The Valiant Women (68 page)

Talitha knew it was true. Dr. Michael Steck, as agent, had tried since 1854 to get reservations for the Gileños and Mescaleros where white men couldn't go, and to provide them with farming implements and seed as well as rations. The government never supplied enough food, however, and the Indians often had to steal or starve. Seeing what had happened to the groups that had tried to live according to the white man's way was certainly no argument for convincing Mangus and Cochise that they should do the same.

“I know the whites have often been as cruel as Apaches,” Talitha said. “But the whites are going to keep coming. Nothing will stop that, James. So the Apaches must manage to live with them, somehow, or be killed out.”

“There are always the mountains of Mexico where white-eye soldiers can't go.”

“For heaven's sake, you have ‘white eyes' yourself! And the Mexican government will surely help the United States ferret out Apaches in the Sierra Madre if they can't spare troops to do it themselves.”

The conversation was turning into an argument. The last thing Talitha wanted was to push her brother into stubbornly siding with the Apaches. She clamped her teeth on other undeniable facts and went to wash off the smell of dust and cattle.

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SOURCES AND PEOPLE THAT HELPED MAKE THIS BOOK

A lot of background reading is necessary for a book of this kind so I am listing only sources that were especially helpful. The Rio Grande Press's new editions of Carl Lumholtz's
New Trails in Mexico
(1971) and
Unknown Mexico
, Vol. I (1973) Glorieta, New Mexico, are fascinating. Carolyn Niethammer's
American Indian Food and Lore
(Macmillan, 1974) is a wonderfully interesting book for anyone wanting to know about Western plant foods. I was lucky enough to take Carrie's field course on gathering and preparing wild foods and learned much from her.

Good general books are:
Early Arizona, Prehistory to Civil War
by Jay J. Wagoner, University of Arizona Press, 1975;
The Far Southwest 1846–1912
,
A Territorial History
by Howard Roberts Lamar, Norton, 1970; and
Pioneer Days in Arizona
by Frank C. Lockwood, Macmillan, 1932. There is a wealth of material in Thomas J. Farish's
History of Arizona
, San Francisco, eight volumes, 1915–1918.
Friars, Soldiers and Reformers
by John L. Kessell, University of Arizona Press, 1976, brilliantly depicts Hispanic Arizona.

Philip St. George Cooke tells of the Mormon Battalion in his
The Conquest of New Mexico and California
, Bio-books, Oakland, California, 1952.
My Confession
by Samuel Chamberlain, Harper, 1956, tells about the execution of the San Patricios and the author's later association with Arizona scalp hunters. Chamberlain must be taken with a salt cellar, but his illustrations are beguiling and he captures the spirit of the era.
The Warrior Apaches
by Gordon Baldwin, Tucson, 1966;
Cycles of Conquest
:
The Impact of Spain, Mexico and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533–1960
, by Edward Spicer, University of Arizona Press, 1962;
History of the Cattle Industry in Southern Arizona
by Jay J. Wagoner, University of Arizona Press, 1952;
The Mining Frontier
edited by Marvin Lewis, University of Oklahoma Press, 1967, were valuable.

Also helpful were
Vanguards of the Frontier
by Everett Dick, University of Nebraska Press, 1965;
Sonoran Strongman, Ignacio Pesqueira and His Times
by Rodolfo F. Acuna, University of Arizona Press, 1974;
Destiny Road, the Gila Trail and the Opening of the Southwest
by Odie B. Faulk, Oxford University Press, 1973;
The Tarahumar of Mexico
by Campbell W. Pennington, University of Utah Press, 1963;
Mexico's Ancient and Native Remedies
by Evelyne Winter, Editorial Fournier, S.A., Mexico, D.F. 1968;
Adventures in the Apache Country
by J. Ross Browne, University of Arizona Press, 1974;
Arizona and Sonora
by Sylvester Mowry, Harper & Brothers, 1864;
Building a State in Apache Land
by Charles D. Poston, Aztec Press, Tempe, Arizona, 1963;
Latest from Arizona, the Hesperian Letters, 1859–1861
, edited by Constance Altshuler, Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society, Tucson, Arizona, 1969;
The Mexican War
by the Editors of Time/Life Books, text by David Niven, Time/Life, 1978; and
Year of Decision, 1846
by Bernard DeVoto, Little, Brown & Co., 1943.

Several
Smoke Signals
, a publication of the Tucson Corral of the Westerners, were extremely useful:
The Military Posts on Sonoita Creek
by James E. Serven, Fall, 1965;
Calabazas of the Rio Rico
by Bernard Fontana, Fall, 1971;
Journalism in Pre-Territorial Arizona
by Kenneth Hufford, Fall, 1966;
Charles Debrille Poston: Prince of Arizona Pioneers
by Dr. B. Sacks, Spring, 1963; and
Wagon-Freighting in Arizona by Henry
P. “Pick” Walker, Fall, 1973.

