October 20, 2006 Bonus Blog
My friend, screenwriter Steve Lodge sent me to the following website. Check it out, very good photos of the various styles of Apache headbands that I was referring to yesterday:

http://impurplehawk.com/apgallery.html

Also, the official San Carlos Apache Historian Dale Miles concurs with my observations on Apaches and their portrayal in movies:

“I read your blog on the two movies that you've watched and I think you made a good observation of them, Geronimo and Ulzana's Raid. You were good in the assessment on Ulzana's demise. I don't know why the movie makers put it in; maybe they felt it would make him more human or dramatic to mourn for his sun in such a way. Most Apaches love their children very much but they often accepted the way life could be in their world which was often harsh and cruel. The death would have really made Ulzanna even more hateful than he was by making him go out and kill about fifty white people in revenge for the loss. (Geronimo's life was almost based on revenge.) Now that is more Apache because there is nothing an Apache better understands than revenge—even today. Believe me I know and some time I'll tell you the story of how one of my brothers was shot by another Apache (he lived) and what happened. It is an interesting study of what I just told you but only in the modern sense.

“Also not done in the movie is that a Chiricahua war party like this would not be tracked by just one patrol but by several sent out from all the different posts in Apache country—that is if the Apaches didn't cut the telegraph wire which they often did in such a way so that it looked like it wasn't cut. Early on Apaches learned that the wire meant fast communication and cutting it was one of the first things they did. Fighting Apaches was hard, dangerous and bloody work and most civilians of the time let the army do it—that's what they got paid for. Oh yeah, Richard Jackael as the sergeant was very good; this fine character actor doesn't get enough credit for his role. I loved his line to the Lt. about chasing Nana: 'We chased them for days and ya know we never got one look at those murdering bastards!' or something like that. Chatto's raid of March 1883 is another where the hostiles lost only one or two men and always stayed ahead of the army so that the troopers were mostly a burial detail on that one.”
—Dale Miles

“Texas foreplay: ‘Brace yerself Darlin.’ "