Title: Geronimo by Joseph Bruchac, ISBN: 0-439-35360-2, Scholastic Press, NY, 2006, $16.99, 384 pp.
Genre: Historical Fiction/ Native American Literature/ Grades 7 and up.
Characters: The obvious character of the book is its namesake, Geronimo, the respected legendary Apache leader and medicine man of the Chiricahuas band of Arizona and New Mexico from the 1820’s up through the turn of the century. Geronimo is brought to life in a succession of stories told by an Apache orphan, Little Foot or “Willie” as he is called by his capturing U.S. soldiers, whom Geronimo adopted as his grandson. Though the stories detail Geronimo’s life as a captive, along with Little Foot, in U.S. forts across the midwest and south, the book is just as much about Little Foot’s life and love of his grandfather. At the beginning and end of the book, Little Foot is a 35-year-old man, but the narrative falls primarily in his teen years as he is forced to come of age in squalid army forts far from his desert home, divorced completely from his culture. It is an eight year hellish odyssey. Minor characters abound in the book: Lozen, the Apache’s trusted female prophet who is strong and sought after by her people; Wratten, the white interpreter who proves to be an invaluable ally and who truly loves the Apaches and understands their ways; Martine and Kayihtah, two Apache scouts hired by the U.S. army to convince Geronimo to surrender; Captain Pratt, the U.S. army officer in charge of selecting Indian children prisoners to be sent off to the now infamous Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, a forced boarding school to indoctrinate natives to be more white – no one ever graduated, but many died of tuberculosis, never to see their families again; and many other Apache characters and U.S. soldiers whose tales are woven into Little Foot’s many memories.
Plot: Visiting his elderly grandfather, Geronimo, in Fort Sill, OK, where Geronimo is imprisoned, an adult Little Foot begins to reminisce about his once-powerful grandfather and the intertwining of their lives. Little Foot’s many memories, tales, provide a narrative of actual events in U.S. history during the period between 1886 and 1908 when the U.S. government captures and imprisons some 300 Apache people, shuttling them in cramped rail cars across the nation from Arizona and New Mexico to as far away as Florida. As if coming of age isn’t difficult enough, through Little Foot’s story-telling, the young reader sees a teen who must adjust to life where many of his people are dying daily from contagious diseases, where his sacred land is 3000 miles away, where his ways of doing things are ridiculed and eradicated, where food and clean water are scarce and where, on any given day, he could be shuttled to another fort and separated from his beloved grandfather (and he is) at the whim of the “father” in Washington. Little Foot’s accounts of cultural differences with the whites are poignant, informative and fair: he is a trustworthy narrator. He points to the interface of cultures as merely differences in living, though some ways of the Apache are clearly superior to those of the invading whites, particularly for survival in and care of often inhospitable land. Little Foot, himself, receives his freedom, ironically, by serving in the U.S. army, and is later honorably discharged.
Touchy areas: None.
Related Titles: Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II (2005) by Joseph Bruchac; Dancing Teepees: Poems of American Indian Youth (1989) ed. by Viriginia Driving Hawk Sneve; As Long as the Rivers Flow: The Stories of Nine Native Americans (1996) by Paula Gunn Allen.
Movies: Dances with Wolves (1990); Geronimo: An American Legend (2001) with Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall: and Into the West (2005).
Music: Earth Spirit (1987) by R. Carlos Nakai, Native American flute music; Music for The Native Americans (1994) by Robbie Robertson (guitarist for The Band w/Bob Dylan) and the Red Road Ensemble; Pocohantas (1979) by Neil Young.
Photos: Geronimo (1898) by F.A. Rinehart; Geronimo (1907) by Warren Mack Oliver; Geronimo (1898) by Adolph Muir. (see images at Library of Congress website: www.loc.gov)
Art: The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (the Ambush) (1890) by Frederic Remington ; Geronimo serigraph by Keith Rosko; Apache by Joseph Beeler;
Poem: Equinox (2001) by Joy Harjo.
Related Websites: Apache Indian history (www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribe/apache); information about Geronimo (www.americanhistory.about.com/od/geronimo)
Classic Work: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970) by Dee Brown.
Evaluation: I have read a fair amount of Native American literature, and have been interested in Native American culture since I was a child so this book readily appealed to me by title alone. Storytelling is a sacred form of communication in the Native American culture, and it is fitting that this book is told in linked story form. However, I found the stories (told by chapter) to be confusing as to time and place, somewhat cumbersome to follow at first, and disjointed. I think a map as well as a character listing would be helpful to a young reader. I also think this book would not appeal to a wide range of young readers, but only to those interested in Native American culture or U.S. history as it does require some patience to piece together the details of the narrative. However, Little Foot’s perceptions of both cultures are sharp and profound. I would rate this book 7 out of 10.
Reviewed by: Karen Schoenberger, University of Toledo