Sunday Reading: Wild West

Library of Congress

William Stinson, Three Comanche men, Fort Sill,
Oklahoma, c. 1873 (albumen print)

So many books, so little time.

Sometimes you can read the article version. If you have time to waste this fine holiday Sunday, don't stare dull-witted at the idiot box or flit through dopey vids on YouTube. Acquaint yourself with a certain celebrated magazine piece, written by Sam Gwynne, which appeared in Texas Monthly in 2010.

"Around midnight, the regiment was awakened by a succession of unearthly, high-pitched yells. Those were followed by shots and more yells, and suddenly the camp was alive with Comanches riding at full gallop. Exactly what the Indians were doing was soon apparent: Mingled with the screams and gunshots and general mayhem was another sound, only barely audible at first, then rising to something like rolling thunder. The men quickly realized that it was the sound of stampeding horses. Their horses. Amid shouts of 'Every man to his lariat!' six hundred panicked horses tore loose through the camp, rearing, jumping, and plunging at full speed. Lariats snapped with the sound of pistol shots; iron picket pins, which a few minutes before had been used to secure the horses, now whirled and snapped about their necks like airborne sabers. Men tried to grab them and were thrown to the ground and dragged among the horses, their hands lacerated and bleeding.

"When it was all over, the soldiers discovered that Quanah and his warriors had made off with seventy of their best horses and mules, including Colonel Mackenzie’s magnificent gray pacer. In West Texas in 1871, stealing someone’s horse was often equivalent to a death sentence. It was an old Indian tactic, especially on the High Plains, to simply take a white man’s horse and leave him to die of thirst or starvation. Comanches had used it to lethal effect against the Spanish in the early eighteenth century. In any case, an unmounted Army regular stood little chance against a mounted Comanche. This midnight raid was Quanah’s calling card, a clear message that hunting him and his Comanche warriors in their homeland was going to be a difficult and treacherous business."

The piece is "Last Days of the Comanches" and it appeared in the May issue. Justly famed. A must-read.

Sam Gwynne also wrote a book about Stonewall Jackson (excellent, although I must say the venerated General was a very odd bird indeed) and a book about football (I struggled like a lineman till time ran out but to be honest it requires more appetite for football than I possess), but his best book (in my very humble opinion) is his masterpiece about the Comanches, which was expanded from the 2010 Texas Monthly article. The book is called Empire of the Summer Moon and I've sung its praises before. Since he writes about things near and dear to the heart of Texans, I'm assuming his next books will be about barbeque and/or the Longhorns (the human kind. I think in Texas an adroit writer, which Sam Gwynne absolutely is, could roll those disparate objects of worship into one book and spare me from having to read two, because I will read anything he chooses to write, an honor I accord precious few writers).

But if you'll never have time for the book, read the article. Costs nothing. Ain't too long. Blade-sharp writing, gripping story.

Two very white fat girls in one-piece bathing suits just pedaled by on a recumbent tandem bicycle, swerving lazily to and fro. Parked cars crowd the shore and neighbors were igniting fireworks (illegally, but the police aren't enthusiastic about enforcing that law) last night after dark. It's the last big weekend of the Summer and it's fantastical to believe it's here.

Me, I'm taking the day off. Coming up: How to say "Nikon," a camera bargain, and what Sony should do.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Rob White: "Having a copy of Empire of the Summer Moon and being a huge fan of Western history, I heartily recommend and endorse the book. It's found a place in my collection of must-read, must-keep books and is a very easy read!"

Bruce: "Darn you, Michael Johnston...I wake up, log in, and am still here two hours later reading about North American history having not been remotely interested previously!

