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Watch for Me on the Mountain is a 1978 novel by the American writer Asa Carter, published under his pen name Forrest Carter. It has also been published as Cry Geronimo. It is about the Apache military leader and medicine man Geronimo as he fights against the United States Cavalry.

Plot

Geronimo leads a group of Apaches who escape the San Carlos reservation in southeastern Arizona in the summer of 1886. They consist of aging warriors, women and children. Starving and suffering from the heat, they wander into the Sierra Madre where Geronimo has hidden rifles. Geronimo, who is both military leader and medicine man, uses guerilla tactics to lead his men in battle against the United States Cavalry. The fighting lasts until September, when Geronimo surrenders to the cavalry scout Tom Horn. Along with the story of Geronimo at war, the novel covers 300 years of Apache history.

Reception

Webster Schott of The New York Times wrote that the book contains "moments of poetry" when it covers Geronimo's role as a spiritual leader. Schott wrote that although Carter is insightful, his desire to cover history makes the novel suffer when it "trails off into lecture". Kirkus Reviews wrote that Geronimo's spiritual visions are the book's backbone and called the novel "less than totally enthralling or convincing but vivid, richly colored, and often fiercely effective".

There were discussions about making a film adaptation. Carter died in June 1979 while visiting his son on the way to a meeting with a film studio in Los Angeles.

References

1. ^ "Watch for Me on the Mountain". Kirkus Reviews. September 1, 1978. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
2. The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South. Mercer University Press. 1999. p. 258. ISBN 0-86554-666-5.
3. Clements, William M. (2013). Imagining Geronimo: An Apache Icon in Popular Culture. University of New Mexico Press. pp. 233–235. ISBN 978-0-8263-5322-1.
4. ^ Schott, Webster (March 18, 1979). "Teton Sioux and Other Indians". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 1, 2024. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
5. Rubin, Dana (February 1992). "The Real Education of Little Tree". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on December 15, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2024.

• 1978 American novels
• Novels by Forrest Carter
• Cultural depictions of Geronimo
• Novels set in Arizona
• Novels set in the 1880s
• Fiction set in 1886
• Biographical novels
• Novels about Native Americans