An Honest Enemy: George Crook and the Struggle for Indian RightsOver the course of his military career, George Crook developed empathy and admiration for American Indians both as foes and as allies. As Paul Magid has demonstrated in the previous two volumes of his groundbreaking biography, this experience prepared Crook well for his metamorphosis from Indian fighter to outspoken advocate of Indian rights. An Honest Enemy is the third and final volume of Magid’s account of George Crook’s life and involvement in the Indian wars. Using rarely tapped information, including Crook’s own diaries, the work documents in dramatic detail the general’s arduous and dangerous campaigns against the Chiricahua Apaches and their leader Geronimo, action that forms a backdrop to the transformation in the general’s role vis-ā-vis Native Americans. In a story by turns harrowing and tragic, Magid details the plight of Indians who, in the aftermath of their defeat, were consigned to reservations too barren to sustain them, where they were subjected to impoverishment, indifference, and in many cases, outright corruption. With growing anger, Crook watched as many tribes faced death from starvation and disease and, unwilling to passively accept their fate, desperately sought to flee their reservations and return to their homelands. Charged with the grim task of returning the Indians to such conditions, Crook was forced to choose between fulfilling his duties as a soldier and his humanitarian values. Magid describes Crook’s struggle to reconcile these conflicting concerns while promoting policies he regarded as essential to the welfare of the Indians in the face of a hostile public, jealous fellow officers, and an unsympathetic government that regarded his efforts as quixotic and misguided. Here is a tale that readers will not soon forget. |
Contents
The Ponca Commission | |
Crook House | |
More Fire from the Rear | |
Breakout | |
Pursuit into Mexico | |
A Tragic Loss | |
Caņon de los Embudos | |
Too Wedded to My Views | |
Changing of the Guard | |
Campaigning for Indian Rights | |
Cowboys and Indians | |
Investing in the Future | |
Return to Apacheria | |
There Is Not Now a Hostile Apache in Arizona | |
Preparations for a Campaign | |
Into the Sierra Madre | |
GeronimoHunter and Prey | |
Fire in My Rear | |
Settling Down the Chiricahuas | |
Move to Turkey Creek | |
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An Honest Enemy: George Crook and the Struggle for Indian Rights Paul Magid No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
agency agent AHEC Apache Campaign Arizona army army’s arrived ARSW band Bannocks Betzinez Bourke Bourke’s breakout camp Captain Chatto Chihuahua Chiricahuas Cibicue Cochise to Geronimo command commissioners Conquest of Apacheria Cozzens Crawford Crook diary Crook Letterbook Crook to AAG Crook to Sheridan Crook’s report Crook/Kennon Papers Dateline Fort Bowie Davis Davis’s depredations fight Fort Apache Fort Bowie Fort Omaha Fort Robinson Gatewood general’s George Crook Geronimo Campaign government’s Gray Fox Hayes Library hunt Ibid Indian affairs Indian Rights Indian Territory Interior Department Kennon killed land later Lieutenant Magid Maus Mexican Mexico Miles Miles’s military Naiche NARA officers Omaha ordered Pacific peace Poncas president prisoners raid remained reservation San Carlos Secretary seemed Sept shaman Sherman Sierra Madre Sierra Madre Adventure Sioux soldiers Standing Bear surrender Sweeney Tibbles tribe troops Truth about Geronimo Utes Utley warriors Welsh Western Apaches White Mountain Wilcox wrote