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In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

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. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (130)

Exciting insights on United States growth
Few people realize that the Comanche ethnic group in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries controlled large parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Kansas in addition to all of Oklahoma and a great part of Texas. They rivaled the ancient Parthians in skill on horseback, and they rivaled the Huns in both equestrian skill and ferocity. They stopped the Spaniards and later the Mexicans in their northward
advance; they stopped the French in their westward advance. Both coasts of what would become to United States were rapidly developing, but the center of the emerging nation was held in the Comanche grip. This well-researched book tells the intense and compelling story of this amazing people and of the new kind of frontiersman who gradually emerged and drove both them and their main food animal, the buffalo, to the edge of extinction. A fascinating and educational read.

Missed opportunity
Gwynne writes a fast-moving, entertaining narrative.He is at times, though, quick to judgment and inconsistent, two qualities not appropriate to writing that is supposed to be history.Some of his factual errors are pointed out in other reviews on this site; I won't repeat them.

His inability at times to work with facts is troubling.Consider one case (Ch. 17 Mackenzie Unbound).We're told Mackenzie had "222 soldiers and 9 Tonkawa scouts" and that "he killed fifty-two indians and lost only four of his own".(Note that the last part of that could have been phrased:"he lost almost half of his Tonkawan scouts", and the spin that would give the account.)Gwynne goes on to quote the report of Hermann Lehmann, a Commanche captive present at the battle, who describes the horrible desecration of slain Comanches (not just warriors, but women too) saying that this showed "the hand of the Tonkaway in the battle".Scalping and disembowelments don't take place during, but after, battles.There were only 5 Tonkawa and 222 soldiers; it's hard to believe that they couldn't have prevented such behavior. That in turn suggests some of the soldiers may have participated in the brutality.Gwynne speaks of Mackenzie being "attentive" to his men not killing old people, women, and children.He then goes on to remark:"But as he himself noted, many of the people in those categories 'were too badly wounded to be moved.'"Mackenzie doesn't tell us what happened to them.

Some of the material Gwynne presents makes me wish the book had been written by someone who could deploy a historian's methodology.

Startling information
I loved this presentation of interesting facts. Obviously I knew something about our past, the civil war and indian tribes, but this book will make you think about where you live and "Were there any indians here"? Read It!

Nothing to break the Light of the Sun - Remembering a Comanche Empire
This is the best book that I've read this year.Although it is meant to be an account of the life of Quanah Parker, a Comanche Chief who was the son of Cynthia Parker (a white woman who had been kidnapped by Comanches as a young girl in 1836), it actually competes for attention with the violent story of the 40-year cultural clash between early frontier settlers (especially in Texas) and the Comanche tribes on the Great Plains.
In preparing the text, Gwynne tried to construct it by `...using a large number of firsthand accounts from the era." The resulting narrative yields an authoritative and engaging tale.We learn, for example, that "West of the 98th meridian stood a vast and deadly physical barrier that had stopped the Spanish, the French, the Mexicans, and the original Texans: the Great Plains.There, stretching clear to Canada, remained the formidable war machines of the Sioux, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne." In addition, Gwynne reveals how the impact of the horse changed the lives of all involved on the frontier. The Comanche tribe (now mobile) was able to call over 200,000 square miles "home". Early settlers were not only oblivious to this fact, but they also didn't realize that the Comanche culture was one of war. For tribe members, fights on the plains were almost always to the death. White families new to the area were like bait. Captives of the Comanche were killed, enslaved, or loved. (Cynthia was among the few to be loved - and that is one of the reasons she refused to return to white culture when she became an adult).
Every chapter of Empire of the Summer Moon ambushes old assumptions about events on the frontier, and Gwynne's presentation of facts and figures makes the journey through all twenty-two of them unforgettable. There isn't enough room in this review to do this work justice.
My favorite section of the entire book comes from Chief Ten Bear's October 1867 speech which he gave at a large peace meeting. His vivid words invite readers to understand - and almost experience - an aspect of American culture that can hardly be imagined today:
But there are things which you have said to me which I do not like.They were not sweet like sugar, but bitter like gourds.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 not within walls.I know every stream and wood between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas.I have hunted and lived over that country.I live like my fathers before me and like them I lived happily.
I was very moved by his recollection that "...everything drew a free breath".Gwynne understands the feeling of loss too, and he describes his idea of how these aboriginal people must have experienced their world: "[It was one of] ...equilibrium...a balance of earth and wind and sun and sky that would endure forever...an empire under the bright summer moon."
After reading Empire of the Summer Moon, I find myself thinking about the history of Texas in a new light (and you will too).I suspect this text will become standard reading for some students of American history, and S.C. Gwynne (and his team) should be pleased with their scholarly work. If you pick it up to read it, be sure you do so in a comfortable place - it is extremely difficult to put down.Enjoy!

