Oklahoma Books

Dan Flores has lived most of his life in the Horizontal Yellow. Another, more historical term for this land would be the Spanish-Mexican Frontier. Florida was not settled from Mexico, of course, and the settlement of California was decades to more than a century later.

Flores explores this land from both the history and natural history points of view, with the historical part generally beginning with the first Spanish-U.S. contact as part of post-Louisiana Treaty boundary negotiations.

Not all Texas is the Southern spillover of Dallas and Houston; get acquainted with the rest of it, and adjacent areas, in this book.

Dan Flores' long-awaited new book once again proves he has few peers when it comes to a deep understanding of his native Near Southwest, a vision for its long term health, and the ability to weave a tale which is scholarly, literary, and deeply personal.

This book is a must have for trail riding in Oklahoma. I have lived here most of my life and was surprised at how many horse riding areas I was not aware of. The author gives excellent directions into camps as well as crital info on parking, tying, facilities, and requirements. The trail descriptions are well written and accurate. Some trails have seen improvement since the publishing date so it's a good idea to call the contact numbers for updates. Highly recommened!

We found this book to be very helpful. Not only does it list many horse trails, it gives information about services available at the camp grounds and directions to the camp of your choice.

This book evokes the horror of the bombing, and the beauty of the generosity of a world, to this horror.

I was in Oklahoma City the day of this incident, arriving within hours after the bombing and am more intimately familiar with many of the events connected with it than those who were not there. The plane I arrived on was full of people from many Federal agencies who were going down to investigate the event, as well as press on their way down to cover the story. It's a day I will never forget. What I found most touching about this book were the individual photos of those innocent 168 people who were executed for no good reason with a brief personal statement about each, e.g., the adorable 14-month old who "loved to have her picture taken," the 6-month old who was just beginning to crawl and had just learned to say "Dada," or the lovely young woman who had just been married for two months. It makes me want to cry all over again, as I did that day. I just came back from there earlier today and, last night, went to visit the site again (my third time), and was just as touched this time as the first time I went there. And the best thing is that the proceeds go to help the victime.

I have absolutely NOTHING good to say about ANY of Dan L. Thrapp's books ( just read my extensive, debunking reviews of his "Victorio and the Mimbres Apaches" and "Conquest of Apacheria" right here at amazon.com and find out!). As for Eve Ball, she has done an excellent job compilling accounts from Apaches themselves, which she expended great time-consuming efforts to draw out of them - especially from Daklugie, the embittered youngest son of Juh, chief of the Nedhnis.

This book is of profound value and importance to anyone who is seriously interested in the Apache and/or in Apache/European conflict because it contains NOTHING BUT first-hand accounts provided by Apaches, as opposed to books by crank writers such as Dan L. Thrapp (who routinely camouflaged his own tastes, likes, and dislikes within his rambling writings on historic facts and incidents).

Understand that while I do not adore the Apaches (in the twisted, Politically Correct sense of today) and that I also do not venerate any of their leaders or warriors of frontier times, I do respect them and have an intense interest in their own perspectives on making the change from the life way of "Wild" Indians to civilized citizens of an industrial and technological superpower. And after reading this book of Eve Ball's, I am very pleased about having purchased it.

Within these pages you will recieve "insider information" on the Apache religion, their social mores, their views of non-Apaches, the logic their leaders employed when trying to make sense of what took place during the European invasion of their territories, and much more.

Most importantly, you will find yourself given intimate information on many of the leaders, on their personalities, their capabilities, their alliances and so forth.

If you read this book and then read anything by Dan L. Thrapp or other cranks who write about the Apache, you'll soon realize what these other so-called "authors" are capable of in terms of distortion of historic fact and also in terms of injecting their own biases, likes, dislikes, and fantasies into historic accounts in order to stear their readers to an opinion on people and events that is desired by these disgusting information manipulators.

Another aspect I really liked about this book is the way the personalities of the various Apaches whom Eve Ball interviewed came through. You can see by their words who still had intensely negative feelings about civilization and who was more accepting. But best of all, there is the correction of details connected to what really did happen during the many Apache wars and their confinement on reservations before being shipped east. These corrections are worth ten times the price of this book alone because they offer sensible and accurate evaluations of various occurances between Apaches and Europeans, and occurances surrounding various prominant Apache leaders and warriors. Much distortion concerning Geronimo, his leadership qualities (always called into question by the crank, Dan L. Thrapp!), his personal life, his views and strategies, his religious observances, his "Powers", and his later years in the east are all set right by never-before-heard intimate details provided by Indians who were with him on the warpath and on the reservations. After reading this book, Geronimo becomes a very interesting, highly astute and intelligent, multi-dimensional personality. A far cry from his popular image of either a one-track-minded, blood thirsty savage or the more recent (and equally inacurate)Politically Correct version which holds him as some sort of poor, persecuted, helpless soul constantly hounded across the Southwestern mountains and plains. The Apache statements concerning Geronimo alone, blow ALL of the drivel spewed out by Dan L. Thrapp right out of the water in terms of credibility.

Actually, I can't say enough about this book in the positive sense. I'm glad Eve Ball produced it. She did both the Apaches and we Whites a great service in giving us a document that really does allow us to understand one aspect of Frontier history accurately. Equally, it serves as a means to FINALLY discredit the blathering swamp of details which comprise fanciful, distorted, and biased works by the likes of Dan L. Thrapp!

