Empire of the Summer Moon

by S. C. Gwynne

  The best descriptions of Texas in the early to mid-nineteenth century come from several contemporaneous sources: Captain Randolph Marcy was a superb and reliable reporter, as were Colonel Richard Irving Dodge and the artist George Catlin. All delivered raw, unvarnished firsthand looks at the unspoiled Indian frontier. Life inside Comanche bands before the reservation period comes alive in the memoirs of a number of captives, including Dot Baab, Herman Lehmann, Clinton Smith, and Nelson Lee. (Though the latter clearly fictionalized some of his story, other parts remain useful.) Other contemporary chronicles, like reservation teacher Thomas Battey’s 1875 book Life and Adventures of a Quaker Among the Indians, were also quite useful. Mary Maverick’s memoir of old San Antonio, including the Council House Fight and the rise of Jack Hays and the Rangers, is indispensable.

  For secondary sources, nothing can quite match Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel’s magisterial ethnography based in large part on ethnological studies from the 1930s: Comanches: Lords of the South Plains. Wilbur Nye’s Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill, and Rupert Richardson’s Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement were the books that broke the first major ground on Comanche history. The two extant full-length biographies of Mackenzie, Wallace’s Ranald S. Mackenzie on the Texas Frontier, and Charles M. Robinson III’s Bad Hand, are well researched and useful. The section on the Comanches in Walter Prescott Webb’s 1931 masterpiece The Great Plains is what got me interested in the subject in the first place, and his work on the Texas Rangers remains definitive. T. R. Fehrenbach’s The Comanches: Destruction of a People is well written and remains the modern classic in the field. To these I would add two more current works: William T. Hagan’s superb biography of Quanah, which focuses on the reservation years, and Jo Ella Powell Exley’s Frontier Blood, a solid piece of research centered on the extended Parker clan.

  The rest of my research was done by automobile: crossing and recrossing the plains of Comancheria, visiting the marvelous reconstruction of Parker’s Fort in Groesbeck, Texas, touring forts such as Richardson, Concho, and Phantom Hill, nearly getting stuck in the ice at Adobe Walls, climbing in the Wichita Mountains, hunting down various battle sites on the Pease River and elsewhere. One of the highlights was finding Quanah’s old Star House in an abandoned amusement park in Cache, Oklahoma. It is in moderate stages of decay but everything is still there, including the dining room where Roosevelt and Geronimo once came to dinner (on separate occasions). I have lived in Texas for fifteen years now, and my understanding of the state’s peculiar geography, and particularly the geography of the west Texas plains, was an enormous aid in writing this book.

  BOOKS

  Atkinson, M. J. The Texas Indians. San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., 1935.

  ———. Indians of the Southwest. San Antonio, Tex.: Naylor Co., 1963.

  Baab, T. A. In the Bosom of the Comanches. Dallas: Hargreaves Printing Co., 1923 (second edition of 1912 original).

  Baker, T. Lindsay, and Harrison, Billy R. Adobe Walls, the History and Archaeology of the 1874 Trading Post. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986.

  Bancroft, Hubert H. History of Arizona and New Mexico. San Francisco: The History Company, 1889.

  Battey, Thomas. Life and Adventures of a Quaker Among the Indians. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1875.

  Bedford, Hilory G. Texas Indian Troubles. Pasadena, Tex.: Abbotsford Publishing Company, 1966 (facsimile of 1905 original by Hargreaves Printing Co. of Dallas).

  Benner, Judith Ann. Sul Ross: Soldier, Statesman, Educator. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1983.

  Bolton, Herbert Eugene. Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains. New York: Whittlesey House; Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949.

  ———. Athanase de Mézières and the Lousiana-Texas Frontier, 1768–1780. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1914.

  Bourke, John G. Mackenzie’s Last Fight with the Cheyennes. New York: Argonaut Press, 1966 (originally published 1890).

  Brazos (pseudonym). The Life of Robert Hall. Austin: Ben C. Jones and Co., 1898.

  Brice, Donaly E. Great Comanche Raid. Austin: Eakin Press, 1987.

  Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. New York: Henry Holt, 1970.

  Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas. Austin: State House Press, 1988 (originally published 1890).

  ———. The Comanche Raid of 1840. Houston: Union National Bank, 1933.

  Canonge, Elliott. Comanche Texts. Norman: University of Oklahoma Institute of Linguistics, 1958.

  Carter, Robert G. On the Border with Mackenzie. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2007 (originally published 1935).

  Carter, Captain Robert G. The Old Sergeant’s Story: Winning the West from the Indians and Bad Men in 1870 to 1876. New York: Frederick H. Hitchcock, 1926.

  ———. Tragedies of Blanco Canyon. Washington, D.C.: Gibson Bros., 1919.

  Catlin, George. Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, With Letters and Notes. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1857, 2 volumes, 9th edition,

  Clark, Mary Whatley. The Palo Pinto Story. Fort Worth: Manney Co., 1956.

