Wars for Empire: Apaches, the United States, and the Southwest Borderlands

Abstract

This military history of the Apache Wars from 1846 to 1886 briefly discusses the US conflicts with Jicarillas, Mescaleros, Lipans, and Navajos, but the bulk of it deals with the Chiricahuas and, to a lesser extent, the Western Apaches. Lahti draws abundantly from the English-language scholarship produced in the last few decades, the ethnographic literature, archival sources (mostly from Arizona repositories and the National Archives), and government publications. Because of the scant use of Spanish-language sources, Hispanic perspectives are overlooked, and the Mexican dimension of the Apache Wars remains underexplored. Lahti’s style is agile and engaging. Meaningful quotes add pathos and credibility to his account. The single map on pages 4–5, though, leaves much to be desired.The book is divided into two parts. In part 1, “Cultures of War,” Lahti compares the US Army’s and the Apaches’ approach to warfare. In his analysis, Apaches were superior fighters, more resilient and adaptive to the unforgiving southwestern environment and the contingencies of war than the Americans. The army, consisting largely of impoverished (mostly immigrant) troopers and aristocratic-minded (mostly northeastern) officers, lacked organization, discipline, esprit de corps, training, equipment, familiarity with the terrain, and tactical malleability. Conversely, in the Apaches’ more egalitarian societies, males started to train in childhood to become warriors and to familiarize themselves with the landscape. This made them masters of survival and of tactical and logistical improvisation, even though they depended on others to obtain firearms, ammunition, and mounts. Lahti mentions Manifest Destiny and just-war ideologies, along with the US need to dominate the Southwest as a corridor toward the Pacific, as the leading factors driving American imperialism into the Southwest. Army officers fought partly for prestige, while troopers enlisted basically to get paid. Apaches waged war to protect their resources or acquire new ones, to gain status, and, increasingly, to defend their land and freedom from the encroaching Americans. The army remained unpopular in the eyes of many citizens and was constantly subject to severe scrutiny by politicians and civilians, although its shortcomings may not have been as pervasive as Lahti implies. There was likely more intergroup variation in the Apaches’ war-related practices than the author sometimes concedes.Part 2 of the book, “Shapes of Violence,” is a diachronic narrative of the Apache Wars. The first three chapters in this section reflect the prevailing American strategies to dominate the Apaches: “Containment” in the 1850s, “Extermination” in the 1860s, and “Internment” in reservations in the 1870s and 1880s, although there were genocidal attacks as well as less deplorable attempts to subjugate the Apaches during all periods. The closing chapter discusses the recurrent “Insurgency” of (mostly Chiricahua) Apaches who left their reservations repeatedly after 1880 to avoid deprivation or because they felt threatened. As Lahti points out, most military engagements between regular troops and Apaches resulted in relatively little bloodshed, and most of the non-Apache casualties of the wars were civilians. In the 1860s alone, more than 1,600 Apaches were killed in war, which is in contrast to an estimated 108 US soldiers and 244 Anglo civilians (159). Conversely, in the 1880s the majority of casualties were among non-Indians, possibly “as many as 142” in 1883 alone (206). Over time, Apache numbers declined whereas American immigration turned the Southwest into a settler colony. The US Army depended increasingly on Apaches to fight other Apaches, and, partly due to that practice, Apaches themselves became increasingly divided. Unexplored by the author, today’s factionalism within some Apache groups (both federally recognized and not) is partly a legacy of the interethnic violence and the community schisms that occurred during those years.In sum, this is an up-to-date, sound, and cogently argued survey of the Apache Wars. Lahti’s illuminating comparison of the military goals, training, strategies, tactics, and logistics of the two contenders helps explain why the numerically overwhelmed Apaches resisted American imperialism for so long and why the wars were so costly in lives and property.