In this book Geronimo allows us to understand from the Apache point of view the story of the Chiricahua's long, doomed fight with the United States Army. It is a gripping story, a story of a small band fighting with ingenuity and remarkable courage against a much superior force. It is a story of promises and betrayals. And it is the story of Geronimo's eventual surrender and imprisonment.

But Geronimo's book is more than a military memoir. In it he also retells the Apache stories of the creation: "In the beginning the world was covered with darkness. There was no sun, no day. The perpetual night had no moon or stars. There were, however, all manner of beasts and birds." He tells about the origins of his people, who are descended from a dragon-slaying boy, the first chief of all the Indians. He tells about hunting, his family, tribal customs---and about his final dreary captivity on the plains of Oklahoma, far from the glorious mountains of the Chiricahua. Geronimo died in 1909, just three years after the publication of his autobiography.