was there an Apache (Chiricahua) named Lone Wolf?

[Californian]

Author Ernie Hearting (actually Ernst Herzig, 1914-1992) published in 1959 a biography titled Einsamer Wolf, Tapferer Krieger der Apachen (Lone Wolf, Brave Warrior of the Apaches), volume 11 of his series Berühmte Indiander, weisse Kundschafter. This book has been out of print for decades and only 1 or 2 copies are being offered on antiquarian books websites, usually for a lot of money. Quite a number of readers in the German-speaking world (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) in the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's were inspired by Ernie Hearting's Indianer Bücher (books about Indians). Having only vague memories about this particular biography I was never able to pinpoint and identify this individual with an actual historical person. Of course it would help if I had access to the actual book but thus far I was unable to source a reasonably priced copy.

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[Dietmar]

Californian,

I don´t know this particular book, but Ernie Hearting is not known to me for being too historical correct. At least I´m not aware of any Apache leader of that name.

[Californian]

hi Dietmar, granted that Ernie Hearting is not 100% - he wrote books for young people and thus filled in the dry narratives with fiction, also his cited sources in the bibliography section is rather limited. But one has to give him credit that he was prolific and brought the stories of numerous otherwise unknown historical figures to the attention of the German language reading public. I will have to try to see the bibliography section of Einsamer Wolf to see if I can find more clues about the true identity of this person. Ernie Hearting's books generally were based on real characters.
Thank you nonetheless for your comment.

[chicheman]

Hi Dietmar and Californian, I recall that I did read that book in my youth, it was offered in the school library and I probably took out each available book on native americans back in the 1970´s there. One guy even noticed there that I almost always was picking up books about Native Americans, lol. The mentioned book "Einsamer Wolf . . ." is actually the story of Massai and how he escaped from the train that brought the Chiricahuas to Florida. I think to remember that it was very well written by E. Hearting, and he tells about native americans in a good way and honestly. Sometimes there are some errors historically to find, but in general he did aways well his research. He wrote about several historical chiefs and warriors, like Geronimo, Quanah Parker, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Dull Knife, Black Hawk and Metacomet. And Massai,that he translated as Lone Wolf in his book. I´m not sure if that is really correct in Nde-Language, maybe not. Perhaps our Apache friends her may want to tell us.
chicheman

[angy]

ma/mba ... coyote, sai ... sand, so it's 'sand-coyote'

[chicheman]

Thank you angy !

chicheman

[natethegreat]

The only "Lone Wolf" I am familiar with is Chief Lone Wolf of the Comanche/Kiowa area.

[jasper4]

Dec 2, 2018 8:36:53 GMT -5 chicheman said:

Hi Dietmar and Californian, I recall that I did read that book in my youth, it was offered in the school library and I probably took out each available book on native americans back in the 1970´s there. One guy even noticed there that I almost always was picking up books about Native Americans, lol. The mentioned book "Einsamer Wolf . . ." is actually the story of Massai and how he escaped from the train that brought the Chiricahuas to Florida. I think to remember that it was very well written by E. Hearting, and he tells about native americans in a good way and honestly. Sometimes there are some errors historically to find, but in general he did aways well his research. He wrote about several historical chiefs and warriors, like Geronimo, Quanah Parker, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Dull Knife, Black Hawk and Metacomet. And Massai,that he translated as Lone Wolf in his book. I´m not sure if that is really correct in Nde-Language, maybe not. Perhaps our Apache friends her may want to tell us.
chicheman

Well have never heard of this author. Masai wasn't lone wolf as best as I can recall.

[Nahi]

I have not read the book but I have an opinion (just that) about the name.
Chicheman has read it and he says it describes Massai´s life.
Massais apache name was Nogusea meaning crazy (I think) and he was enlisted as a member of Chatto´s band as Ma-Che. All this has nothing do with the name the author uses in his book ( Lone Wolf).
So letting his name aside and looking into his life, we know that he was in the train headed to Florida to their incarceration. He traveled with his wife (Nahgotsieh) and their two children, and she encouraged him to jump out of the train in order to scape. He and Grey Lizard did so and walked all the way back hidden during very long time until they arrived to New Mexico.
Then each took their own road. Massai stayed for long time in the mountains with no contact with other humans. He ‘took’ a Mescalero woman as a wife and raised there a family dying in 1911.
Due to the circumstances, during all those years they were cautious to have contact with other people because Chiricahua's fate was no more in their hands nor in their land.
I think that the author maybe uses that name Lone Wolf to refer to that fact.

