Apaches as Thespians in 1876

New Mexico Historical Review, 1931 Book. Very fine. Soft cover. First separate edition, first appearing in the New Mexico Historical Review, 1930. Very scarce. Thin octavo. 24pp. 2 plates. Original light brown stiff wrappers printed in black. Minor crease to lower corner of rear wrapper, front wrapper half detached, else a fine and clean copy. John Philip Clum (1851-1932) copyrighted this work in 1930. Clum was Indian Agent at the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona for three years beginning in 1874. He implemented a limited form of self-government on the reservation that was so successful that other reservations were closed and their residents moved to San Carlos. Clum was also the agent that captured Geronimo in April of 1877. Faced with many superior officers who strongly disagreed with his methods, and dogged by an uncaring Indian Bureau administration, Clum finally left his post as Indian Agent July 1, 1877. His successor freed Geronimo and his men, leading to fifteen years of bloodshed and Indian wars until Geronimo was re-captured by General Miles. Later, in 1880, Clum founded and was editor of the Tombstone Epitaph and became Mayor and Postmaster of Tombstone after its incorporation in 1881. Here, Clum recounts the history and culmination of his plan to take a party of Apache Indians as actors on a drama tour upon the stages of first class theatres in some of the larger cities of the East. This was in 1876, just after his resignation as Indian Agent at San Carlos. The plan was executed and the debut was at the Olympic Theatre at Saint Louis, Missouri. The troupe then visited Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and then back to San Carlos via Colorado. The illustrations include the playbill for the Olympic Theatre and a group photograph of "the Author and His Thespians" in Washington. [OCLC locates only a handful of copies in Arizona and other Southwest libraries, two in Southern California]. Very scarce..