In Geronimo's Footsteps

In Geronimo's Footsteps

A Journey Beyond Legend

Corine Sombrun Harlyn Geronimo

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Description

The name "Geronimo" came to Corine Sombrun insistently in a trance during her apprenticeship to a Mongolian shaman. That message and the need to understand its meaning brought her to the home of the legendary Apache leader's great-grandson, Harlyn Geronimo, himself a medicine man on the Mescalero Apache reservation in New Mexico. Together, the two of them—the French seeker and the Native American healer—would make a pilgrimage that retraced Geronimo's life while following the course of the Gila River to the place of his birth, at its source.

Told in the alternating voices of its authors, In Geronimo's Footsteps is the record of that journey. At its core is an account of Geronimo's life, from his earliest days in a Chiricahua Apache family and his path as a warrior and chief to his surrender and the years spent in exile until his death, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Recounted by his great-grandson, his story is steeped in family history and Apache lore to create a portrait of a leader intent on defending his people and their land and traditions—a mission that Harlyn continues, even as he campaigns to recover his ancestor's bones from the U.S. government. Completing Corine's circle, the book also explores the links, genetic and possibly cultural, between the Apache and the people of Mongolia.

Genres

IndigenousCultural & RegionalBiography & AutobiographyIndigenousHistorySouthwestState & LocalUnited States19th Century

Pages312

Released2014

LanguageEnglish

PublisherArcade

ISBN9781628724684

SellerSimon & Schuster

Reviews

“This is a good medicine book and holds sublime truths. It is an interface of ancient shamanic knowledge with present-day realities. At its heart is the story of the holy and noble warrior Geronimo. Corine Sombrun and Harlyn Geronimo have shared a bittersweet journey with us—it is a powerful affirmation of the mystery.” —David Carson, award-winning author of Crossing into Medicine Country and coauthor of the bestselling Medicine Cards

"Harlyn Geronimo’s passionate commitment to return the remains of Geronimo, his legendary great-grandfather, from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he died a prisoner, to his birthplace and native home at the headwaters of the Gila River in New Mexico is a profound revelation of the endurance of the Native American spirit." —Ramsey Clark, former attorney general of the United States

"A stimulating book, full of history and Native American legends, of accounts of war and plants for healing."—Le Point

"Captivating . . . Weaves together both ancestral Apache culture and a glimpse of the daily lives of people on the Mescalero reservation in New Mexico. The chapters devoted to Geronimo read like an initiation story, while those on contemporary Apache life are classic reportage."—Nouvel Observateur

"Geronimo's great grandson recounts the famous Apache chief's life in a riveting book that also touches on topics from his own service in Vietnam to his activism for his people and the medicine man he has become—this in addition to little known facts about Geronimo."—Le Monde