Southwest Books

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West

Hampton Sides

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 138 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down upon the small town of Santa Fe, the stronghold of the Mexican settlers he had been fighting his whole long life. He had come to see if the rumors were true—if an army of blue-suited soldiers had swept in from the East and utterly defeated his ancestral enemies. As Narbona gazed down on the battlements and cannons of a mighty fort the invaders had built, he realized his foes had been vanquished—but what did the arrival of these “New Men” portend for the Navajo?

Narbona could not have known that “The Army of the West,” in the midst of the longest march in American military history, was merely the vanguard of an inexorable tide fueled by a self-righteous ideology now known as “Manifest Destiny.” For twenty years the Navajo, elusive lords of a huge swath of mountainous desert and pasturelands, would ferociously resist the flood of soldiers and settlers who wished to change their ancient way of life or destroy them.

Hampton Sides’s extraordinary book brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life. It is a tale with many heroes and villains, but as is found in the best history, the same person might be both. At the center of it all stands the remarkable figure of Kit Carson—the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier who embodies all the contradictions and ambiguities of the American experience in the West. Brave and clever, beloved by his contemporaries, Carson was an illiterate mountain man who twice married Indian women and understood and respected the tribes better than any other American alive. Yet he was also a cold-blooded killer who willingly followed orders tantamount to massacre. Carson’s almost unimaginable exploits made him a household name when they were written up in pulp novels known as “blood-and-thunders,” but now that name is a bitter curse for contemporary Navajo, who cannot forget his role in the travails of their ancestors.

Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History

Karl Jacoby

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A groundbreaking exploration of one of the worst Indian massacres in American history illuminates the clash of American, Mexican, and tribal cultures in the southwestern borderlands.

In the predawn hours of April 30, 1871, a combined party of Americans, Mexicans, and Tohono O’odham Indians gathered just outside an Apache camp in the Arizona borderlands. At the first light of day they struck, murdering nearly 150 Apaches, mostly women and children, in their sleep. In its day, the atrocity, which came to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre, generated unparalleled national attention—federal investigations, heated debate in the press, and a tense criminal trial. This was the era of the United States’ “peace policy” toward Indians, and the Apaches had been living on a would-be reservation, under the supposed protection of the U.S. Army. President Ulysses Grant decried the act as “purely murder,” but American settlers countered that the distant U.S. government had failed to protect them from Apache attacks, and they were forced to take justice into their own hands.

In the past century, the massacre has largely faded from memory. Now, drawing on oral histories, newspaper reports, and the participants’ own accounts, prizewinning author Karl Jacoby brings this horrific incident and tumultuous era to life. What brought this party together on that fateful April morning, and what led them to commit such a stunning act of violence? Shadows at Dawn traces the escalating conflicts, as well as the alliances, that transpired among the Americans, Mexicans, Apache, and Tohono O’odham living in the borderlands over the course of several hundred years, beginning with the seventeenth-century arrival of the first Spanish missionaries. The American presence brought further transformations, especially after the Gadsden Purchase transferred a large swath of Mexican territory to the United States, leaving many Mexicans feeling like foreigners in their own land. By recounting the events from the perspective of each of the four parties involved, Jacoby challenges the dominance of the American version of the western story and also reveals the way each group has remembered, or forgotten, the massacre.

Prodigiously researched and powerfully written, Shadows at Dawn examines a forgotten atrocity and in doing so paints a sweeping panorama of the southwestern border lands—a world far more complex, culturally diverse, and morally ambiguous than the traditional portrayals of the Old West.

In Search of the Old Ones

David Roberts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

For those who love the Southwest.... 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to explore the far reaches of Anasazi territory, this book takes you there! If you enjoy armchair travel there isn't a book that puts you there better than this one. David Roberts describes in detail his adventures through many Anasazi sites in the Southwest. Even those ruins that many people will never see because of their remote location.

