GERONIMO IN MEXICO “The Apaches’ most successful raid into Mexico: 1863.”

Most of us know of the Apache leader Geronimo but most of what most of us know we learned at the movies.  Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, Geronimo led the fight against the expansion into Apache tribal lands by the United States during the Apache Wars.  But you knew that much from the movies.  The greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But it all started in Mexico…and we continue with the story.

In the summer of 1863, Geronimo selected three warriors and went on a raid into Mexico. The war party went south into Sonora, camping in the Sierra de Sahuaripa Mountains. About forty miles west of Casa Grande is a small village in the mountains, called by the Indians “Crassanas.” Geronimo camped near this place and planned an attack. The Apaches had noticed that just at midday, when the sun was high, no one in the Mexican village seemed to be stirring.  Geronimo and the three warriors planned to make their attack at the noon hour.

The next day, at high noon, the Indians crept into the Mexican town. The Apaches had no guns, but they were well-armed with spears and bows and arrows. When Geronimo gave the  war-whoop to open the attack, the Mexican villagers fled in every direction.  Not one of the Mexicans made any attempt to fight.

The Apaches shot some arrows at the retreating Mexicans, but killed only one.  Soon all was silent in the town and no Mexicans could be seen.

When the Indians discovered that all the Mexicans were gone they looked through the Mexican’s houses and saw, to the Apaches, many curious things. It seems that the Mexicans kept many more belongings than the Apaches did. Many of the things they saw in the houses they could not understand.

In the Mexican stores, however, the war party saw much that they wanted.  The Apaches drove in a herd of horses and mules, and packed on them as much provisions and supplies as the animals could carry. Then, forming the horses and mules into a pack train, the four Apaches returned safely to Arizona. The Mexicans did not even attempt to follow them.

When the returning war party arrived in camp, Geronimo called the tribe together and they feasted all day. The warriors gave presents to everyone. That night the dance began, and it did not cease until noon the next day.

This was perhaps the most successful raid ever made by the Apaches into Mexican territory. The value of the booty was very great for the Apaches had supplies enough to last the whole tribe for a year or more.

WILD SIDE OF THE RIVER by Michael Zimmer

Before there was a film festival in Sundance, certainly before there were motion pictures, and, actually, before there was even a Sundance, the Wilders were in that part of wind-swept Montana territory.   At first, if it weren’t for Jacob Wilder half the town would not have survived their first winter.  But Jacob and his boys are rough and woolly when not hemmed in by civilization.  And now the Wilders have kind of rubbed folks the wrong way.   First, Jacob is murdered, son Joel is falsely accused of a violent act, sons Vic and Ethan are attacked, son Ben is framed for murder and the troubles mount as owners of small ranches are mysteriously killed by what could be a syndicate.  It is up to Ethan Wilder to make things right and it all happens in a way that makes Wild Side of the River hard to put down.

You might have discovered in The Cowboy Chronicle that Western novelist Michael Zimmer has an almost uncanny way of putting the reader right in the middle of the action.  In Wild Side of the River you’ll truly believe that you are living in 1884 Montana territory, having a drink in Ira Webb’s Bullshead saloon, listening to the sounds of Wilder Creek as it pours down out of the Rockies, and walking by the narrow wooden buildings in Sundance’s business district.

Michael Zimmer, author of five Western novels, is an American history buff who has done much research on the Old West.  He has experienced many of the things his characters experience, has been on horseback treks with authentic 1800s equipment and owns and shoots a number of Old West Firearms.  While still in high school, Michael Zimmer started breaking and training horses.  He grew up on a small Colorado horse ranch and now lives in Utah with his wife Vanessa.  His next Five Star Western will be The Long Hitch.

Wild Side of the River is published by Five Star Publishing, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning.  Michael Zimmer’s website is www.michael-zimmer.com.

GERONIMO IN MEXICO “Mexican sugar, Arizona cheese and chasing the Mexican Cavalry: 1862”

Most of us know of the Apache leader Geronimo but most of what most of us know we learned at the movies.  Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, Geronimo led the fight against the expansion into Apache tribal lands by the United States during the Apache Wars.  But you knew that much from the movies.  The greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But it all started in Mexico…and we continue with the story.