History at its best
Empire of the Summer Moon is history as it should be told. Nothing dry here. No fat to trim either. Very interestingly told story of the Commanche tribe, Quanah Parker,and how all of the connecting pieces fit into the scheme of the nineteenth century. Raw stuff at times. Factual all the time. I finished knowing far more about the subject than I thought possible. ... Read more

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Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest offers a complete picture of Puebloan culture from its prehistoric beginnings through twenty-five hundred years of growth and change, ending with the modern-day Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona.

Aerial and ground photographs, over 325 in color, and sixty settlement plans provide an armchair trip to ruins that are open to the public and that may be visited or viewed from nearby. Included, too, are the living pueblos from Taos in north central New Mexico along the Rio Grande Valley to Isleta, and westward through Acoma and Zuni to the Hopi pueblos in Arizona.

In addition to the architecture of the ruins, Puebloan Ruins of the Southwest gives a detailed overview of the Pueblo Indians’ lifestyles including their spiritual practices, food, clothing, shelter, physical appearance, tools, government, water management, trade, ceramics, and migrations. ... Read more

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Who were the Ute Indians?And what part did they play inthe history of the Western Slope?When prospectors arrived in present dayColorado in 1858, it was the Utes who greeted them.These NativeAmericans had inhabited this part of the Rocky Mountains for centuries. When originally published in 1956, The Utes: A Forgotten People was thefirst published book devoted solely to an overall history of the UteIndians.Wilson Rockwell undertook painstaking research and manyinterviews to extensively record the history of the early Native Americanswho once dominated our region.Rockwell includes everything; it's allhere, from the fights, conflicts, customs, and pre-history to the dances,economy, movement, and famous leaders of the seven Ute bands whocontributed so much to the history of western Colorado and Utah.Thisbook has been used as the primary source of research for every book on theUtes written since. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A disappointing and dated book
The title of this book is apt, for the author has forgotten to include those Ute groups who lived in, what is now, the state of Utah. This book deals solely with those Ute groups that lived within Colorado. Also theearly history of the Utes is largely ignored - 100 plus years of contactwith the Spanish is skimmed over in a few pages. Likewise the traditionallife and customs of the Utes gets scant treatment.

Most of the bookdeals with the Colorado Utes history subsequent to the American occupationof the west. The events of the "Meeker Massacre" occupy a largepart.

The book was first published in the 1950s and this shows in the waythe author, at times, discribes the Utes as "savages" and"bucks". Overall this books merits lie in its desciptions of theevents around the "Meeker Massacre" and the removal of most ofthe Utes from Colorado. Anyone wanting to learn more about the Utestraditional life styles and beliefs would be better served by "TheUtes - the Mountain People" by Jan Pettit which is a more up to datetreatment of the early history and customs of the Utes (also profuselyillustrated.

An absolute must for anyone interested in Native History!
This has been an very interesting and incredibly thourough journey through history.The book contains Ute Indian stories and historical matters written in detail to near perfection .But how could you possibly go wrong with such intricate research.Nothing is missing from this book...it is filled withUte Indian facts from early history and developement to religion, marriagesand wars.The photos are ample and very intreresting, really portraying theaccompanying stories. ... Read more

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This personal and historical account traces the origins and progress of the twentieth-century legal battle, Healing v. Jones, between the Hopis and Navajos over the control of the joint-occupation reservation originally set aside by President Chester A. Arthur in 1882. David M. Brugge has contributed a new afterword to update the federal case and land issue. ... Read more

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First published in 1992 and now available only from the University of New Mexico Press, this is a firsthand account of life at a famous archaeological ruin. Married to Richard Wetherill, the rancher and amateur archaeologist who ran a trading post in Chaco Canyon from 1896 until he was murdered by a Navajo in 1910, Marietta Wetherill got to know her Navajo neighbors as intimately as an Anglo could. While Richard was excavating at Pueblo Bonito, Marietta managed the trading post. She befriended a singer who adopted her into his clan and gave her a close-up view of Navajo medicine and religion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Understanding Wounded Knee
Hyde's chronicle begins with the surrender of the Sioux to the U. S.government, and the beginning of the "noble experiment" oftransforming Native Americans into Neo-Europeans (by making them farmers,for example). The book ends with the tragedy of the Wounded Knee massacre,and can be read as an analysis of all the factors leading up to thatincident, which revealed the failure of said experiment.