Come Along And See With Your Mind's Eyes 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

For anyone with a passing interest in the Anasazi and the southwest, this is a great read. It's not a scientific archeology book but instead an easy to read guide to some of the Anasazi ruins of the southwest and the description of the author's hikes and explorations. He touches upon various theories of the fate of the Anasazi and current issues relating to the remaining ruins and National Parks. It has a few B&W photos (could definitely had more). It is a very easy read and to be honest I'm writing this review after having read it for the 3rd time. I have visited many of the sites that he writes about and for anyone who has been to any of the Anasazi sites and National Parks you will truly enjoy this book and have a better understanding of the history and of the ruins of this vanished (or moved) people.

Editorial Review:

An archaeological examination of the disappearance of the Anasazi considers the various theories about their departure from the Southwest and probes their history, culture, and architecture. 20,000 first printing.

The Comanche Empire (The Lamar Series in Western History)

Pekka Hamalainen (Hamalainen)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, at the high tide of imperial struggles in North America, an indigenous empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in historical accounts.

 

This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches. It is a story that challenges the idea of indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new model for the history of colonial expansion, colonial frontiers, and Native-European relations in North America and elsewhere. Pekka Hämäläinen shows in vivid detail how the Comanches built their unique empire and resisted European colonization, and why they fell to defeat in 1875. With extensive knowledge and deep insight, the author brings into clear relief the Comanches’ remarkable impact on the trajectory of history.

(20080529)

Geronimo: His Own Story: The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior

Geronimo, S. M. Barrett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Worth reading if.................. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If you understand that Geronimo ( correctly pronounced "Herr-ON-EE-Mo") was a prisoner of war who expected to be shot or hung at any time while he was dictating this autobiography, it is well worth reading. To get the REAL STORY behind Geronimo's motivations for providing Barrett with what he did, read the excellent book "Indeh, An Apache Odyssey" by Eve Ball. Indeh, along with his autobiography, allows Geronimo to become a real person in many respects - especially in terms of being qualified as a highly intelligent, astute, exceptionally "powerful" individual and probably the most outstanding warrior/leader the Apaches ever had bar none.
This said, I urge the reader to reject any and all works done by Politically Correct Story Telling cranks such as Dan L. Thrapp, Edwin Sweeney, and ilk. Read this autobiography of Geronimo's along with Ball's "Indeh" and THEN read my reviews of Thrapp's preposterous drivel and nonsense and Sweeney's garbage on various Apache leaders. You'll then have a real idea of the difference between historically valuable information and mere fantasy-filled, sky-pie jibberish churned out by love-sick buffoons who neither lived at the time of the people they write about or have any intention of offering their readers ACCURATE information on anything.
These days there is far too much insane and inacurate literature available on the American Indian of yesteryear, but this book and Ball's "Indeh" certainly deserve to be considered as far above and beyond the fiction-as-fact PC rubbish which comprises a trecherous information swamp that anyone interested in Frontier history must wade through to get to the truth and facts.
If you want some truth about Apaches from Apaches, avoid books by Thrapp, Sweeney, Roberts, and ilk like the plague. Purchase this book and Ball's "Indeh". You won't be sorry you did.

Editorial Review:

One of the most extraordinary documents in the annals of Native American history, this is the authentic testament of a remarkable war shaman who for several years held off both Mexico and the United States in fierce defense of Apache lands.

Once They Moved Like the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo, and the Apache Wars

David Roberts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Details on specific events and personalities given misleading interpretations. 1 out of 5 stars.
11 of 19 people found this review helpful.

Books such as this one are all guilty of the same thing, and in terms of educating the reader on the subject they deal with, this thing is significant. What I mean is, the author gives the reader HIS interpretations, conclusions, fantasies, etc. as if they are historic fact.

People like David Roberts, Dan L. Thrapp, Ed Sweeney, and others who write about AmerIndians of yesteryear take long-known details concerning the activities of various individual Indians, and in some cases, their bands in general, and use these details as a kind of framework upon which to hang their own notions, whims, and many imaginary attributes they personally WISH these Indians had. As a result, the reader is provided with a completely misleading perspective on the subject matter being dealt with.

