Apache Mothers and Daughters: Four Generations of a Family - Hardcover

Boyer, Ruth McDonald; Gayton, Narcissus Duffy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0806124474 ISBN 13: 9780806124476

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992

Synopsis

"Apache Mothers and Daughters", an illustrated family history of four generations of Chiricahua Apache women from 1848 to the present, is intended to be a testimonial to the strength and stamina of Apache women. Over the course of 35 years, anthropologist Ruth McDonald Boyer collected the remembrances of Narcissus Duffy Gayton, great-great-granddaughter of the Apache chief Victorio, and amplified this oral history with academic analysis based on extensive fieldwork. This intimate record of Apache life, told from an Apache perspective, highlights the key roles women play in tribal life. The story begins with Dilthcleyhen, Victorio's daughter, whose life encompassed much of the tradition culture of the Tchi-hene band of the Chiricahua Apaches. Her daughter, Beshad-e, was just 16 in 1886, when the 27-year-old incarceration of the Chiricahua began. Beshad-e and her family were forced to move to Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma and then New Mexico, where the Mescalero Apaches remain today. Beshad-e's daughter, Christine, who was more comfortable with white ways and a believer in Anglo education, died of tuberculosis in her 20s, leaving her daughter Narcissus in Beshad-e's care. Narcissus' life incorporates both her mother's faith in education and modernity and her grandmother's commitment to traditional Apache ways. After struggling to obtain a complete education, Narcissus returned to serve her tribe as a registered nurse and an advocate for health care. Woven into this account are factual details about the Apaches, many presented for the first time. Also documented here are rituals such as the puberty rite and the cradlemaking ceremony (with explicit differentiation between Mescalero and Chiricahua methods); the importance of religion (traditional as well as Anglo, including the Silas John Cult) as a stabilising force; and aspects of family life, such as child rearing and the intense bond between mothers and daughters. This volume reflects the significant contribution by Apache women to the enduring vitality of their people.

About this title

Review

Essential reading for those interested in the history and ethnography of the Chiricahua, as well as gender studies. . . . A welcome addition to Native American ethnographic literature. "Great Plains Research""

"Essential reading for those interested in the history and ethnography of the Chiricahua, as well as gender studies. . . . A welcome addition to Native American ethnographic literature."--Great Plains Research

About the Author

Ruth McDonald Boyer was Professor Emerita in the California College of Arts and Crafts and Research Associate in the Boyer Research Institute.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0806124474
• ISBN 13: 9780806124476
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416