At around midnight, the regiment was awakened by a succession of unearthly, high-pitched yells. This isn’t Gwynne’s fault – Quanah seems to have been a genuinely fascinating character, but his early life has only sporadic historical documentation. I’ve been more exposed to the history of the Indian Wars on the northern plains – Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee, etc. . They were the richest of all plains bands in the currency by which Indians measured wealth — horses — and in the years after the Civil War managed a herd of some fifteen thousand. As he moved his men across the broken, stream-crossed country, past immense herds of buffalo and prairie-dog towns that stretched to the horizon, Colonel Mackenzie did not have a clear idea of what he was doing, where precisely he was going, or how to fight Plains Indians in their homelands. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. But there is no record of any prominent half-white Comanche war chief. People on the Texas frontier would soon learn this about him, partly because the fact was so exceptional. He was a half-breed, the son of a Comanche chief and a white woman. Thorough and interesting account of a famous American tribe, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2015. From a broader perspective, “Empire of the Summer Moon” is making an argument with some political overtones. Particularly fascinating was the segment (worth a book on its own) on John Coffee Hays, the Texas Ranger who Gwynne contends revolutionized frontier warfare. I’m more prone to the humanist view, that no culture has a monopoly on either virtue or brutality. It was an old Indian tactic, especially on the high plains, to simply steal white men's horses and leave them to die of thirst or starvation. Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. Her name was Cynthia Ann Parker. Between these three views, where does the truth lie? The descriptions seemed honest with not too much gore involved unnecessarily. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. One could know only their general ranges, their hunting grounds, perhaps old camp locations. Please try again. Empire Of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker And The Rise And Fall Of The Comanches, The Most Powerful Indian Tribe In American History, by S.C. Gwynne Having read a bit about the Comanches before, I was not surprised to see them viewed as an imperial power by the writer [1]. Though they did not know it at the time — the idea would have seemed preposterous — the sounding of “boots and saddle” that morning marked the beginning of the end of the Indian wars in America, of fully two hundred fifty years of bloody combat that had begun almost with the first landing of the first ship on the first fatal shore in Virginia. This book analyzes one of the most famous tribes, from their culture and beliefs to their history and movements over the centuries. . "Someone in a thread mentioned the book "Empire of the Summer Moon," which was a big bestseller published in 2010. People have raved about Empire of the Summer Moon since it came out in 2011. He was reputed to be ruthless, clever, and fearless in battle. The place was known as Blanco Canyon and was located just to the east of present-day Lubbock, one of the Quahadis' favorite campgrounds. He was new to this sort of Indian fighting, and would make many mistakes in the coming weeks. In roughly that same time period, while General George Armstrong Custer achieved world fame in failure and catastrophe, Mackenzie would become obscure in victory. He had been dispatched to kill Comanches in their Great Plains fastness because, six years after the end of the Civil War, the western frontier was an open and bleeding wound, a smoking ruin littered with corpses and charred chimneys, a place where anarchy and torture killings had replaced the rule of law, where Indians and especially Comanches raided at will. Instead, Gwynne gives a full and unbiased account of the Comanches, describing their proficiency and skill at surviving in their own hostile environment, and the cheerfulness and simplicity of their culture, while not shying away from the barbaric, indeed often sadistic, treatment meted out to their enemies, both white and Native. The frontier, carried westward with so much sweat and blood and toil, was now rolling backward, retreating. Both men achieved their fame only in the final, brutal Indian wars of the mid-1870s. Quanah is notable for being the last Comanche chief to surrender and go onto the reservation, as well as for trying harder than any other Comanche chief to “walk the white man’s road” once on the reservation – Quanah built an American-style house, became a rancher, wore a suit (though keeping his hair long and braided Comanche-style) and hosted dignitaries such as Theodore Roosevelt. I am a Comanche and this book appalled me on numerous occasions. Neither did he have the faintest idea that he would be the one largely responsible for defeating the last of the hostile Indians. The Comanches got that way, he says, by being almost singularly focused on hunting warfare. However, if you are looking for a factual account without a leftist narrative this book isn't a good choice. The Indians, mostly Kiowas, passed them over because of a shaman's superstitions and had instead attacked a nearby wagon train. What was not typical was Sherman's proximity and his own very personal and mortal sense that he might have been a victim, too. It was the beginning of a moderately uncomfortable semester-long relationship.). There is such a deep sadness about this chapter if American History and this book just crystallized the impossible situation. ‘Empire of the Summer Moon’ By S. C. Gwynne June 10, 2010 Chapter 1: A New Kind of War Cavalrymen remember such moments: dust swirling behind the … In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, linking the industrializing east with the developing west and rendering the old trails — Oregon, Santa Fe, and tributaries — instantly obsolete. The story of Cynthia Ann Parker is fascinating as is the eventual change of heart of her son Quanah Parker, a very violent leader of one band who became something akin to a 'National Treasure'. The Comanche empire included large areas of Texas, and New Mexico and st… They were Comanches, Kiowas, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and Western Sioux. He had survived it, but had come within a whisker of watching his three companies of cavalry and infantry destroyed. By the time Mackenzie was hunting him in 1871, Quanah's mother had long been famous. Lot's of words and time is spent pretending the Comanches were something they were not...a functioning nation with political and cultural ties among tribes. Mackenzie and his soldiers most likely knew the story of Cynthia Ann Parker — most everyone on the frontier did — but they had no idea that her blood ran in Quanah's veins. Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West, Empire of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and The Rise and Fall of The Comanches, The Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History - Paperback by S. C. Gwynne, The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker, Cynthia Ann Parker The Story of Her Capture, Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War, Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians. Because of this demographic double whammy, the Comanche would adopt people into the tribe. Comanches had used it to lethal effect against the Spanish in the early eighteenth century. The men quickly realized, to their horror, that it was the sound of stampeding horses. All of these profound changes were under way as Mackenzie's Raiders departed their camps on the Clear Fork. One small letter, lost in the system for sixty years, is about to change the entire world. It's all well and good if you have been through the indoctrination camps that pass for higher education in this country. Now they were breaking camp, moving out in a long, snaking line through the high cutbanks and quicksand streams. Sometime around midnight, above the din of a West Texas windstorm, the men heard “a tremendous tramping and an unmistakable snorting and bellowing.” That sound, as they soon discovered, was made by stampeding buffalo. I was hoping I could come away from reading this with a fuller knowledge of my own history but wound up disappointed instead. The Shawnees of the Ohio Country had fought a desperate rearguard action starting in the 1750s. Some had been beheaded and others had their brains scooped out. Colonel Randolph Marcy, who accompanied Sherman on a western tour in the spring, and who had known the country intimately for decades, had been shocked to find that in many places there were fewer people than eighteen years before. Some went on to Arizona, but that's another story. I still cherish those memories of the stories told to me by her Grandmother (which was really her great-aunt, but called Grandmother by Comanche culture). Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
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