Shoz-Dijiji, or Black Bear, kidnapped by the Apaches from his white pioneer family as an infant and raised by Geronimo, is now a brave and accomplished Apache War Chief. In addition to the skills of hunting and warfare he has learned to hate violently the pin-dah-lickoyee (“white eyes”) from witnessing their consistently wretched treatments of the Apaches: violation of treaties, forced imprisonment on reservations, and economic exploitation. Shoz-Dijiji is also embittered by bereavement over the death of a young Indian maiden he had loved. He becomes notorious as the blood thirsty Apache Devil a daring and intrepid raider, His adventures bring him together with Wichita Billings, a tough-minded white frontier girl, and they reluctantly fall in love, despite seeming culture and racial differences. But the main action of the novel is the final pursuit and surrender of Geronimos to General Miles chronicled here in grim and realistic detail. APACHE DEVIL is remarkable for it’s honest and sympathetic treatment of Apache life at a time when almost everyone else portrayed the Apaches as devil incarnate; it is an epic worthy of Apache Devil an exciting but tragic era of American history.

エドガー・ライス・バローズが描いたのは、白人の血を引きながらアパッチとして生きる男の、魂の彷徨と誇りです。先住民の悲哀を冷徹なリアリズムで捉えた点は、文学的にも先駆的です。人種という壁に抗い、過酷な運命に翻弄されながらも燃え上がる愛の情熱は、読む者の心を激しく揺さぶります。 映像作品の迫力に対し、原作は個人の内面に潜む壮絶な葛藤を浮き彫りにします。映像の動的な興奮と、小説の内省的な深みが重なることで、歴史の悲劇はより多層的に響き渡るのです。虐げられた者へのバローズの慈愛と憤りこそが、時代を超えて読者の胸に迫る真の魅力と言えるでしょう。