Watch for Me on the Mountain

Watch for Me on the Mountain
Author	Forrest Carter
Language	English
Publisher	Delacorte Press
Publication date	September 22, 1978
Publication place	United States
Pages	305
ISBN	0440022029

Watch for Me on the Mountain is a 1978 novel by the American writer Asa Carter, published under his pen name Forrest Carter. It has also been published as Cry Geronimo.^[2] It is about the Apache military leader and medicine man Geronimo as he fights against the United States Cavalry.^[3]

Plot

Geronimo leads a group of Apaches who escape the San Carlos reservation in southeastern Arizona in the summer of 1886. They consist of aging warriors, women and children. Starving and suffering from the heat, they wander into the Sierra Madre where Geronimo has hidden rifles. Geronimo, who is both military leader and medicine man, uses guerilla tactics to lead his men in battle against the United States Cavalry. The fighting lasts until September, when Geronimo surrenders to the cavalry scout Tom Horn. Along with the story of Geronimo at war, the novel covers 300 years of Apache history.^[4]

Reception

Webster Schott of The New York Times wrote that the book contains "moments of poetry" when it covers Geronimo's role as a spiritual leader. Schott wrote that although Carter is insightful, his desire to cover history makes the novel suffer when it "trails off into lecture".^[4] Kirkus Reviews wrote that Geronimo's spiritual visions are the book's backbone and called the novel "less than totally enthralling or convincing but vivid, richly colored, and often fiercely effective".^[1]

There were discussions about making a film adaptation. Carter died in June 1979 while visiting his son on the way to a meeting with a film studio in Los Angeles.^[5]