In contrast to the highly biased and totally erroneous work of Roberts, Thrapp, and Sweeney, I offer T.R. Fehrenbach's Comanches (Pimlico Wild West). This book is a classic example of what a work on past history and a specific people should be, because Fehrenbach does not attempt to sway the reader with information that has literally been pulled out of thin air, or out of his imagination. He does not focus on individual Indians in a manner where he writes about them as if he knew them, their intentions, their thoughts and feelings, person-to-person...as though he was present during their lifetimes. Instead, Fahrenbach offers the reader a clear, logically-presented set of known facts which provide truthful details about the people he is focused on.

Now, on the other hand, Roberts, Thrapp, and Sweeney go a different route - which is to embark on STORY TELLING generated from their imaginations and wishful thinking. Be aware that the formula which Roberts, Thrapp, Sweeney, and others follow is to assemble any and all sorts of tidbits of information from any and all SECOND HAND sources ( Indian informants speaking to anthropologists; statements made or written by various officials and Army officers; Government Indian Agents; etc. ) and then to ASSUME these tidbits to be utterly reliable, and after that, to piece them together in order to offer the reader THEIR ( Roberts', Thrapp's, Sweeney's ) interpretation of events and personalities of long passed history.

Consider the absurdity of this for a moment. How can any of these tidbits be verified in terms of authenticity or accuracy any way or sense? People can ( and do ) say anything for many reasons. Can Roberts, Thrapp, or Sweeney somehow know the motivations of the people who offered the various descriptions of these Indians, or provided descriptions about their activities? Can these authors accurately peg the thinking of the sources of all this SECOND HAND information in even the remotest way? Yet in books like this one, this sort of erroneous information forms the base upon which the author wants the reader to understand history!

It is one thing to write about some period in history and a specific people connected to it according to what is fact, but the content of this book of Roberts' ( or the books by Thrapp and Sweeney ) have an enormous amount of material that is simply the author's personal interpretation of SECOND HAND information that is impossible to corroborate. Equally absurd is the fact that the author is living NOW, not in the days of the people he is writing about, therefore he cannot possible make even a remotely accurate guess or interpretation of the thoughts, feelings, intelligence, hopes/fears, or anything else connected to these long deceased Indians.

Here is one perfect example of what I mean:
On page 185, Roberts utilizes material from Thrapp's "Victorio and the Mimbres Apaches". He terms Thrapp "Victorio's Biographer".

"From his breakout in 1879 until now Victorio had never been trapped, never been clearly defeated. But from this time forward his star was in decline. Although he would win his other engagements, until the final one, they would more and more resemble rear-guard actions of a force growing gradually weaker. Victorio was discovering what Cochise had learned before him; you could whip the soldiers time and again, but they were too many and so well supplied and reinforced the they would wear you out."

It is rather incredible to ponder the absolutely false elements contained in this one quote used by Roberts from Thrapp's book. First, how does Thrapp know what Victorio "discovered"? Or if this Indian actually discovered anything at all at anytime in his career? How does Thrapp know what this Indian's motivations were for taking the actions he did? Or what Cochise "discovered" at anytime either? Thrapp is offering as FACT his own conclusions, not facts! He cannot prove anything about Victorio's "discoveries" or thoughts or anything else. There is nothing hard and fast to validate anything Thrapp had DECIDED is true about this Indian or his life. Therefore, Thrapp is involved in mere STORY TELLING.

This is what I mean by "writing in" what the AUTHOR FEELS is appropriate, not what is verifiable or historically accurate. Also, there is blatantly false and very biased statements in this quote concerning supposed "victories" by Victorio over the US Army ( which never happened - and this IS verifiable! ). Also there is a certain "slant" a certain "flavor" offered to the reader in order to sway him/her into percieving Victorio in a specifically desired way - a way that Thrapp desires and is fond of, not a way that is historically accurate by any means.
This book of Roberts is filled with conclusions based on unverifiable, second-hand information from sources possibly having any and all kinds of motivations behind their statements. But the reader takes it all in as FACT, not the fantasy which it actually is.