"Growing up in New Zealand, now living in Australia, we were taught little or nothing about Native American issues, apart from the awful, skewed ideas that were prevalent then...(all bad). The article from Texas Monthly is riveting reading...made me click over to Google Earth and scan the country. Fascinating indeed! I am only now, in my early 70s, starting to appreciate the incredible lives of Indigenous Australians, and their Rock Art especially. (By far the oldest in the world!) And I love listening to Maori language on fishing and hunting TV shows emanating from NZ on our SBS-TV. Aaah, to be a few years younger...so much to absorb, so much to photograph. Thanks for a fascinating, educational morning. "

Bill La Via: "Yes, I read the book a few years ago after your recommendation; never thanked you for the tip but would like to do so now. The full book is excellent and well worth the read. Thanks for the suggestion!"

scott kirkpatrick: "The Gwynne article is compelling, but his book, Empire of the Summer Moon, is unforgettable. This is the land about which [photographer] Frank Gohlke writes (in Where I Come From): 'Until the 1860s, most of the Red River Valley was too dangerous for permanent settlement. The Comanche's claim to exclusive use of North Texas derived from their willingness to kill anyone (white or native) whose presence annoyed them and to cheat or rob the rest...the Comanches were not vanquished until they encountered a people who were meaner, more ruthless, and less trustworthy than they were, the Texans. My people.'"

Speed: "At Mike's recommendation (June 2011) I read Empire of the Summer Moon which includes 'Last Days of the Comanches.' The book teaches a history of the United States that we never got in school. And if history had been taught this way I'd have studied it more. Or at all."

Joe Holmes: "I read Empire of the Summer Moon on your recommendation and found it absolutely unforgettable. What a gripping and multi-faceted story! It really changed my understanding of the place that American Indians hold in our history."

Comments

[Steve Rosenblum]

One of the best books I have read about the American West and what was called "The Indian Wars."

[Another phil]

I recently got 'Bury my heart at Wounded Knee' by Dee Brown. Riveting and sad at the same time.
best wishes.

[John Camp]

Mike: "...don't stare dull-witted at the idiot box or flit through dopey vids on YouTube."

Excuse me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sky1tt8vLA

[Bill La Via]

Yes, I read the book a few years ago after your recommendation; never thanked you for the tip but would like to do so now. The full book is excellent and well worth the read. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Daniel]

Best book I read over the last two years is HOLD STILL, by Sally Mann.
She writes as well as she speaks.

[Gerard Geradts]

Pronounce Beacon. B=N

[Pat]

If you like reading about this period and this place, and haven't yet read it, "Lonesome Dove" is a classic. You won't get the overall historical perspective, but you'll get the flavor of the period in spades. (Blue Duck is quite the scary character)

[Francisco Cubas]

I read Empire of the Summer Moon after your first recommendation and it was a real joy. The madness, the relentless march of western civilization, the prehistoric ways of the comanches, the cruelty, the prairies full of horses and bisons.

Its an unforgettable painting of a clash of eras. In many parts the writing is on pair with the impressive address of Ten Bears:

"You have said that you want to put us on a reservation, to build us houses and make us medicine lodges. I do not want them. I was born under the prairie, where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures and everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and nor within walls. I know every stream and wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas. I have hunted an lived over that country. I live like my fathers before me an like them I lived happily".
"()But it is too late. The whites have the country which we loved, and we wish only to wander on the prairie til we die".

Our civilization have created many wonderful things, like this possibility of reading you, and write to you. But at what cost. It should have been different, but we were (and are) so full of madness.

[Clayton]

I read Empire of the Summer Moon on your recommendation and enjoyed it much. On writing in general, we already have lots of thrillers. Can you do Vonnegut? Current political news is close, but we still need the real thing.

[Stan B.]

@Bruce
Living in the US of A... "we were taught little or nothing about Native American issues."

[RF]

Contrary to the gist of this story, the Comanche have yet to experience their "last days" nor their "final destruction". Moreover, this piece fails to mention the fact that introduced diseases like smallpox and measles, along with eradication of a major source of food -the bison- played a more important role in clearing the plains for white settlement than did military engagement. Stories like this are part of an overall framing of the "Indian Wars" as battles between mutual aggressors rather than a conscious policies of eradication on the part of various governments and settler institutions. Indigenous peoples in north america were the demonized other for hundreds of years -and in some cases still are-, characterized in the same way people currently characterize their own enemy of choice, be it muslims, immigrants, blacks etc.

[KeithB]

I read "Empire of the Summer Moon" and was impressed. Two other recent ones:

"The Apache Wars: The hunt for Geronimo, The Apache Kid and the captive boy who started the longest war in American History" by Paul Hutton

and

"Storms brewed in other men's worlds: The confrontation of Indians, Spanish and French in the Southwest 1540-1795" Elizabeth John.

(I admit I have not finished the second one yet!)