  Clark, Randolph. Reminiscences. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1986 (originally published 1919)

  Clark, William P. The Indian Sign Language. Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly, 1885.

  Cody, Colonel William F. The Adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1904.

  Connell, Evan S. Son of the Morning Star. New York: North Point Press, 1997.

  Cook, John R. The Border and the Buffalo. Topeka, Kans.: Crane and Co., 1907.

  Cox, Mike. The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821–1900. New York: Forge Books, 2008.

  Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian, Selections. Santa Fe, NM, Classic Gravure, 1980 (from 1930 original).

  Debo, Angie. The Road to Disappearance, A History of the Creek Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941.

  DeBruhl, Marshall. Sword of San Jacinto: A Life of Sam Houston. New York: Random House, 1931.

  DeShields, James T. Border Wars of Texas. Tioga, Tex.: 1912.

  ———. Cynthia Ann Parker: the Story of Her Capture. St. Louis, privately printed, 1886.

  Dixon, Billy. The Life and Adventures of Billy Dixon of Adobe Walls. Guthrie, Okla.: Cooperative Publishing Co., 1914.

  ———. The Fight at Adobe Walls. Houston: Union National Bank, 1935.

  Dixon, Olive King. Life of Billy Dixon. Austin, Tex.: State House Press, 1987 (originally published 1927).

  Dobie, J. Frank. The Mustangs. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1934.

  Dodge, Richard Irving. The Hunting Grounds of the Great West. London: Chatto and Windus, 1878, 2nd edition.

  ———. The Plains of the Great West and Their Inhabitants. New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1877.

  Dodge, Colonel Richard Irving. Our Wild Indians, 33 years’ Personal Experience Among The Redmen of the Great West. New York: Archer House, 1883.

  ———. The Indian Territory Journals of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

  Dorst, Captain Joseph. Twentieth Annual Reunion of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point. June 12, 1889.

  Dunlay, Tom. Kit Carson and the Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

  Edmunds, R. David, ed. American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980.

  Exley, Jo Ella Powell. Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2001.

  Fallwell, Gene. The Comanche Trail of Thunder and the Massacre at Parker’s Fort, May 19, 1836. Dallas: Highlands Historical Press, 1965.

  Faludi, Susan. The Terror Dream. New York: Metropolitan Books (Henry Holt), 2007.

  Farnham, J. T. Travels in the Great Western Prairies, The Anahuac and Rocky Mountains and in the Oregon Territory. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: Killey and Lossing Printers, 1841.
/>
  Fehrenbach, T. R. Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans. Boulder, Colo.: Da Capo Press Edition, 2000 (originally published 1968).

  ———. The Comanches: Destruction of a People. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974.

  Foote, Shelby. The Civil War. New York: Random House, 1858, vol. 1.

  Ford, John Salmon. Rip Ford’s Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963 (editor: Stephen B. Oates).

  Frazier, Ian. The Great Plains. New York: Penguin, 1989.

  Gillett, James B. Six Years with the Texas Rangers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925.

  Glisan, Rodney. Journal of Army Life. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft and Co., 1874.

  Goodnight, Charles Charles Goodnight’s Indian Recollections. Amarillo, Tex.: Russell and Cockrell, 1928.

  Grant, U. S. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. New York: Charles A. Webster & Co., 1886.

  Graves, John. Goodbye to a River. Houston: Gulf Publishing Company, 1995.

  ———. Hard Scrabble: Observations on a Patch of Land. Dallas: SMU Press, 2002.

  Greer, James Kimmins. Colonel Jack Hays: Frontier Leader and California Builder: College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1987.

  Grinnell, George Bird. The Fighting Cheyennes. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956 (originally published 1915).

  Guild, Thelma S., and Harvey L. Carter. Kit Carson: A Pattern for Heroes. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.

  Hacker, Margaret Schmidt. Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and Legend. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1990.

  Hackett, Charles Wilson, ed. Pichardo’s Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana and Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1934.

  Hagan, William T. Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

  ———. United States—Comanche Relations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.

  Haley, J. Evetts. Charles Goodnight’s Indian Recollections. Amarillo, Tex.: Russell and Cockrell, 1928 (reprinted from Panhandle Plains Historical Review, 1928).

  ———. Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1936.

  Haley, James L. The Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1976.

  Hamilton, Allen Lee. Military History of Fort Richardson, Texas, master’s thesis. Lubbock: Texas Tech, 1973.

  Hatcher, Mattie Austin. “The Opening of Texas to Foreign Settlement 1801–1821,” University of Texas Bulletin, 1927, pp. 53–54.

  Hodge, Frederick. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1971 (originally published in two volumes in 1907 and 1912).

  Holland, G. A. The History of Parker County and the Double Log Cabin. Weatherford, Tex.: The Herald Publishing Company, 1937.

