Pretty stupid,Poitier makes an ex-army sergeant who is supposed to be Super cool and experienced scout but walks in an Apache trap and wipes out half his platoon.
Bibi is a white woman who has an Apache child,and Garner is kinda smitten with her.The whole story is more like a history lesson about how brutal,cruel and sadistic the Apaches were,and how they simply had to be wiped out.
I guess the USA is a failure if the Apaches had to be wiped out. Because there are tens of thousands of Apaches alive and not wiped out today.
I suppose because you only read about historic Apaches and only see them in movies with a historic setting (westerns) you assume that Apaches are history and extinct.
There is a high school in Arizona where 1,000 students were awarded the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence in 2002. One student received a Gates Millennium Scholarship in 2010 and four in 2011.
Over half the students are White Mountain Apaches. It is named after William Alchesay (1853-1928) a White Mountain Apache chief who was awarded the Medal of Honor as an Indian Scout fighting hostile Apaches.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchesay_High_School
Even though there used to be many evil, vicious, cruel Apaches, it was never necessary to wipe out the Apaches and they were not wiped out.
Maybe to cure you of your "The only good Apache is a dead Apache" idea you should watch a bunch of relatively pro Apache movies. Here are some with their fictional dates.
War Drums (1957) 1861.
Battle at Apache Pass (1952) 1862.
Broken Arrow (1950) 1870.
Walk the Proud Land (1956) 1874.
Taza, Son of Chochise (1954) 1875.
Apache Rifles (1964) 1879.
Geronimo (1962) 1883.
A Distant Trumpet (1964) 1883.
Indian Uprising (1952) 1885.
Apache (1954) 1886.