Apache Odyssey: A Journey between Two Worlds

by Morris Edward Opler, Philip J. Greenfeld (Introduction)

In 1933, famed anthropologist Morris Opler met a Mescalero Apache he called Chris and worked with him to record the man's life story, from the bloody Apache Wars into the reservation years of the mid-twentieth century. Chris's vivid recollections are enriched at strategic moments with crucial background information on Apache history and culture, supplied by Opler. Chris was born around 1880, the son of a Chiricahua man and a Mescalero woman. At the age of six, he and his family and other Chiricahua Apaches became prisoners of war and were relocated by the U.S. government to Florida and Alabama. Eventually settling on the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico, Chris grew up expecting to become a shaman like his parents. Although Chris apprenticed as a shaman, his confidence in his healing ability waned after he was forced at the age of seventeen to attend federal government schools. Nonetheless, his interest in Mescalero religion, healing, and other traditional customs and beliefs remained, and that intimate knowledge of his people's world underscores and deepens the story of his own life.

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Jnguyen921 · Rating 3 out of 5]

i had to read it for a class and it provided alot of useful information but it is certainly something i would not choose to read for leisure and i would not recommend it unless you like history and in particular the apache nation history and culture...otherwise it wasnt too dry and gave me all the proper information to write a paper