The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004 Page: 479

Book Reviews

pursue the emergence of labor unions, benevolent societies, neighborhoods,
party politics, and who was who between 1866 and 1900oo in San Antonio
there are forty-five pages of notes and bibliography to put one on a quest.
San Antonio DORA ELIZONDO GUERRA
Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples. By Timothy Braatz. (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Pp. xvii+301. Acknowledgments, note
on terminology, maps, list of abbreviations, notes, bibliography, index.
ISBN: o-8032-1331-x. $55.00, cloth.)
The Yavapai peoples are not exactly a well-known subject in courses on
American Indians or in the published secondary literature. As Timothy Braatz
points out, they are four Upland Yuman speaking peoples-Tolkepayas, Yavapes,
Wipukepas, and Kwevkepayas-who have received much less attention than their
neighbors, the Navajos and Apaches. Braatz, however, presents not only a very
compelling story, but also a persuasive and insightful assessment on the signifi-
cance of the Yavapai.
Braatz covers their origins, social and political organizations, their economy,
and culture. He emphasizes that the Yavapai were comprised of many indepen-
dent camps with their own headmen and only loosely tied to other bands. Their
most enduring attachment was to their geographic area in the future state of
Arizona, from near the Colorado River in the west past the Verde River in the
east, and to the Salt River in the south, an area very effectively presented by
Braatz in three maps. The study explains the limited involvement of the Yavapai
with the Spanish, restricted mostly to trade goods and disease, followed by the
invasion of Americans, notably gold seekers and settlers, then their conquest by
the United States Army.
Braatz admits to a deep sense of moral outrage over the U.S. conquest, but he
does not let his feelings excessively shape his telling of the Yavapai story of per-
sistence and survival in the face of ethnic cleansing and self-interested exploita-
tion by American settlers, miners, Tucson contractors making money off the so-
called "Indian wars," army officers, and Indian Office officials. By letting the
documents, ranging from army records to Bureau of Indian Affairs letters to pri-
vate collections in Arizona and elsewhere, and limited Yavapai sources, tell the
story, Braatz convincingly demonstrates the grounds for his outrage.
Although at times the story gets too caught up in the details of this military raid
and that maneuver by a Yavapai band, the only real question that Braatz does not
explore in depth is why the U.S. Army, including Gens. George Crook and O. O.
Howard, persisted in using deadly force against the Yavapai long past the point when
they were capable of armed resistance. Since Braatz relies very extensively on army
records, he could have added a chapter on how the army viewed the Yavapai, how
they explained, justified or even commented on the most recent raid or roundup of
the men, women, and children that they killed or took captive. How does their men-
tality compare with Nazi extermination camp guards or, more recently, Serbian
paramilitary forces focused on getting rid of Bosnians or Kosovarians?

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