SEARCHING FOR VICTORIO

As a boy I first saw the photo at left, widely accepted as a portrait of the noted Apache chief Victorio. The ruggedly handsome man looks every part the gallant leader recounted in written records. My admiration of and interest in Apaches thus piqued, I immersed myself in researching these indomitable people. Although not as well-known as Geronimo, Cochise or even Mangas Coloradas, Victorio emerged as a hero to me.

I was thrilled when Eve Ball came out with her book In the Days of Victorio in 1970 and Dan Thrapp with Victorio and the Mimbres Apaches in 1974. Eve and Dan later became good friends of mine, and we discussed the Victorio portrait on several occasions. I accepted a story that reservation officials had to wrestle the chief into place to be photographed, hence his mussed hair and missing headband. A closer look at the image reveals what I take to be fingers beneath his left arm.

Years later, however, as I began to gather snippets on Victorio’s physical appearance, certain discrepancies made me, and “Victorio: Chief of the Warm Springs Apaches,” which ran in the January 1930 .