[Californian]

Jan 12, 2019 13:59:41 GMT -5 Nahi said:

I have not read the book but I have an opinion (just that) about the name.
Chicheman has read it and he says it describes Massai´s life.
Massais apache name was Nogusea meaning crazy (I think) and he was enlisted as a member of Chatto´s band as Ma-Che. All this has nothing do with the name the author uses in his book ( Lone Wolf).
So letting his name aside and looking into his life, we know that he was in the train headed to Florida to their incarceration. He traveled with his wife (Nahgotsieh) and their two children, and she encouraged him to jump out of the train in order to scape. He and Grey Lizard did so and walked all the way back hidden during very long time until they arrived to New Mexico.
Then each took their own road. Massai stayed for long time in the mountains with no contact with other humans. He ‘took’ a Mescalero woman as a wife and raised there a family dying in 1911.
Due to the circumstances, during all those years they were cautious to have contact with other people because Chiricahua's fate was no more in their hands nor in their land.
I think that the author maybe uses that name Lone Wolf to refer to that fact.

thank you Nahi. Yes, Ernie Hearting indeed referred in his book "Lone Wolf" to the warrior Massai that had escaped the train and returned back to his homeland. I am not sure why he used that name "Lone Wolf" - he was a prolific writer and well ahead of his time making the plight of Native Americans available to an entire generation of young readers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria at a time where there was only sparse literature available about this subject in the German-speaking world. Granted that his renditions are not 100% accurate, for he had to rely on printed sources in English language and not being a native English speaker (his real name was Ernst Herzig) he may have had some challenges to get to the finer nuances of the texts. He tried to convey a balanced picture and portraying his subjects as real human beings that were fighting for their people and way of life. For that Ernie Hearting deserves great credit. And as in a previous comment Chicheman stated, he was greatly inspired by Ernie Hearting. I personally met Ernie Hearting in the 1970's in Basel, Switzerland where he lived. In real life he was an advertising executive for the Swiss grocery chain COOP. Some years ago I communicated with one of his daughters and what she said about her father is best summed up in her own simple statement "my father wanted to give an alternative to Karl May's fiction, he made great efforts and spent a lot of time researching". 

Now quickly going back to the subject of Massai - he is in fact on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massai

There is a photograph - not sure if it really depicts the right person, thus would be obliged to any comments.

Left to right: Massai - Apache Kid - Rowdy (ca 1880?)

[Californian]

I have a suspicion that Ernie Hearting was inspired for his book Lone Wolf (published in 1959) by the 1954 Hollywood motion picture "Apache" with Burt Lancaster starring as Massai. That film was based on a novel by Paul Wellman "Bronco Apache" published in 1936. Paul Wellman was a journalist and published a number of nonfiction books on the subject of the Indian wars and also wrote several novels.

[Californian]

my suspicions about Ernie Hearting's book "Einsamer Wolf" (Lone Wolf), now correctly identified as the Apache warrior Massai - seem to get further credence, that he largely based it on the novel by Paul Wellman "Apache Bronco" (1936) and the later motion picture "Apache" (1954). Contrary to Ernie Hearting's usual habit of including a bibliography where he would detail the sources that he had consulted, it is totally absent with this book. Hereon below is the text from the inner flap of the dust jacket and also the brief foreword. Obviously Massai's existence and story is historically documented, the primary fact of his spectacular escape from the train that was taking the Apaches to a prison camp in Florida but anything else at this point is likely the work of fiction. I have read this book nearly 50 years ago when i was kid and barely remember it and to make an authoritative assessment I would need to read it again and perhaps also read Paul Wellman's book "Apache Bronco" to be able to see if there are parallels. I remember having seen the film "Apache" also when I was very young - with a rather unrealistic blue-eyed towering Burt Lancaster in the lead role. 
If the picture in Wikipedia indeed depicts the real Massai, then one can easily see  how far from reality the Burt Lancaster portrayal was.

Here are scans of the inner flap of the dust jacket and also the foreword. Any comments along this thread would be greatly welcome.

[chicheman]

Hi Californian, I can´t see the scans of the inner flap of the dust jacket though. I recall having seen "Apache", I guess in Germany it has the title "Massai, the last Apache" or so, saw it at least three or four times in my life and it was not such badly done I found. Though of course, knowing more today when I grew older, there are a number of errors in it. What came to my mind only recently thinking about that film was, that Massai brought back with him a pouch with corn (maize) seeds, the corn of Talequah of the Cherokees, when he met this old Cherokee man and his wife who cared for him when he was sick in that film. That scene did suggest as the Apache had never known about corn (maize), which of course is absolut nonsense, Apache had known corn of course for centuries, from neighbouring Pueblo tribes they traded with, but also did a little farming themselves, some groups at least. Well, the film itself was interesting and not too bad for the time I guess. Best

[Dietmar]

I just uploaded Californian´s scans into the post above.

[Californian]

Feb 19, 2019 8:07:52 GMT -5 chicheman said:

Hi Californian, I can´t see the scans of the inner flap of the dust jacket though. I recall having seen "Apache", I guess in Germany it has the title "Massai, the last Apache" or so, saw it at least three or four times in my life and it was not such badly done I found. Though of course, knowing more today when I grew older, there are a number of errors in it. What came to my mind only recently thinking about that film was, that Massai brought back with him a pouch with corn (maize) seeds, the corn of Talequah of the Cherokees, when he met this old Cherokee man and his wife who cared for him when he was sick in that film. That scene did suggest as the Apache had never known about corn (maize), which of course is absolut nonsense, Apache had known corn of course for centuries, from neighbouring Pueblo tribes they traded with, but also did a little farming themselves, some groups at least. Well, the film itself was interesting and not too bad for the time I guess. Best

thank you Chicheman and well noted. I will try to get a hold of an actual copy of this book - when I saw it, that was about 45 years ago or even longer, thus cannot authoritatively give a good opinion, but the lack of a bibliography in the book, which is a bit unsual for author Ernie Hearting, makes me a bit suspicious.