Keith H. Basso

Examines the importance of symbol in the Western Apache language, explaining how such elements as place names, metaphor, and the use of silence define Apache culture.

"A School of American Research book." "This volume is the result of a conference held on the days of March 18-22, 1974, at the School of American Research, in Santa Fe, NM." Bibliography: p.239-247. Includes index.

"When the Apache wars ended in the late nineteenth century, a harsh and harrowing time began for the Western Apache people. Living under the authority of nervous Indian agents, pitiless government-school officials, and menacing mounted police, they knew that resistance to American authority would be foolish. But some Apache families did resist in the most basic way they could: they resolved to endure." "Although Apache history has inspired numerous works by non-Indian authors, Apache people themselves have been reluctant to comment at length on their own past. Eva Tulene Watt, born in 1913, now shares the story of her family from the time of the Apache wars to the modern era, particularly offering a wealth of observations about the early part of the twentieth century - a dark and turbulent time when the Apaches' treatment as wards of the U.S. government left much to be desired. The largest body of historical accounts yet set down by a White Mountain Apache person, Mrs. Watt's narrative presents a view of history that differs fundamentally from conventional approaches, which have almost nothing to say about the daily lives of Apache men and women, their values and social practices, and the singular abilities that enabled them to survive." "Illustrated with more than 50 photographs, Don't Let the Sun Step Over You is a book that affords a view of the past that few have seen before - a wholly Apache view, unsettling yet uplifting, which weighs upon the mind and educates the heart. It is an exceptional work in Native American culture, history, and historiography that will be of lasting value not only to scholars in a wide range of disciplines but also to general readers interested in Native American lifeways."--BOOK JACKET.