In the summer of 1862 Geronimo took eight warriors and invaded Mexican territory once again. The Apaches went south on the west side of the Sierra Madre Mountains for five days and then, in the night, crossed over to the southern part of the Sierra de Sahuaripa range. Here the warriors again camped to watch for pack trains.

About ten o’clock next morning, four mounted Mexicans passed the Indians’ camp with a train of pack-mules.  As soon as the Mexicans saw the Indians they rode for their lives, leaving their booty. This was a long pack train, and it was loaded with blankets, calico, saddles, tinware, and loaf sugar. The Apaches hurried to the Homeland as fast as they could with these provisions for the tribe. 

While on their way home, while passing through a canyon in the Santa Catalina range of mountains in Arizona, the warriors met a white man driving a mule pack train. The white man had already seen the Apaches and, like the Mexicans, was riding at full tilt up the canyon, leaving his pack train behind. The Indians examined his pack train and found that his mules were all loaded with cheese. The Apaches put the cheese-laden mules in with the Mexican mules and resumed their journey.  They did not attempt to follow the driver’s trail and Geronimo was sure he did not try to follow them.

In two days the war party arrived at home. Mangas Coloradas, the chief, assembled the tribe and Geronimo hosted a feast.  They divided the spoils and the Indians danced all night.  Some of the pack mules were killed and eaten.

This time, after the raiding party’s return, the Apaches sent out scouts around the village so that the Indians would know if the Mexican troops had attempted to follow them.

On the third day the scouts came back into the Apache encampment and reported that the Mexican cavalry had dismounted and were approaching the settlement. All of the Apache warriors were in camp. Splitting their force into two, Mangas Coloradas took command of one division of warriors and Geronimo of the other. The plan was for the Indians to get possession of the Mexican horses and then surround the Mexican troops in the mountains, thereby destroying the whole Mexican company.

Unfortunately, the Apaches were unable to accomplish this as the Mexicans had also sent out scouts.  However, within four hours after the battle started, the Apaches had killed ten Mexican troopers with the loss of only one Apache warrior.  The Mexican cavalry was in full retreat and they were pursed by thirty armed Apaches warriors.  The Indians gave the Mexicans no rest until they were out of Arizona and far inside their own Mexican country.  No more Mexican troops came to Apacheria that winter.

For a long time the Indians had plenty of provisions, plenty of blankets, and plenty of clothing. They also had plenty of sugar and cheese!

THE HOBBY: COWBOY ACTION SHOOTING by Richard M. Beloin, MD

 The contagious joy and enthusiasm Richard M. Beloin, MD has for Cowboy Action Shooting can be found in his book, The Hobby: Cowboy Action Shooting.   When someone asked him why he was writing the book, Doctor Beloin replied, “Because I know a lot of stuff!”  With more than 12 years experience in the sport lots of cowboys nd cowgirls all love best, Beloin proves that he “knows a lot of stuff.”  Beloin covers everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Cowboy Action Shooting and then some.  Even the most experienced shooter might find something in this book not heretofore considered.  Whether you are a novice or a skilled competitor, you’ll find just the information you’re searching for and exactly what you need in this 14 chapter book.  Doctor Beloin covers everything from shooting accessories and firearm modifications to reloading and practice techniques.  Want to know about shooting glasses?  It’s in there.  Looking for shotgun practice techniques?  Look in this book.  Want to start reloading?  What you need to know is in The Hobby: Cowboy Action Shooting.  Everything is in there!  Beloin even takes the reader on a typical day at a Cowboy Action Shooting match.

Reviewing Dr. Beloin’s book on a western blog might be considered akin to preaching to the choir but if you have a spouse, a relative, or a friend whom you would like to get interested in the Cowboy Action Shooting sport, buy that prospective Cowboy shooter a copy of The Hobby: Cowboy Action Shooting and head for the range.  This is a perfect introduction for the general public as well as a starting point for a retiree looking for a hobby with action.  And Doctor Beloin recounts a lot of unusual and comic events that he has experienced in over 12 years of shooting with SASS. ..from brain cramps and procedurals to getting your spurs tangled and your hat airborne in a surprise wind.

Richard M. Beloin is a retired physician, best known in Single Action Shooting Society circles since 1998 as Doc Morgan, SASS #17885. He belongs to SASS affiliated clubs in New Hampshire, Vermont and Florida and is an award winning shooter.   The Hobby: Cowboy Action Shooting is Doc’s first book and can be ordered from Xlibris.com.