Also helpful were
The Apaches, Eagles of the Southwest
by Donald E. Worcester, University of Oklahoma Press, 1979, and
Camera, Spade and Pen
by Marc and Marnie Gaede, the essay on “Sierra Pinacate” by Julian Hayden, University of Arizona, 1980.

The Journal of Arizona History
published by the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson, Arizona, gave me much aid and comfort, especially in these articles: “Brother Burro” by George W. Harvey and Charles Fletcher Lummis, Winter, 1976; “Pozole, Atole and Tamales” by Alberto Francisco Pradeau, Spring, 1974; “Poston and the Birth of Yuma” by Frank Love, Winter, 1978; and an engrossing account of ranching and stock raising, “Echoes of the Conquistadores” by Yjinio F. Aguirre, Autumn, 1975.

“Bring Cats! A Feline History of the West” by Reginald Bretnar, in
The American West
, the Magazine of Western History, Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming, Nov./Dec. 1978, makes one wish for a whole book on the cat as pioneer. Doris W. Bent's
The History of Tubac, 1752–1948
, M.A. thesis, University of Arizona, 1949, was among the most useful of the unpublished materials I found in the files of the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society in Tucson. A reprint of Arizona's first newspaper,
The Weekly Arizonian, 1859
, really took me back to those days. The reprint was done by Donald B. Sayner and Robert P. Hale, Compilers, Printers and Publishers. Both are in the Department of General Biology at the University of Arizona and were advised by Margaret S. Bret Harte, Head Librarian, Arizona Historical Society.

Those wishing to learn more about the desert will enjoy A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide,
The Deserts of the Southwest
by Peggy Larson, Sierra Club, 1977, and
Desert: The American Southwest
by Ruth Kirk, Houghton Mifflin, 1973.

I wish to thank the staff of The Arizona Historical Society for their help. Tracy Row, Editor of the
Journal of Arizona History
, gave me out-of-print material, and Don Bufkin, Assistant to the Director, also Art Editor of the
Journal
, and the leading cartographer for the area, has kindly made the map.

Dr. C. L. Sonnichsen, now Senior Editor for the
Journal
, has been an inspiration, adviser and gadfly. In a small way, I am acknowledging his graciousness by spelling Mangus that way instead of Mangas though it meant changing the word throughout the first half of the book.

Virginia Roberts of Tucson, overhearing my laments to the librarian in the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society Library, generously told me of a letter found in her research which established that Dr. Bernard J. D. Irwin, a suitor of my fictional Talitha, was indeed a bachelor at that time.

Julian Hayden generously supplied me with a copy of Dr. W. J. McGee's treatise,
Desert Thirst as a Disease
, and kindly read the part of the book taking place in the Pinacates which he knows better than any living man, perhaps better than the vanished
Areneños
.

I would also thank Alessandro Jacques of Sonora for telling me of his family's ranching experiences and giving me a glimpse of old cow camps scattered across the Altar Valley. Without Bill Broyles, I wouldn't know the Pinacates or the
Camino del Diablo
. I cannot thank him enough for taking me to wild places of Arizona and Mexico and sharing his knowledge of them. Al McGinnis has been a good companion on some explorations and Betty and Dana Smith first showed me the Sea of Cortez where once Poston and others dreamed of a port for Arizona. My debt to all these friends is more than I can express, for through them I have come to love this region, from the sea and dead volcanoes through deserts and river valley to the mountains.

Martin Asher, my editor at Pocket Books, opened the way for me to do this book by saying “What do you want to do?” and being supportive and encouraging ever since. Thanks also to my other conscientious and sensitive editors, Janet Kronstadt and Meg Blackstone. My friend and agent, Claire Smith, is a constant support and refuge. Kristin, my daughter, read the manuscript and made excellent suggestions. My son, Michael, read with an expert eye for weapons and military background. Leila Madeheim once again wrestled clean copy out of chaos and caught my blinded-eye spelling of Gadsen for Gadsden.

Thanking is a happy task. I've had lots of help. My mistakes are my own.

J
EANNE
W
ILLIAMS
Tucson, Arizona

March, 1979

About the Author

Born on the High Plains near the tracks of the Santa Fe Trail, Jeanne Williams's first memories are of dust storms, tumbleweeds, and cowboy songs. Her debut novel,
Tame the Wild Stallion
, was published in 1957. Since then, Williams has published sixty-eight more books, most with the theme of losing one's home and identity and beginning again with nothing but courage and hope, as in the Spur Award–winning
The Valiant Women
(1980). She was recently inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame, and has won four Western Writers of America Spur Awards and the Levi Strauss Saddleman Award. For over thirty years, Williams has lived in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1980 by Jeanne Williams

Cover design by Connie Gabbert

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3638-2

This edition published in 2016 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com

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