Apaches

Legends West #3

by Oakley Hall

In New Mexico the old way of life was dying-and so-called civilization had arrived on the wild frontier. The resulting Madison County Wars pitted neighbor against neighbor in a fight for the sould of a land that could not be possessed. Caught in the turmoil were: Patrick Cutler, a brave cavalry officer who respected his "enemies" and despised his "friends"; Johnny Angell, a baby-faced gunman pushed by tragic events to the wrong side of the law; Lily Maginnis, battling corruption, injustice and her own passionate nature; and Jack Grant, a gunman turned lawman, sworn to hunt down a man he once rode with -now a legendary hero. And meanwhile, a band of proud Apaches planned one last drive to escape the reservation and ride free once again across the unforgiving land of their ancestors.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction

560 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Oakley Hall also wrote under the nom de plume of O.M. Hall and Jason Manor.

Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Reviews

[José Nebreda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Durante estos tiempos agitadillos, con tanto tonto suelto (tontos de todas las clases, sabores y colores) dando el coñazo hasta la saciedad, he dedicado mis horas de asueto a leerme otra de indios. He disfrutado un huevo de avestruz con los apaches y pieles pálidas de Oakley Hall, cosa que me ha ayudado en cierta medida a olvidar la sarta de gilipolleces (repito, de todas las clases, sabores y colores) que durante estos últimos días pueblan el facebook. Entre la colección frontera de Valdemar y lo que yo mismo voy pillando por ahí en expediciones de búsqueda y captura, me estoy poniendo ciego de indios y vaqueros. Me encanta. Será porque yo también soy un poco indio. El próximo libro, lo prometo, intentaré que sea algo más serio... Pero no mucho. ;)

[Carl R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve written a fair amount of commentary on Oakley Hall, his work and his life. If there was ever an undersung man of influence—as a writer, teacher, or human being—Oakley Hall’s life of letters is it.

Here we are in the third of his trilogy of western legends Warlock the first, The Badlands the second—haven’t gotten to that one yet--And this one which he calls Apaches.

it's a rather strange title at first consideration because those who know anything about the Lincoln County, New Mexico, conflict of the 1878’s think of them as cattle wars, not Indian wars. They’re the battles that gave us Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. No one, I believe, automatically connects them to Native Americans.

Howevver … one of the most memorable remarks I ever heard from Hall came as an answer when someone asked him when he was going to write his next Ambrose Bierce detective novel.) "As soon as something pisses me off enough." Hence, I believe, the treatment of the Indians by both Americans and Mexicans and by all of them of one another gave rise to his Madison County as a stand-in for Lincoln County, Jack Grant for Pat Garrett, and Johnny Angel for Billy the Kid. Not that either of he above characters bears much resemblance to his historical counterpart. William Bonnie was homely. Pat Garrett was (at least by legend) of unblemished integrity. Plus, they’re not even the main characters.

Instead, we have Lt. Patrick Cutler, a military renegade with a talent for nettling—no, enraging--his superior officers. He’d rather spend time with his scouts—Apaches employed by the army to track and fight their brethren. He’d rather rescue a “nigger” than pull out the body of a dead colleague. And, worst of all military sins, he cares not about advancement.

He also keeps company with townspeople—one lady of dubious reputation in particular. Maybe the fact that he was raised in a San Francisco whorehouse and thereby became fluent in Spanish has influenced his behavior and attitudes.

Point is, amid his various extra curricular activites he is charged with keeping a certain warrior named Caballito on the reservation so he doesn’t flee into Mexico, which involves making sure his people aren’t shorted on their rations, which involves stepping into the middle of an elaborate payoff scheme wherein the town store sells supplies to the reservation, the Indian agent distributes only a certain portion, then returns them to the store (for a kickback of course) then the merchant sells them back. Then hungry-for-promotion officers who want to promote a new Mexican war so they can get more stripes and bars are aggravated because it would be better for them if Caballito did escape, giving them an excuse to pursue him and spark a new international incident. Simple cattle war? You see why Oakley was pissed.

