to her through her meticulous investigation . On subsequent trips she was a guest speaker at an international conference on Chiricahua art and became acquainted with Chiricahua prisoner-of-war descendants with whom she shared her research. My goal for this book was to uncover obscure, unpublished images of prisoners that would provide a measure of humanity to their lives, a window for modern viewers. Miriam’s boundless enthusiasm made the pictorial sleuthing not only productive but fun. Each newly rediscovered image we found tucked away, sometimes in the most unlikely places, was like finding a long buried treasure. Her keen eye correctly identified many images previously unidentified or misidentified, and her effort lends no small contribution to this book. Along the way I met some extraordinary people with common interests , especially Bud Shapard of Pisaga Forest, North Carolina, and Sherry Robinson of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who became special friends and colleagues. Others whose comments and suggestion were important in the development of the book are Berndt Kühn of Stockholm, Sweden; Allen Radbourne of Taunton, England; Niels Jürgensen of Aarhus, Denmark; Helge Ingstad of Oslo, Norway; Cynthia Patterson Lewis and Steve Klein at the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta, Georgia; Woody Skinner, Genevieve Bell, Bernice Tenhaken, and Bob and Linda Schut. I would like to recognize the Chiricahua and Warm Springs Apaches whose generosity is appreciated. They are Meredith Magoosh Begay, Mildred Imach Cleghorn, Evelyn Martine Gaines, Arlys and Lida Kanseah, Berle and Lynette Kazhe Kanseah, Kathleen Kanseah, Anita and Parker Lester, Jordan and Annette Torres, Melferd Yuzos, and the director of the Mescalero Tribal Museum, Ellyn Bigrope. An integral part of any research project is well-informed staff. For their exceptional help I am grateful to Barbara Landis and Richard Tritt at the Cumberland County Historical Society Collection, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Deborah Baroff at the Museum of the Great Plains, Lawton, Oklahoma; Cécile Ganteaume, associate curator at the National Museum of the Amer- acknowledgments | xix ican Indian Cultural Resources Center, Suitland, Maryland; and Charles Tingley at the St. Augustine Historical Society, St. Augustine, Florida. Other persons who were helpful are Donzella Maupin at Hampton University in Virginia; Edith Willoughby of the...