  Holmes, Floyd J. Indian Fights on the Texas Frontier. Fort Worth: Pioneer Publishing, 1927.

  House, E., ed. A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Horn and Her Two Children with That of Mrs. Harris by the Comanche Indians. St. Louis: C. Keemle Printer, 1939.

  Hyde, George E. Rangers and Regulars, Columbus, Ohio: Long’s College Book Co., 1952.

  Jackson, Clyde. Quanah Parker, Last Chief of the Comanches, a Study in Southwestern Frontier History. New York: Exposition Press, 1963.

  James, General Thomas. Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1916.

  Jenkins, John Holmes, ed. Recollections of Early Texas: The Memoirs of John Holland Jenkins. Austin, University of Texas Press, 1958.

  Jimanez, Ramon. Caesar Against the Celts. Staplehurst, Kent: Spellmount, 1996.

  Johnston, William Preston. The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston: Embracing His Services in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States. New York: Appleton and Co., 1879.

  Jones, Douglas C. The Treaty at Medicine Lodge. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966.

  Jones, Jonathan H. A Condensed History of the Apache and Comanche Indians. New York: Garland Publishing, 1976 (originally published in 1899).

  Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Indian Heritage of America. New York: Bantam Books, 1969.

  Kavanagh, Thomas W. The Comanches: A History, 1706–1875. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

  ———. Comanche Ethnography: Field Notes of E. Adamson Hoebel, Waldo R. Wedel, Gustav G. Carlson, and Robert Lowie. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press in cooperation with the American Indian Studies Research Institute at Indiana University, © 2008 (from original 1933 study).

  Keim, De Benneville Randolph. Sheridan’s Troopers on the Border: A Winter Campaign on the Plains. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Librairies Press, 1970 (originally published 1885).

  Kenney, M. M. “The History of the Indian Tribes of Texas,” A Comprehensive History of Texas 1685–1897. Edited by Dudley G. Wooten. Dallas: W. G. Scarff, 1898.

  La Vere, David. Contrary Neighbors, The Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

  Lee, Nelson. Three Years Among the Comanches. Santa Barbara, Calif.: The Narrative Press, 2001 (originally published 1859).

  Lehmann, Herman. Nine Years Among the Indians (1870–79). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2004 (originally published 1927).

  LeMay, Alan. The Searchers. New York: Ace Publishers, 1980 (originally published 1954).

  Lewis, M. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1814 edition, unabridged, vol. 1 (reprinted 1961).

  Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest. New York: Norton and Co., 1988.

  Linn, John J. Reminiscences of Fifty Years in Texas. Austin, Tex.: The Steck Company, 1935 (originally published 1883).

  Lockwood, Frank Cummins. The Apaches. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1897.

  Marcy, Randolph B. Adventure on Red River: A Report on the Exploration of the Red River by Captain Randolph Marcy and Captain G. B. McClellan. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937 (originally published 1853).

  ———. The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions. New York: Harper’s, 1859 (1981 reprint by Time-Life Books, New York).

  ———. Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border. NewYork: Harper and Brothers, 1866.

  Marshall, Doyle. A Cry Unheard: The Story of Indian Attacks in and Around Parker County, Texas, 1858–1872. Annetta Valley Farm Press, 1990.

  Marshall, J. T. The Miles Expedition of 1874–5: An Eyewitness Account of the River War. Austin, Tex.: The Encino Press, 1971.

  Maverick, Mary. Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick. San Antonio: Alamo Printing Co., 1921.

  Mayhall, Mildred P. The Kiowas. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962.

  ———. Indian Wars of Texas. Waco, Tex.: Texian Press, 1965.

  McMurtry, Larry. Crazy Horse. New York: Lipper/Viking, 1999.

  Moore, Ben, Sr. Seven years with the Wild Indians. O’Donnell, Tex.: Ben Moore Sr. , 1945.

  Moore, John H. The Cheyenne. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1996.

  Morrell, Z. N. Flowers and Fruits in the Wilderness. St. Louis: Commercial Printing Co., 1882, 3rd edition (originally published 1872).

  Neeley, Bill. The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1995.

  Neighbours, Kenneth F. Robert Simpson Neighbors and the Texas Frontier. Waco, Tex.: Texian Press, 1975.

  Neighbours, Robert S. The Nauni or Comanches of Texas (in Information Respecting the History, Conditions, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Office of Indian Affairs). Philadelphia, 1853.

  Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979 (originally published 1932).

  Newcomb, W. W., Jr. The Indians of Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961.

  Nye, W. S. Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969 (originally published 1937).

  Parker, James, W.
Defence of James W. Parker Against Slanderous Accusations Preferred Against Him. Houston: Telegraph Power Press, 1839.

  ———. Narrative of the Perilous Adventures. Houston, 1844, self-published.

  ———. The Old Army Memories, Philadelphia: Dorrance and Co., 1929.

  ———. The Rachel Plummer Narrative. Houston: 1839, self-published.