Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars

After burying his massacred family, Goyahkla leads an attack on a Mexican village, where he gets a new name—Geronimo. What follows are years of brutal attacks and counterattacks as the Apache fight for their way of life and the U.S. government tries to subdue them. Hawke focuses mostly on the Apache side of the story, telling it through their eyes to balance the years of historical inaccuracies and Hollywood romanticism. However, he pulls no punches in portraying the violence from both sides and highlights the divided opinions as all involved try to figure out next steps. Ruth's haunting and poignant black-and-white watercolors capture the desolate grandeur of the Southwestern landscape as well as the violence, death, grief, and loss of war. This gut punch of a novel is a necessary addition and serves as a good introduction to the realities of Manifest Destiny and the resulting American westward expansion. Some elements may be confusing to those unfamiliar with the history of the Apache Wars, but a bibliography is included for citations and further reading.