The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy

In the tradition of Empire of the Summer Moon, Paul Hutton's sprawling, monumental work unfolds over two decades of the last war for the West through the eyes of the men and women who lived it. This stunningly vivid historical account chronicles the manhunt for Geronimo and the 25-year Apache struggle for their homeland. At the center of this conflict is the figure of Mickey Free, a mixed-blood warrior who moved uneasily between the worlds of the Apaches and the American soldiers, and was the only man Geronimo ever feared.

The story begins with Mickey Free's kidnapping, an event that started the longest war in American history, with both the Apaches and the white invaders blaming him for it. For the next three decades, Free played a pivotal role in this war for the desert Southwest, from its beginning in 1861 until its end in 1890 with his pursuit of the renegade scout, Apache Kid.

Hutton's narrative weaves together the lives and stories of Free's contemporaries: the great Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and Victorio; the soldiers Kit Carson, O. O. Howard, George Crook, and Nelson Miles; the scouts and frontiersmen Al Sieber, Tom Horn, Tom Jeffords, and Texas John Slaughter; the great White Mountain scout Alchesay and the Apache female warrior Lozen; and the fierce Apache warrior Geronimo.

These larger-than-life figures shaped the violent history of the deserts and mountains of the Southwestern borderlands, a bleak and unforgiving world where the Apaches would make a final, bloody stand against an American war machine bent on their destruction. Hutton's masterful storytelling brings this turbulent period to life, offering a nuanced and empathetic portrayal of the Apache people's struggle to defend their homeland against the relentless advance of white settlement and military might.

Through the eyes of Mickey Free, the reader gains a unique perspective on the complex and often contradictory loyalties and motivations that drove the participants in this long and brutal conflict. Free's journey, marked by his uneasy navigation between the Apache and American worlds, serves as a powerful metaphor for the broader tensions and ultimately the tragic outcome of this chapter in the history of the American West.

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