Dispatches from the Fort Apache Scout by Lori Davisson

Kudos to Editor John Welch and all of the other contributors to this important historical work chronicling these amazing denizens of Central Arizona known as 'The People.' They were once great and still are today. The book did not disappoint as I learned a lot about the Cibecue battle and the White Mountain Apache Indian scouts. I was primarily interested in the book to learn more about the formidable White Mountain Apache Indian scouts, who were legendary trackers and fighters against the venerable Chiricahua Apache Indians (Cochise and Geronimo, but not Victorio who was Tchihendeh). It is a legendary place and any book that seeks to recreate it must be true to its native inhabitants, the Ndee, or 'The People.' With that in mind, this book is a must-read for historians and readers with an interest in the American West from the Native American perspective, and, in particular, the perspective of the Ndee. I have been to Fort Apache and was fortunate enough to have participated in a sweat lodge ceremony with White Mountain Apache tribal elders and to play 1870s era baseball right in front of Cavalry Colonel Asa Carr's former headquarters. Pursuing the same goal, Welch’s edited book of the dispatches stakes out common ground for understanding the earliest relations between the groups contesting Southwest lands, powerfully illustrating how, as elder Cline Griggs, Sr., writes in the prologue, “the past is present.”ĭispatches from the Fort Apache Scout is both a tribute to and continuation of Davisson’s and her colleagues’ work to share the broad outlines and unique details of the early history of Ndee and Ndee lands.

ĭavisson helped to pioneer a mutually beneficial partnership with the White Mountain Apache Tribe. The articles were the result of the dogged work of journalist, librarian, and historian Lori Davisson along with Edgar Perry, a charismatic leader of White Mountain Apache culture and history programs, and his staff who prepared these summaries of historical information for the local readership of the Scout. Along the way, rich descriptions of Ndee ties to the land, subsistance, leadership, and values emerge. This twenty-eight-part series of articles shared Western Apache culture and history through 1881 and the Battle of Cibecue, emphasizing early encounters with Spanish, Mexican, and American outsiders. The book showcases and annotates dispatches published between June 1973 and October 1977, in the tribe’s Fort Apache Scout newspaper. Dispatches from the Fort Apache Scout is the latest outcome of that ongoing commitment. Underneath it all was a group of people dedicated to this important goal.

In the 1970s, the White Mountain Apache Tribe and the Arizona Historical Society began working together on a series of innovative projects aimed at preserving, perpetuating, and sharing Apache history.

Dispatches from the Fort Apache Scout by Lori Davisson