Johnny Angell, unlike William Bonny, fights on the side of the angels and fails. In one authentic touch, Hall has him utter Billy the Kid’s famous last words “Quien es” just before the sherrif plugs him. Unlike history, though, it doesn’t end there. Read it to find out.

Our officer Cutler, in the meantime, marries the granddaughtr of a Mexican Grendee with the promise of becming a rich hacendado if he produces a son. He does, and I guess he does become one of those. After failing in nearly every other endeavor he undertakes, though not under entirely happy circumstances.

We look here into the old west and its noble image and find in it the most rotten possible human behavior and motive. There are glimmers of goodness, but even they are tarnished. And yet, this is not by any means a pessimistic book. In fact, I found it quite uplifting. You explain it.

[grimaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como buen aficionado al western que soy he disfrutado mucho la novela. Cierto es que no me ha gustado tanto como Warlock, que me apasionó de principio a fin, pero tampoco lo esperaba. Quizá hubiera sido mejor hacer dos novelas distintas ya que hay dos lineas argumentales diferentes. Es un western crepuscular, el salvaje oeste estaba empezando a dejar de serlo.
Los personajes y los hechos que se narran son ficticios, pero basta con buscar un poco de información para comprobar que están inspirados en personas y sucesos reales. Caballito, el jefe indio en la novela, sin duda está basado en el famoso apache Gerónimo. Johnny Angell, el joven pistolero que luchando contra la injusticia se pone al margen de la ley, tiene muchas cosas en común con el célebre Billy, el niño. Billy estuvo implicado en la guerra del condado de Lincoln que fue muy similar a lo que en libro se llama la guerra del condado de Madison.
En cuanto a los apaches, creo que están retratados con mucha objetividad. No se nos ahorran las atrocidades que cometían cuando se rebelaban, los apaches tenían la costumbre de mutilar de forma horrible los cuerpos de sus enemigos, pero se deja claro que si los indios se rebelaban era por culpa de las mentiras y las manipulaciones de los ojos pálidos. Desde nuestro punto de vista a los apaches se les puede considerar salvajes pero a pesar de ello, uno no puedo evitar sentir pena por la triste decadencia de su raza.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That is right, isn't it?" Johnny said. "It is funny looking back on a thing you felt so strong about and seeing some fuzzy edges to it."

1986's "Apaches" is an incredible read. The main plot line for this epic western is the Lincoln County War in the Arizona Territory in 1878-1881. For those unfamiliar, two rival factions of businessmen with paid gunfighters went to war and the conflict included Billy the Kid, John Chisum, a crooked Sheriff William Brady, and a murdered rich guy named John Tunstall among other famous western characters. 23 deaths and another 23 casualties are attributed to the range conflict. Lew Wallace (Civil War general, wrote "Ben-Hur") was named Governor to stop the madness and he hired the infamous Pat Garrett, that letter-of-the-law type hard-nosed Sheriff. Garrett eventually arrested or killed (or both, because of frequent jailbreaks) a lot of the gunmen, including Billy the Kid. "Apaches" uses different names and alternate history for these folks like "Warlock" did for Tombstone (my review #28).

But wait Jeff, you'd say, you said the name of the book is "Apaches." What does the gunfighter Lincoln County War have to do with Apaches? A connected struggle in this novel (but its parallel illustrative conflict, if that makes sense, because maybe all these characters share the same fate) involves the Indian factions that are held in Arizona reservations. The main protagonist in this book is a smartly-written Army lieutenant named Patrick Cutler who is a nonconformist liaison, who leads a wickedly hilarious and complicated team of Apache scouts called the Hoyas. These guys own every page they appear on.

