America’s longest war began with an Apache raid and kidnapping of an Arizona rancher’s 12-year-old stepson in 1861. It would last more than a quarter of a century, the government waging a campaign to confine the various Apache bands to reservations. Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 finally signaled an end to a ferocious struggle.

In a special, weeknight edition of the Library’s Missouri Valley Sundays series, historian Paul Andrew Hutton looks back at the largely overlooked chapter in our country’s history – chronicled in his book The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History.

Hutton, a professor at the University of New Mexico, has written, appeared in, or narrated more than 200 television documentaries on CBS, NBC, PBS, the History Channel, and other networks.