The First Hundred Years of Nino Cochise; The Untold Story of an Apache Indian Chief

From the front flap of this 346 page book: Few living men boast a century of personal history and only the most exceptional can remember events with clarity or tell it in fascinating detail. Such an exceptional man is Ciye 'Nino' Cochise, grandson of the legendary Chief Cochise who lead the Chiricahua Apaches until his death. Now nearly ninety-eight, Nino is blessed with a memory that limns in detail an untold and hitherto mostly unknown segment of American Indian life. He was only two years old in 1876 when the Chiricahua Apaches were removed from their homeland reservation by a force of U.S. Cavalry and scouts to the desolate San Carlos Reservations. During the night, his father's clan made a break for freedom - thirty-eight men, women and children - including his mother and the tribal shaman. After incredible hardships along the way, they built the rancheria they called Pa-Gotzin-Kay on a secluded shelf in the Sierra Madre of Northwest Mexico. Official Army reports give little or no notice to these escapees. Among Reservation Apaches they were merely 'The Nameless Ones', so-called to protect them from discovery. The panorama opened by this biography is wide, its sweep inspiring as a deep breath of wine-sharp desert air. In these pages authentic - albeit personal - pages of history appear many famous people: Tahza, father of Ciye Cochise; Geronimo, an uncle; Naiche, also an uncle; Tom Jeffords, blood-brother of Chief Cochise; Teddy Roosevelt, both as Colonel and President; Pancho Villa; President Diaz of Mexico; Colonel Greene, the Copper King, and dozens of others who are viewed from a new perspective. Here, too, is the tender and touching tale of Nino's marriage to his lovely 'Golden Bird', daughter of a chief of the Tarahumamari; the deep tragedy of her untimely death and hosts of other incidents, some tragic, many hilarious and all deeply moving. Much tribal lore and culture is revealed in this saga of this wiry, tough-spirited native American.