As to pacing, this novel is quite long and moves like an endless train, keeping a steady pace while characters and events interact but gaining speed at times when the action takes place, never stalling for lame exposition or lengthy repetitive descriptions of atmosphere or character thoughts. The main characters are all incredibly written, relatable, smart, and tragic, foremost among them the aforementioned Lt. Cutler, his counterpart Apache chief Caballito, and gunfighter Johnny Angell (Billy the Kid, who Hall must have admired). Apaches has a large cast of characters I had to write down to keep straight and I have 50+ names on my cheat sheet.

Verdict: "Apaches" is outstanding. Suspenseful, smart, riveting, insightful; concepts that elevate it above the best westerns. There's an overarching law vs order theme and an illustration of how morality and immorality are not automatically connected to their deserved consequences, and that's really just how life is. A lot of action and character-centered tension. Just a great novel.

Jeff's Rating: 5 / 5 (Excellent)
movie rating if made into a movie: R

[Steve Hockensmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third novel in Hall's loose (like, *extremely* loose) "trilogy" of mythic Westerns is by far the weakest -- both overwritten (500 pages!) and underwritten (there's a lot of exposition to move things along, many of the side characters are thin and hard to tell apart, most of the big turning points feel flat). There's still great writing line-by-line, and despite a familiar and potboiler-ish plot there's some real substance, but it doesn't gel into a great book. I'm glad I finished reading the trilogy. I just wish the final chapter had been as good as the first two.

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me gusta mucho la trilogía, mi preferido sigue siendo Warlock.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A frontier western that takes up not only the Indian wars and the range wars but also the contradictions in the Greek words for justice, and themis, the contravening "schools" of history, scientific and literary, the role of women, the nature of borders, in other words, a kind of epic. An omniscient narrator moves the tale, focused mainly on mustang officer Lieutenant Patrick Cutler, moving along while introducing Governor Underwood and the centerpiece of the governor's own litero-scientific memoir, cowboy-turned sheriff Jack Grant, to offer their differing opinions on the moment in history. Teenage pistolero Johnny Angell ponders the meaning of life and dreams of "how it's gonna be" when the wars are over, justice has been served (by his own fast gun), and he can settle down with his one true love.
It is an epic after the Greek fashion with a handful of tragic heroes acting out their fates: Caballito, the last Apache nantan; Lily Maginnis, the free-spirited frontierswoman who is "not simply a toy"; María Palacios, the not so free daughter of Mexican nobility; Angell and Cutler.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oakley Hall is an underrated master. This was an excellent legend of the west. It had a few slow moments, but the heart of the text was a powerful one. The nuance of the time period was refined, and I felt the heartbeat of many of the characters.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine novel from Oakley Hall. This is a western, but also much more than that. Set in the New Mexico territory circa 1880s, the story revolves around the conflicting forces in play at the time--the cattle barons who control land they don't own: the last remaining Apaches, who are tenuously confined to reservations where they are harassed and cheated by merchants and others; the military installations, whose survival depends on keeping the Apaches confined; the Apache scouts who work for the military; and the cattle rustlers and other miscellaneous miscreants who, in the absence of effective law enforcement, prey on cattlemen and anyone else they can find. Mr. Hall puts them all in play, and his real objective in doing so is to illuminate the fatal instability of that situation.
The novel's main protagonist summarizes the issue: "... the clash of a modern race with a Stone Age one must result in the destruction of the Indeh (Apache).... The (Apache) could not, in this tiny slice of their history, be turned from raiders into farmers and herdsmen. ....They were truly doomed." In the same way, the lawless rustlers and gunmen are doomed. Although some decent people sought to stop the exploitation and ruthless suppression of the Apaches, it was not possible. Mr. Hall has written a sophisticated novel which brings that turbulent period of our history to full life.