Hyde recountsthe many factors which led to the resumption of hostilities between a smallminority of Sioux and the U. S. Army. the author clearly has favoritevillains on both sides: from religious philanthropists on the East coast,who had never met a live Sioux in his native habitat, to Sitting Bull whowent about caching firearms, to the corrupt politicians who replacedrelatively knowledgeable Indian agents with inexperienced politicalcronies. Hyde paints the portrait of all of these actors and more withverve and detail.

Missing from Hyde's account is any in-depth analysis ofSioux culture that would allow us to understand the appeal of the GhostDance. Instead, Hyde's account posits that Sioux and white are motivated bythe same factors: greed, political infighting, fear, hatred, and hunger.But Hyde's focus on action and decision, his love of detail, and hissardonic style make for gripping and informative reading. Recommended foranyone interested in frontier history or in the fraught relationshipbetween whites and Native Americans. ... Read more

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Indians in the Fur Trade makes extensive use of previously unpublished Hudson's Bay Company archival materials and other available data to reconstruct the cultural geography of the West at the time of early contact, illustrating many of the rapid cultural transformations with maps and diagrams. Now with a new introduction and an update on sources, it will continue to be of great use to students and scholars of Native and Canadian history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Indians and the Hudson Bay Company
There are probably only about three people in the world interested in this subject: you, me, and the author.That being said this is a jewel of a book in the genre of academic histories.Not the least of its virtues is that the author has included the astonishing total of 46 maps and charts to help the reader along.Given the usual sparse and inadequate maps of low-budget academic books this is much-appreciated.

The focus of the book is the trade relations between the Cree and Assiniboine Indians of Manitoba and Saskatchewan with French and English traders.In describing the trade the author drops in numerous pearls of wisdom about wildlife and ecology of the Canadian plains, Indian hunting strategies, inter-tribal relations, epidemics, and even details about the trade items most popular with the Indians and their prices in beaver pelts.One of the most interesting sections of the book concerns the role of firearms versus bows and arrows in Indian hunting and warfare. Another little gem concerns the Indian dislike of eating "red deer" meat.It took me a while to figure out that the Canadian author was talking about what we would call "elk" in the US.

This is a sound and scholarly history that delves deeply into the files of the Hudson Bay Company and other trading companies to paint what seems to be an authentic picture of Indian life on the Canadian plains in the early days of White/Indian contact.Highly recommended!

Smallchief ... Read more

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This narrative history of the Caddo Indians creates a vivid picture of daily life in the Caddo Nation. Using archaeological data, oral histories, and descriptions by explorers and settlers, Cecile Carter introduces impressive Caddo leaders past and present. The book provides observations, stories, and vignettes on twentieth-century Caddos and invites the reader to recognize the strengths, rooted in ancient culture, that have enabled the Caddos to survive epidemics, enemy attacks, and displacement from their original homelands in Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Caddo Indians : Where We Come From
I found this writing to be an excellent source of information and reference material. Ms. Carter clearly has an extremely enviable position from which to view and record the unfolding Caddo Tribal Culture.

I wasalso enamored with the authentic Tribal photographs. This book containsvery well taken photos of the Caddo Tribal grounds in Binger, Oklahoma andCulturally accurate Caddo Tribal members in authentic Native American danceregailia.

This easily read book is also providing me with many bits ofinformation for my childs research projects.

Where We Came From is a musthave book for your personal library. ... Read more

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In this new book, Sando weaves a tapestry of individual lives against a backdrop of history, telling the stories of more than thirty political leaders, educators, and artists who took part in the events and movements that have shaped Pueblo Indian life from the time of the Pueblo Revolt to the present day. The author, who was born and raised at Jemez Pueblo, is a recognised authority and respected writer on Pueblo history and has been a voice in the affairs of the nineteen New Mexico Pueblos over several decades. ... Read more

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In addition to reprinting the full text of Clifton's extraordinary ethnohistory, this expanded edition features a new essay offering a narrative of his continuing professional and personal encounters, since 1962, with this enduring native community. ... Read more

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The Comanche traditionally wandered areas of the southern Great Plains. Today, many Comanche share reservation lands with the Kiowa and Apache near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ... Read more

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"In simple, unaffected prose, Mrs. Shaw constructs a moving saga of Native Americans caught between their tribal past and a Europeanized present. . . . Some of the most interesting passages deal with the wrenching realities of Indian life on the reservation in the years around the turn of the century, when the Indian male as a warrior found himself bereft of his very reason for being and forced to endeavor to become a farmer." —Journal of Arizona History

