Tiger of the Human Species? Yavapai-Apache Scouts: Meanings and Legacies

Date & Time: Tuesday, October 19, 2021, 6 p.m.  
Location: Arizona Heritage Center at Papago Park

apache scouts with rifles photographed behind an image of Maurice Crandall, the speaker for this event.

General George Crook famously referred to Apaches as the "tiger of the human species." In the decades since the last actions of the so-called Apache Wars, the Western Apaches and Yavapais who served as U.S. Army Indian Scouts have achieved legendary status in Western history lore. Much has been written about the scouts, but very little of it from an Indigenous perspective. This talk seeks to uncover the meanings of scout military service both inside and outside of fighting in the field, and how former scouts used their experience and knowledge in the service of their communities after the wars had ended, often in unexpected ways.

About the speaker

Dr. Maurice Crandall is an Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He is a citizen of the Yavapai-Apache Nation, the author of These People Have Always Been A Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S. Mexico Borderlands, 1598-1912, and the 2016–2017 Clements Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America at the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

This event is co-sponsored by the Arizona Historical Society

Photo credit: Apache scouts drilling with rifles, Fort Wingate, New Mexico/This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 530918.

Link to recording