The story focuses on Andy MacDuff, an infant kidnapped by the Apaches in a raid, adopted by Geronimo and renamed Shoz-Dijiji, or Black Bear. He is given a proper Apache upbringing, including initiation into all the rites and responsibilities of Indian Manhood. He excels at the crucial skills of hunting and warfare, shows himself to be strong and courageous, and soon is made a highly prized war chief. During his apprenticeship, Shoz-Dijiji falls in love with Ish-Kay-Nay, an Apache maiden, who, unfortunately is coveted by another Apache chief, Juh, who hates Shoz-Dijiji for being Geronimo's favorite.

Burroughs' great respect for the West and compassion for the exploitative treatment of the Indians the hands of the treacherous pin-dah-lickoyee ("white eyes") is manifested throughout this honest, vivid, and sympathetic portrait of the West that does credit to both the Indians and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The Marvellous Country: Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico, the Apache's Home by Samuel Woodworth Cozzens 1873
Thrilling Days in Army Life by General. George. A. Forthsyth 1900
Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs by Norman B. Wood
The Frontier Trail by Colonel Homer W. Wheeler
The Land of Poco Tiampo by Charles. F. Lummis
Geronimo's Story of His Life by S.M. Barrett, 1907
Trailing Geronimo: The Outbreak of the White Mountain Apaches, 1881 - 1886  by Anton Mazzanovich
Life Among the Apaches by John Carey Cremony
Apache Medicine-Men by John G. Bourke
"Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution"
"Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology"

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs Comments On The War Chief

Danton Burroughs found the following note with the manuscript for The War Chief:

"I have gone over the 'copy' carefully and have indicated a number of phrases, sentences and paragraphs deleted by them, which I wish to have retained.

The preparation of the manuscript required considerable research work and as it is necessary for the reader to be able to understand the viewpoint of the Indian, if he is to be in sympathy with the principal character, it is essential that much of the matter deleted should remain even though it draws comparisons that may be odious to some people of our own race and sometimes shocking to people whose religious convictions are particularly strong. 

I should also call your attention to an Indian name and an Indian word concerning which the magazine editor and I seem not to agree. 

The name is that of a famous Apache Chief, Mangas Colorado, variously spelled Mangus and Magnus. From a very old book I obtained the suggestion of the derivation of this name, which in Spanish means colored sleeves. The author supposed that the name may have been given to him by the Mexicans, either because of the garment he wore with colored sleeves or from the fact that his sleeves or arms were stained with the blood of his victims. 
The other word to which I refer is Izzo-Kolth, which the magazine editor insisted on changing to Izze-Colth. My authority for this spelling is an article by John G. Bourke, THE MEDICINE MAN OF THE APACHES, which appeared in the annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1887 and 1888. 

The magazine editor deleted what evidently appeared to him tiresome descriptions of Indian customs, such as burial ceremonies and the decoration of the bodies of medicine men, but as there is not a great of this and I believe that it is all based on good authority, it should be permitted to remain."