"A most interesting book. . . . Her account of how the Pima Indians lived, their family structure, how they reared their children, courtship and marriage, how they treated their elders, their religious practices before the coming of a Christian missionary in 1870, and their accommodation with death are related in language that can be easily understood by the layman and, yet, provide information which can be used by the sociologist and anthropologist." —Journal of the West

"The current trend in books written by American Indians is to idealize the Indian past while condemning white culture.This volume is a notable exception because its author is old enough to remember the past and because she has been successful in adapting those elements of white culture which she found useful without sacrificing this essential heritage. . . . The style is simple and straightforward, that of a good storyteller which reaches all adult levels." —Choice

"Simple and charming reminiscences of the old Pima ways at the turn of the century when they still prevailed and of the changes which recent decades have brought about in the lives of the desert people." —Books of the Southwest

"Throughout her account a special kind of humor, sensitivity and pride is revealed when discussing her peoples and her own personal experiences." —The Masterkey

... Read more

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What might result from hearing a particular song, wearing used clothing, or witnessing an accident?Ethnographic accounts of the Navajo refer repeatedly to the influences of events on health and well-being, yet until now no attempt has been made to clarify the Navajo system of rules governing association and effect. This book focuses on the complex interweaving of the cosmological, social, and bodily realms that Navajo people navigate in an effort alternately to control, contain, or harness the power manifested in various effects.Following the Navajo life-course from conception to puberty, Maureen Trudelle Schwarz explores the complex rules defining who or what can affect what or whom in specific circumstances as a means of determining what these effects tell us about the cultural construction of the human body and personhood for the Navajo. Schwarz shows how oral history informs Navajo conceptions of the body and personhood, showing how these conceptions are central to an ongoing Navajo identity.She treats the vivid narratives of emergence life-origins as compressed metaphorical accounts, rather than as myth, and is thus able to derive from what individual Navajos say about the past their understandings of personhood in a worldview that is actually a viable philosophical system. Working with Navajo religious practitioners, elders, and professional scholars.Schwarz has gained from her informants an unusually firm grasp of the Navajo highlighted by the foregrounding of Navajo voices through excerpts of interviews.These passages enliven the book and present Schwarz and her Navajo consultants as real, multifaceted human beings within the ethnographic context. ... Read more

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This story of the Navajo is told with faithfulness and respect to their ancient tradition.Illustrations and charts enhance the work prepared by an author who lived and worked among "the people" for 21 years. ... Read more

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A significant but often forgotten chapter in U.S. government and Native American relations is the twenty-seven year period of captivity endured by the Chiricahua Apaches following Geronimo’s final surrender. Nearly four hundred Chiricahuas were uprooted and exiled from their San Carlos, Arizona, home, where they ended up being held hostage by conflicting interests of the War Department, Interior Department, as well as southwestern economic and political expediency.

The installation at Fort Sill eventually grew to 50,000 acres and was originally promised to the Chiricahuas as their permanent reservation. In an effort to make them economically independent, the tribe was given a heard of 1,000 cattle, which eventually grew over the years to 10,000 head. In 1903, the military reneged on the initial agreement and decided to retain Fort Sill and turn the post into a field artillery training installation. In 1913, those Chiricahuas who wished were removed to New Mexico. Those remaining in Oklahoma were placed on former Kiowa and Comanche allotments-but not before the military sold their cattle herd. The Chiricahuas ended up with a mere 160-acre allotment beyond the post’s confines, an insufficient amount of land to provide a viable base of economic sustenance for the tribe.

Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War is the first book of its kind to explore in depth this segment of the Chiricahuas’ history following Geronimo’s surrender, including the campaign for their release from military custody, their efforts to retain Fort Sill as their permanent home, and the conflicting interests who competed to resolve the Indians’ status. It will be of great interest to scholars in the fields of Native American studies, military studies, and western history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of WarFort Sill 1894-1914
The incarceration of the Chiricahua Apache is just another one of the hundreds of injustices and atrocities (humiliations, degradations, genocide, disease, and slavery) the Apaches have had to endure from theSpaniards, Mexicans, and white Americans.I already know Apache history and culture like the back of my hand, but I just wanted to get this fine pulication to add to my library.Now, for all those interested in the Apache, this is an illustrious portrayal of the shameful mistreatment and betrayal of a proud People by this U.S. government, when they were forced to suffer the indignities as prisoners of war.Great book!Buy it! ... Read more