Contrast this to Fehrenbach, who writes about the Comanche in a manner that offers the reader only what is truly known about them. Fehrenbach does not focus on specific individuals at any point in Comanche history because to do so would be utterly illogical. To offer the reader any sort of personality profile of long-dead individual Indians based on highly suspect and completely unverifiable information from sources which had little to no direct connection with them is not writing about history, it is offering speculation - telling a STORY! Instead, Fehrenbach tells the reader that the Comanche did "A" and this led to "B" and "C" as a result. This is clear, historically accurate writing, not STORY TELLING. He does not seek to glorify specific chiefs or attribute any sort of qualities to their personalities, nor does he try to make the reader believe that he can see inside their minds and hearts and has pulled all sorts of feelings and motives out for the reader to see. No STORY, only HISTORY in Fehrenbach's book!

But the reader of this review must also be aware that Roberts ( as well as Sweeney and Thrapp ) seek to minimize anything which castes their Apache Indian subjects in a light that is less than is favorable to the fantasy which these authors wish to construct about them. For example; in this book, Roberts mentions that "the Chiricahua fought the Comanche to the east" and leaves the reader with this more than bland piece of information, offering no further details. Yes, it is true, these Apaches did fight the Comanche in the east, but there's a lot more to it than that!
The Apaches originally occupied the central and southern plains from the Dismal River of what became Nebraska all the way south into northern Mexico and west to the mountains of what became western New Mexico. The Comanche eventually appeared and anihilated the Apaches root and branch, exterminating entire tribal groups and destroying others to such a point that they were mere fragments of what they once were and forced to flee the plains and hide in the mountains to the west. The Chiricahuas - all their bands - were not "tribes" or "tribal groups" at all, but merely fragments - bands which contained the survivors of the Comanche slaughter. These "fragment bands" are what most people think of as Apache "Tribes" in the days of Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, Victorio, Juh, Delgadito, etc. And, by not relating this information on the Comanche slaughter of Apaches to the reader, it is possible for Roberts, Thrapp, and Sweeney to offer the erroneous concept holding that the Apaches lived in the dessert mountains FOR AGES, and were valliantly defending their homeland against European invaders.
This is false. The truth is, the Apaches were in the mountains because the Comanches chased them there, and they stayed hidden and dared not venture east out onto the game-rich plains because the Comanche and Kiowa killed them on sight! So, the Apaches participated in raids on small settlements in order to obtain supplies and foodstuffs. They didn't want to live where they were, they had no choice! They weren't "defending" any homelands at all, they were holed up, hiding from Comanche and Kiowa enemies and raiding European settlements on both sides of the border while they were at it.

This is just one of the many inaccurate slants offered by authors like Roberts, Thrapp, and Sweeney. The list is too long to properly deal with in a review like this, but if you want to know what an accurate book on the history of an Indian tribe is, read Comanches (Pimlico Wild West) which will not only provide you with a very interesting look into the history of the Comanches, but also into the history of the Apaches! Read it and then read this one by Roberts, or any of the books by Thrapp or Sweeney, and you'll immediately see what I mean here by one being a true history book and the others being mere STORY BOOKS based on second-hand tidbits, slanted conclusions lacking proper detail, etc.

Editorial Review:

Recounts the days of the Indian wars, when Anglo settlements spread into the land of the Apaches, and the U.S. cavalry repeatedly tried to subdue the great warriors led by Cochise and, later, Geronimo.

Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians

Herman Lehmann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

good book in proper context 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Fascinating read, yet must be read with the realization that this is a picture of a culture under intense (mostly wartime) stress and flux. The account happens at a time of major population incursions of whites into native lands and a time when native groups are being pushed into each other's subsistence territories by such incursions. It also occurs at a time when a number of destabilizing introductions (such as horses and guns) have recently come into native communities. Keep in mind that this picture of Apache & Comanche culture is about as reflective in the broader, overall sense as an German soldier's account of his life from 1916-1946 would be of overall German culture down through the ages. Read in proper historical context, this book is excellent. Read as a sweeping generalization of Apache life, it is bound to give a skewed impression.

Editorial Review:

Here is a genuine Little Big Man story, with all the color, sweep, and tragedy of a classic American western. It is the tale of Herman Lehmann, a captive of the Apaches on the Southern Plains of Texas and New Mexico during the 1870s. Adopted by a war chief, he was trained to be a warrior and waged merciless war on Apache enemies, both Indian and Euro-American. After killing an Apache medicine man in self-defense, he fled to a lonely hermitage on the Southern Plains until he joined the Comanches. Against his will, Lehmann was returned to his family in 1879. The final chapters relate his difficult readjustment to Anglo life.