Geronimo in Mexico: “The bravery of Apache women: 1861”

Most of us know of the Apache leader Geronimo but most of what most of us know we learned at the movies.  Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, Geronimo led the fight against the expansion into Apache tribal lands by the United States during the Apache Wars.  But you knew that much from the movies.  The greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But it all started in Mexico…and we continue with the story.

After their return from Casita, Mexico where Geronimo had been wounded, many of the Apache warriors had left the village to go on a hunt while others had gone north to trade for blankets from the Navajo Indians. Geronimo remained at the Apache Homeland in Arizona trying to get his wounds healed.

Three companies of Mexican troopers had come north into Arizona and had surrounded the Apache settlement in the night.  That morning, just at daybreak, when the women were lighting the camp fires to prepare breakfast, the Mexicans opened fire. There was no time for fighting.  Men, women, and children fled the surprise attack on the Homeland for their lives. Many women and children and a few warriors were killed, and four women were captured.

Geronimo’s left eye was still swollen shut, but with the other eye he saw well enough to hit one of the Mexican officers with an arrow, and then make good his escape among the rocks. The Mexican troopers burned the tepees and took the Apache’s arms, provisions, ponies, and blankets. They also took four of the Apache women captive.  It was the fall of 1861, much was lost and winter was at hand.

There were no more than twenty warriors in camp at the time of the Mexican attack, and of them only a few had had been able to grab weapons during the excitement of the attack.  A few warriors followed the trail of the troops as they went back to Mexico with the four women and the goods they had stolen from the Indians, but the warriors were unable to engage the Mexican troopers in battle. It would be a long time before the Apaches were again able to go on the warpath against the Mexicans.

The four women who were captured during this raid by the Mexicans were taken into Sonora, Mexico, where they were compelled to work as slaves for the Mexicans. After some years had passed, the Apache women were able to escape to the mountains and they started off to locate the tribe.  They had knives, which they had stolen from the Mexicans, but they had no other weapons. They had no blankets.  At night they would make a little wikiup by cutting brush with their knives, and setting the brush up to make walls. The top of the wikiup was covered over with more brush. In this temporary tepee the four women would huddle together against the mountain cold and sleep.

One night, when their camp fire was low, the women heard growling just outside the wikiup.  Francisco, at about seventeen years of age the youngest woman of the party, started to build up the fire, when suddenly a mountain lion crashed through the wikiup and attacked her. The suddenness of the attack made her drop her knife, but she fought as best she could with her hands.  The teenager was no match for the lion.  Her left shoulder was crushed and partly torn away. The lion kept trying to catch her by the throat but she was able to prevent this with her hands.  The struggle seemed to go on for a long time. The girl and the mountain lion thrashed about violently.  The mountain lion dragged the young woman about 300 yards from the camp.  Realizing that her strength was failing from loss of blood, the young girl desperately screamed out to the other women for help. The lion had been dragging her by one foot, and the teenager had been catching hold of the lion’s legs, and catching hold of the rocks and underbrush, to slow the beast down. At last, the lion stopped and stood over her. She once more cried out to her companions and the Apache women attacked the ferocious creature with their knives and, after a brief fight, killed him. The Apache women dressed the girl’s wounds and for about a month nursed her back to health there in the mountains.  When she was again able to walk the brave women resumed their journey and reached the Apache tribe in safety.

THE SHERIFF’S LEGACY, THE SHERIFF’S BETRAYAL and THE SHERIFF’S JOURNAL by Linn Keller

Will Keller, the new sheriff of Firelands County, Colorado, has light blue eyes, blond hair and the shapeliest legs west of the Mississippi.  That’s Sheriff Willamina Keller, paramedic, Expert Combat Medic, former Fire Chief, Police Chief, holder of two college degrees and Lieutenant Colonel of Marines  The Sheriff stops a bar fight and arrests the mayor, all in the first 16 pages of the first chapter of The Sheriff’s Legacy.  The action never stops.  Sheriff Willamina Keller’s great-great-grandfather was the first sheriff of Firelands County and Sheriff Will carries on that tradition in modern times.

