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Boudoir Card-SP Chiricahua Apache Chief Bonito

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 2,000.00 USD
Boudoir Card-SP Chiricahua Apache Chief Bonito
<B>Boudoir Card - Studio portrait of Chiricahua Apache Chief Bonito</B></I><BR>Spring, 1884<BR>Length 8 1/2 in. Width 5 1/4 in.<BR><BR>Bonito is posed wearing a United States Army cartridge belt, boot moccasins with cactus guards, and holding a rifle across his lap. An Apache <I>tus</B></I> (water jar) is on the ground to his left. Photograph by A. Frank Randall, Wilcox, Arizona Territory with his studio imprint stamped in purple ink on the reverse. A separate paper glued to the reverse states "Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1884, by A.F. Randall, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington." Also written on the reverse, in period script, is "Bonita, Chiricahua Apache Chief, Killed Judge McComas." In March of 1883, Bonito (also spelled Benito) and Chatto led twenty-six warriors on a series of raids into southern Arizona and New Mexico. Near Silver City, New Mexico the raiders came upon a buckboard carrying federal judge H.C. McComas, his wife, and their six year old son, Charlie. The two adults were killed and the child taken hostage. Bonito and the other warriors surrendered to General George Crook in May, 1883 and were taken to the San Carlos Reservation (Arizona). The fate of Charlie McComas became one of the enduring mysteries of the time.<BR><BR>Reference<BR>Debo, Angie, <I>Geronimo.</B></I> University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1976, pp. 165-168.<BR><BR>