[John Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last book in Oakley Hall's Legends West trilogy. Here he combines the Apache Wars and the Lincoln County Wars into one story and time period. The book takes place in the border country between New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. The characters and places, apart from places like Santa Fe, are given fictitious names. I found the first part of the book, which concentrates on the Apache Wars, to be very hard to follow in terms of characters and plot. In the second part of the book, the story concentrates on the Lincoln County Wars and the life of Billy the Kid. Here the plot and characters become more understandable. The main character is a Patrick Cutler, an army officer, who is involved in the captures of Apache leaders and Billy the Kid, but who is also very sympathetic to them. In the end, the book is a tragedy for all involved.

[Marcus W · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book. I really loved Warlock. Apaches is considerably as good. The lieutenant who can't keep his mouth shut with his superior officers who don't know what they're talking about was so likeable and relatable. The outlaw, Johnny, is easy to root for and admirable. The respectful treatment of all the Native tribes was great. Unvarnished truth about how euros treated them. So sad, but glad to see this book revealing it honestly. The way the characters interweave. The challenge of the military versus private life. The stink of corruption. The scheming of early settlers against those that came later. The art of scouting and tracking was covered, too. I may have to seek out more Oakley Hall.

[Daniel Polansky]

A rebellious cavalry sergeant presides over the death of the last free Native Indians and a too-moral gunslinger in another of Oakley Hall's sweeping depictions of a mythic west. Hall was a talented writer working in a sub-genre which tends to be critically dismissed, and you could do a lot worse than reading this book, though you'd do better to start with the genuinely brilliant Warlock, probably the best Western written not written by Larry McMurtry or Charles Portis.

[Jeff Bradbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Not as good as the first two in the series but good just the same. Same themes of moral conflict.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Oakley Hall’s Warlock in 2014 and felt myself in the hands of a masterful storyteller. Hall’s Ambrose Bierce novels are lighter and more deft—wry and sardonic—but they also demonstrate his knack for spinning a good tale. I finally discovered that there were two other large novels in Hall’s oeuvre, Apaches and The Bad Lands, both of which I read in the last few months. These latter western novels are substantial tales that have as their background the fast-changing shape of the “wild” west. The Bad Lands was largely about feudal range wars and the eventual imposition of lawful co-existence. Apaches deals with more of the same feudal savagery in the 1880s, perpetrated by operators of syndicates that supplied goods for Indian reservations.

The central protagonist is Patrick Cutler, a maverick calvary officer in charge of a troop of Apache Indians who are deployed to keep in check renegade Apaches that stray from their reservation. Cutler’s character often crosses the line into insubordination with his mentally and morally inferior superior officers, and the only thing that keeps him from being court-martialed is the patronage of a three-star general whom Cutler suspects might be his father. The theme of paternity plays an important part in the novel, and Cutler’s marriage to an hidalgo Mexican who goes mad after being abducted by Apaches echoes the necessity in the novel’s larger action of evolving beyond immediate chaos in order to vouchsafe for future generations the semblance of civilization.

Hall further embroiders this theme with a sympathetic version of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, which includes the bad-faith actions of the New Mexico territory’s governor, General Lew Wallace (author of Ben-Hur). Alongside Hall’s stand-ins for these historical figures, there is a portrayal of a leader of the Apaches that appears to represent Geronimo. There is another young Apache who returns to New Mexico after several years imprisoned at Alcatraz, but the efforts of the US government to make him a peaceful bridge between whites and Indians only drive him crazy, and after several months of brutal depredations on white settlers, he is killed by Cutler.

Guided by a perspicacious historical sensibility, ably framed, and filled with fully-fleshed characters, Oakley Hall’s Apaches offers up a large canvas of several powerful, interwoven dramas.

[Noel Brey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Western crepuscular sobre el último intento de los apaches por sobrevivir y las estafas del hombre blanco, sobre la venganza, el amor y la honestidad. No es «Warlock», pero también es excelente.

[Mike Dietz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very full story of the Lincoln County War in New Mexico and the Apache wars. Lots of interesting characters that I was drawn to.

[Mateo Toledo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Novela ágil e interesante.