The second book in the Sheriff Will Keller trilogy is The Sheriff’s Betrayal and author Linn Keller dumps the reader right in the middle of a murder in the Preface!  The intrigue in this book starts before the book does!  Sheriff Will Keller wades right into the fight for justice in her trademark tailored suit dresses and heels and she recruits her twin brother William to maintain order in her sparsely populated county.

The Sheriff’s Journal is the third book in the series and will take you back to the Old West adventures of the Old Sheriff, Will’s great-great-grandfather, Linn.  His adventures take the reader from the Civil War into the West and prove that Sheriff Willamina Keller is cut from the same cloth.

This reviewer is purposefully not giving you too much information because these three books of Western adventure, both Old West and Modern, just have to be read in order to fully appreciate the author’s style and attention to detail.  Each book in the trilogy is full of law enforcement, emergency medical and other details that make the books come alive.  And that’s because author W. Linn Keller has a resume that includes Firefighter-EMT, EMT-Paramedic and deputy marshal…all at the same time!  Keller is an historian, researcher, re-enactor and lecturer.  All three of Linn Keller’s books are available at his website: linnkeller.com or through the publisher, Author House at authorhouse.com.  Signed copies may be obtained by contacting the author directly at 440-355-4936 or linnkeller@yahoo.com.  His next book, The Sheriff’s Assassin will be released soon.  And that will make the trilogy a quadrilogy, or quadology…never mind, just read them all.  

Geronimo in Mexico: “Capturing and losing Mexican pack trains: 1861”

Most of us know of the Apache leader Geronimo but most of what most of us know we learned at the movies.  Leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, Geronimo led the fight against the expansion into Apache tribal lands by the United States during the Apache Wars.  But you knew that much from the movies.  The greatest wrongs that were visited upon the Apaches were from the United States government.  But it all started in Mexico…and we continue with the story.

In the summer of 1861, Geronimo with twelve warriors again went into Mexico. The Apaches entered Chihuahua and travelled south on the east side of the Sierra Madre Mountains for four days.  The Indians then crossed over to the Sierra de Sahuaripa range, not far to the east of Casa Grande. Here the warriors rested for one day, and Geronimo sent out scouts to reconnoiter. The scouts reported Mexican pack trains camped five miles to the west.

The next morning, just at daybreak, as the Mexican drivers were starting with their mule pack train, Geronimo attacked them. The Mexican rode away in fear for their lives, leaving the Apaches their booty. The mules were loaded with provisions, most of which the warriors planned to take home. Two of the mules were loaded with side-meat or bacon and this the Indians threw away.

Geronimo started to take these pack trains home, going northward through Sonora, but when they were near Casita, Mexican troops overtook them. It was at daybreak and the Indians were just finishing their breakfast when the Mexicans attacked by surprise. Geronimo had no idea that they had been pursued or that their enemies were near until the Mexicans opened fire on the Apaches.

At the first volley a bullet struck Geronimo a glancing lick just at the lower corner of the left eye and he fell unconscious. All the other Indians fled for cover. The Mexican troopers, thinking Geronimo dead, started in pursuit of the fleeing warriors. In a few moments, Geronimo regained consciousness and had just started running at full speed for the woods when another company of Mexican soldiers coming up opened fire on him. At that, the soldiers who had been chasing the other Indians turned.  Now Geronimo found himself literally between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  He was standing between two hostile companies of Mexican soldiers, but he did not stand long. Bullets whistled in every direction and at close range to Geronimo. Having received a slight flesh wound on his side, Geronimo kept running, dodging, and fighting, until he got clear of his Mexican pursuers. Geronimo climbed up the side of a steep canyon, where the Mexican cavalry could not follow. The troopers saw him, but did not dismount and try to follow. They were wise not to pursue him.

Plans had been made by the war party in advance.  It was understood by the Apaches that in case of surprise with this Mexican pack train booty, the warriors’ place of rendezvous would be the Santa Rita Mountains in Arizona. And so the Apaches did not reassemble in Mexico, but traveled individually and separately.  Within three days the Indians were encamped in their place of rendezvous.  Unfortunately, the raiding party had lost their pack train booty to the Mexican army.

Once they gathered in their place of rendezvous they made the trek home empty-handed. They had not even a partial victory to report. Geronimo again returned wounded, but he was not yet discouraged. Once more Geronimo was blamed by his people, and again he had no reply.