Lehmann’s unapologetic narrative is extraordinary for its warm embrace of Native Americans and stinging appraisal of Anglo society. Once started, the story of this remarkable man cannot be put down. Dale Giese’s introduction provides a framework for interpreting the Lehmann narrative.

Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest, Second Edition (Ancient Peoples and Places)

Stephen Plog

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"A graphic, lucid account of the Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon highlights how these ancient cultures evolved so successfully in response to their changing habitat."—Science News

Most people are familiar with the famous pre-Columbian civilizations of the Aztecs and Maya of Mexico, but few realize just how advanced were contemporary cultures in the American Southwest. Here lie some of the most remarkable monuments of America's prehistoric past, such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde.

Ten thousand years ago, humans first colonized this seemingly inhospitable landscape with its scorching hot deserts and upland areas that drop below freezing even during the early summer months. The initial hunter-gatherer bands gradually adapted to become sedentary village groups. The high point of Southwestern civilization was reached with the emergence of cultures known as Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon in the first millennium AD.

Interweaving the latest archaeological evidence with early first-person accounts, Stephen Plog explains the rise and mysterious fall of Southwestern cultures. For this revised edition, he discusses new research and its implications for our understanding of the prehistoric Southwest. As he concludes, the Southwest is still home to vibrant Native American communities who carry on many of the old traditions. 150 illustrations, 17 in color.

Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief (Civilization of the American Indian Series)

Edwin R. Sweeney

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Authoritative, Even-Handed, with Exhaustive Research 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

I was highly impressed by the exhaustive research conducted by Sweeney for this biography of Cochise, who was surely one of the most impressive Indian chiefs ever. Sweeney's extensive use of obscure documents and recollections, as well as general knowledge of nearby events and geography, give this biography an authority that you don't often see in the historical bio field. Therefore Cochise clearly emerges from the world of rumors and romanticism, and is shown as a true man with real concerns and actions. So instead of the ruthless, bloodthirsty savage of popular legend, we see that Cochise was a highly intelligent leader of men and was nearly a military genius. He managed to fight a nearly even war with White settlers for a much longer time than any other Native American leader. This would not have been possible if Cochise were not a clear-thinking man of great intelligence, and Sweeney gives exhaustive proof that this was the case.

Sweeney's historical and geographic backgrounds, as well as extensive testimonials from the characters around Cochise, truly make the story come alive. Of special interest are many of Sweeney's footnotes, in which he gives a brief life story of just about every single person mentioned in the story (wherever possible). Sweeney is also ready to admit when information is missing, which is very refreshing for a biography. And in an even-handed fashion, Sweeney is not afraid to criticize Cochise at points, such as when he flouted his agreement to stay on the Chiricahua reservation to allow his warriors to continue raiding in Mexico.

Anyone who reads this book will come to greatly respect Cochise as a man, even if some of his actions were brutal. Unfortunately, this story ends like all other works of Native American history, with the eventual destruction of the people's independence. But while he was in his prime, you can't help but root for Cochise.

Comanches

T. R. Fehrenbach

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Absolutely authoritative and immediate, this is the story of the most powerful of American Indian tribes, the Comanches (they called themselves the “true human beings”), who rode into modern history in a headlong collision with western civilization. T. R. Fehrenbach here recreates their rise to power, from their first harsh struggles for survival in the Eastern Rockies through uncounted generations who desperately resisted privation and suffering until they encountered and mastered the horse (first introduced by Spanish settlers). This is how, on horseback, the Comanches conquered and controlled the plains for more than a hundred years: destroying the ancient dreams of Spanish empire in North America, blocking the French advance into the Southwest, and becoming for more than sixty years the single greatest obstacle to Anglo-American expansion. Fehrenbach’s history also tells how, at last, the Comanches themselves were conquered, falling before the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army in the great raids and battles of the mid-nineteenth century—until, after the Civil War, only random clumps of tipis stood where once encampments had stretched for miles.