Sir

As Native American university faculty members, we are concerned about a major error concerning Native American history in Adam Kuper's review of Mark Cocker's book Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold ( Nature 393, 533; 1998). Kuper's reference to the so-called Apache being “virtually bandit groups, established in the interstices between the British colonies and Mexico,” is both insulting and ignorant. Recent scholarship makes it clear that the Apaches were essentially agriculturalists, and their so-called raids were attempts to protect their homelands from invasion.

Although Kuper complains about Cocker's reversal of the old Victorian bias, it seems he has nothing better to offer than a return to even older stereotypes of bandit tribes and small nomadic bands. The historical reality was much more complex, and some emphasis should be made of the strong links between indigenous peoples and the places from which they come. Understanding this relationship defines the tragedies that Cocker describes.