The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 489
562 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
attributes Jicarilla survival to their flexibility, friendship with the Puebloans,
self-sufficiency, industry, and Spanish service.
The book is handsomely designed and printed. The author includes eight
maps (four are documentary), a bibliography, and an index. The index is
not comprehensive (for instance, many proper names on pages I79, 259,
etc. do not appear). Although the anthropologist will appreciate the inser-
tion of bibliographical references in the text, the historian and general
reader may find this arrangement interrupting the flow of the narrative.
Gunnerson's Jicarilla Apaches is an interesting study, one that both his-
torians and anthropologists will find refreshing and valuable.
University of Arizona HARWOOD P. HINTON
The Little Lion of the Southwest: A Life of Manuel Antonio Chaves. By
Marc Simmons. (Chicago: The Swallow Press, Inc., 1973. Pp. xi+
263. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, acknowledgments, index.
$8.95.)
Marc Simmons is rapidly emerging as one of the more creative writers of
the borderlands and its history. His latest contribution to that heritage is a
biographical study of Manuel Antonio Chaves of New Mexico, called
El Leoncito by contemporaries in deference to his extraordinary prowess as
an Indian fighter. Frontiersman Chaves's life (1818-1889) spanned three
colorful eras in New Mexico's history-the end of Spanish colonial admin-
istration, the quarter-century of Mexican rule, and the turbulent territorial
years.
During his life El Leoncito participated in almost every important occur-
rence in New Mexico, and readers will find accounts of events that vary
from the widely known Texan-Santa Fe expedition to the less famous puni-
tive campaigns against belligerent Apaches, Navajos, and Utes. Recently
Noel Loomis and others have documented thoroughly the ill-fated Santa Fe
expedition, but in each case the scope and substance of the accounts are
decidedly Anglo-Texan. In reconstructing Chaves's experiences, Simmons
presents the New Mexican side of that confrontation with such insight and
detail that the outcome is both refreshing and revisionist. Specifically, it was
El Leoncito's cogent arguments in favor of merciful justice that forced
strong-willed Governor Manuel Armijo to spare the lives of the Texan
prisoners. That event was not the only conflict between Chaves and Anglo-
Texan invaders. During the Civil War, when Confederate-Texans invaded
the upper Rio Grande Valley, it was Colonel Chaves who guided the Colo-
rado volunteers in the decisive battle of Glorieta Pass.489
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975, periodical, 1974/1975; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117149/m1/549/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.