Research Paper on:
Indeh An Apache Odyssey by Eve Ball

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whites, that is, without any real Native American input. White researchers spend a few months researching and then feel that they have the right to speak for a people  that they hardly know. Eve Ball, on the other hand, first began living and working with Apaches in 1942. She has interviewed and accumulated in depth interviews with over sixty  individuals from various tribes (xii). This experience has made Ball appreciate the complexity of the Apache psyche. She states that "There is a vast difference in knowing about the  Apache and in knowing him" (xii). This difference is what makes Balls book, Indeh: An Apache Odyssey unique and enthralling. The introduction to this volume goes on to describe  how Ball meticulously took down all of her interviews in shorthand, and then verified the transcriptions with the participants to make sure that these transcripts captured everything that they wanted  to convey to future generations. The Apaches have an oral culture, and this entails having a trained memory. Ball was constantly amazed that individuals could relate back to her word-for-word  interviews that she conducted ten years ago, and, on checking, she would find their accounts completely accurate. As this indicates, the Apache memory, as Ball encountered it in the late  1940s, was an untapped resource of historical investigation. It took Ball years to win the trust of the patriarch of the Mescalero Apache, Ace Daklugie, but with a great  deal of patient effort, Ball finally convinced him to relate his story. Much of Balls book is taken up with Daklugies version of history, a tale of horror, courage and  cruelty. What emerges from his words is, first of all, a portrait of a strong effective leader; and also a vision of history that shows how the white conquest of