General Crook and the Sierra Madre Adventure of 1883

The second installment of the Sun Valley Lodge Discover Arizona series will be held on Thursday, March 12th at 2:00 PM with a presentation entitled “General Crook and the Sierra Madre Adventure of 1883.” The program will be presented by Dale Curtis Miles.

The Crook expedition was the first to convince the Chiricahua Apaches under Geronimo that surrender was necessary, since their mountain sanctuary was no longer safe from U.S. troops. In this presentation, Miles draws on interviews with elders to explain the use of Apache scouts and mule trains, which helped make this campaign a success.

Mr. Miles was born on the San Carlos Apache tribal area and was their first tribal historian. Mr. Miles has devoted his life to learning the history and culture of the Apache peoples while studying at ASU and NAU. He has worked with the Arizona Historical Society, the Smithsonian Institute of the American Indian, and tribal elders as well to gain a traditional view of tribal life-ways and stories. In addition, he has written articles for Native People and True West magazines. He is currently working on a book on the image of the Apache people in film and media.

The Discover Arizona series consists of six programs that each feature a different aspect of Arizona history and are presented by an accomplished speaker. The series opened on March 5th with a discussion of the Gunfight at OK Corral and is sponsored by the Arizona Humanities Council. All of the programs are free and open to the public. For more details please call 623-933-0137.