A recommended top pick for any collection strong in Native history and culture.

books:

	• Victorio: Apache Warrior and Chief (Oklahoma Western Biographies) Kathleen P. Chamberlain University of Oklahoma Press, 2007 - 242 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

MAY BE VICTORIO, MAYBE

Having followed anthropology and sociology in college, I appreciate the intermingling of fact, ethnology, and oral tradition interwoven throughout this latest biography of Victorio. And would easily recommend this book to other readers.

That said, the book I still prefer is Dan L. Thrapp's 1974 monumental study. Here's a few thoughts why:

In many chapters of this newer book, Victorio's existence is relegated to the background, while in the forefront general, traditional Apache history and culture are recited. In doing this oft times the author seems to use words such as "may be", "may have", or "undoubtedly" in place of concrete historical fact. Since a paucity of fact admittedly exists for much of Victorio's life, any sidestep from fact could reasonably lead directly to errors resulting in misleading conclusions. With Victorio being such an atypical Apache warrior it cannot necessarily be stated, removed from known fact, just what his early life would have been like. And sadly many facts of Victorio's daily, early life just are not available.

If Victorio, for example, similar to Crazy Horse of the Oglala Lakota, was not the 'normal' Apache, then his entire life, as true with Crazy Horse as well, probably defied in many ways rather than conformed to the Apache cultural norm. As in the case of Loco, which the author sites, a warrior could exhibit at times deviate behavior rather than the Apache cultural norm and not only get away with it, but at times be admired or feared because of it.

As such the application of the words "may be", "may have", or "undoubtedly", simply may fall far short when attempting to link Victorio's behavior to other Apache children or warriors. We just do not know the exact details constituting the early life of Victorio, much less many details of his later life. Although the Apache have an oral tradition as examined by Eve Ball and others, that tradition much of the time does not help us on our fact finding quest.

Though I enjoy Dan L. Thrapp's scholarly works, I find no reason not to recommend this book to others. However, my reading taste runs rather to a more military approach to biography as contained in Dan L. Thrapp's works. His book on Victorio is also more voluminous in pages and maps, and offers several more photographs to bolster the text.

And though this author understandably feels her recent book the superior work, I cannot agree. While most excellent, her newer biography does not, in this reader's opinion, surpass Dan L. Thrapp's earlier, elegant time-honored work.

However, reading both of these studies on Victorio can only aid our understanding of this very remarkable person of history.

Semper Fi.

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A recommended top pick for any collection strong in Native history and culture.

Apache chief Victorio was a champion of his people during wars with the whites, but is much lesser known than his contemporaries Cochise and Geronimo. That's why college-level collections strong in Native American studies needs Victorio: Apache Warrior and Chief: it uses ethnographic sources to surmise Victorio's life, integrating insights into traditional Apache lifestyles and culture along the way, and revealing his life beyond the usual military records. It's an important survey of a spiritual and military leader and is a recommended top pick for any collection strong in Native history and culture.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

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REAL MEN

I received this book for Christmas. "Victorio"; Apache Warrior and Chief by Kathleen P. Chamberlain helped to bring out the spirit of an Apache Warrior too long forgotten in the dust of time for the more famous contemporaries such as; Cochise, and Geronimo. Victorio has always been under-played and unappreciated (much like Mangus Colorado),but who... in reality embodies the "classical" aura of the Apache warrior.

Ms. Chamberlain does a good job of interweaving the historical facts and traditional Apache lifestyles as cohesive material in bonding what little written records remain of this truly magnificiant Apache who kept both the U.S. and Mexican armies at bay for such a long time. With a few rifles, bows and arrows, and pure determination, Victorio and his band of renagades proved to be one of histories best guerilla fighitng units.

I did however, at times find the book somewhat slow and tedious in places. There were sections that became somewhat "text-bookish" in nature. However, these parts became quickly overridden each time Victorio decided to saddle up and "jump the reservation!"

So; if you enjoy history, if you like stories, and you appreciate real men (or real women), who died for a real cause....read this book!

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Victorio

Too bad he got lost in the history pages....we need to keep his legend alive.

Victorio by Chamberlain

A good composite of what has already been recorded. Well written, easy to read book is all that can be expected due to the dearth of information on the man most of his contemporaries said was their greatest chief.

reviews: page 1, 2

A steadfast champion of his people during the wars with encroaching Anglo-Americans, the Apache chief Victorio deserves as much attention as his better-known contemporaries Cochise and Geronimo. In presenting the story of this nineteenth-century Warm Springs Apache warrior, Kathleen P. Chamberlain expands our understanding of Victorio's role in the Apache wars and brings him into the center of events.

Graced with historic photos of Victorio, other Apaches, and U.S. military leaders, this biography portrays Victorio as a leader who sought a peaceful homeland for his people in the face of wrongheaded decisions from Washington. It is the most nearly complete and balanced picture yet to emerge of a Native leader caught in the conflicts and compromises of the nineteenth-century Southwest.

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