If you want great reading on the Apaches and on their role in frontier history, read "Indeh, An Apache Odyssey". Its superb! The bottom line is, "go to the source" and who better to explain aspects of the Apaches than the Apaches themselves?!

Dick Schaap was right when he said, "Robert W. Wheeler is Jim Thorpe's Boswell." Not only did Wheeler exhaustively research Thorpe's life but he and his wife, Dr. Florence Ridlon, got his Olympic medals restored. This is the gold standard.

Tom Benjey, author of "Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs" and "Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz."

THIS IS THE FINEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN, OF THE FAMED NATIVE AMERICAN, JAMES FRANCIS THORPE...1912 DOUBLE-GOLD MEDAL OLYMPIC CHAMPION, FIRST TEAM FOOTBALL ALL-AMERICAN-1911 AND 1912, FIRST 'BONUS-BABY' IN BASEBALL'S MAJOR LEAGUES-1913, SAVED PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL VIA HIS PLAYING PARTICIPATION-1915, FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE PRE NFL-1920... THORPE, 'THE LEGEND'..FEARED AS THE 'SCOURAGE OF THE PRO GRIDIRON', AND LOVED BY AN ENTIRE COUNTRY...AS WELL AS TOLD BY A KING, THAT HE WAS INDEED, "THE WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE!"...NUFF' SAID!

The author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research, and his portrayal of Sutter, the Californios, and the Native Americans puts a reader into a position of feeling that he is right there at the time. No one is portrayed as being an idol to be admired, but just as they must have been, complex human beings interacting with others motivated by their own personal self interest. We learn not all Indian tribes are the same, and that they were reacting to the opportunities and racism prevalent at the time. The historical interplay of Mexico, England, Russia, and the United States is very well shown, not just stated. The author writes in a very accessible style. When he does not know what happened, he says so, and then makes conjectures clearly labled as such. Albert Hurtado deserves a Pulitzer Prize.

Albert L. Hurtado's JOHN SUTTER: A LIFE ON THE NORTH AMERICAN FRONTIER is a top pick for any high school or college-level history collection, and for California history holdings in particular. John Sutter founded a modern settlement in California's Sacramento Valley whose economy depended on Indian slaves and free laborers: it drew immigrants and fortune seekers alike, and made Sutter one of the richest men in the early West - a wealth brought down by his poor business sense. Professor Hurtado uses a range of source materials to provide the definitive coverage of Sutter's life, times, and rise and fall. An essential coverage.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Joshua Pilcher gets full recognition as a pioneer of the fur trade era, then later as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis. Unless one is an enthusiast of this period of history, most people have never heard of Pilcher. After a brief career as a hatter in Kentucky, he then moved to Nashville and later to St. Louis. He began his fur trade endeavors with Manuel Lisa's Missouri Fur Company in 1819 and continued this till 1829 with many misfortunes in the business. He was involved in the famous Arikara Indian Battle on the upper Missouri, which resulted in disagreements with the army's strategy of handling this encounter. After his ventures in the fur trade, he later became Indian sub-agent, then agent, and after William Clark died in 1838, he was appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis. This is a wonderful book well written and researched by John Sunder. Enjoyable.

Joshua Pilcher was a hard-luck figure of the fur-trade period. A visionary who saw himself and others like him as important explorers of the unknown West, a tireless businessman in the fur trade for a number of years, and an Indian agent at the end of his life, it seems that most of his endeavors ended up in failure, or at best, partial success. In 1819 he became a partner with Manuel Lisa in the formation of the Missouri Fur Company and took over the company a year later when Lisa died. After an unsuccessful journey up the Missouri to the Yellowstone in 1821, he joined Col. Henry Leavenworth in his attack against the Arikaras in 1823, an expedition that produced mixed results. The Missouri Fur Company failed two years later (Pilcher blamed Blackfoot attacks on his trappers as the cause). He formed another company and led an expedition to Fort Vancouver; nothing came of this, either, except the report he wrote about his venture, which praised the Oregon territory as a good place for settlement and the South Pass (later Oregon Trail) as an easy way to get there.

A failure financially in the fur business, Pilcher next became an Indian agent on the upper Missouri for a number of years before replacing William Clark as superintendent of Indian affairs in St. Louis. He died there in 1843. A diligent and serious man, working for the government in an office in St. Louis was probably not the way Pilcher envisioned his life as a younger man, but it's where unfortunate circumstances led him. John Sunder's biography is sympathetic toward Pilcher's plight. It's a scholarly and straightforward account of his life, interestingly told. Sunder is a fine writer, and this is an excellent biography.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The Kickapoos did not go silently into the night. Rather, they shot their way onto the pages of history, and Gibson does a good job telling their story. I did not detect any bias on the part of the author, though one must keep in mind that this book was published more than thirty years ago.

If you wish to read a book about a single Indian tribe, the Kickapoos have a history as varied and interesting as any. They first came into contact with the French in Wisconsin in the 17th century; in the 18th century they lived primarily in Illinois and Indiana; and in the 19th they separated into groups that took up residence in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and even Mexico. To this day, some remain in Mexico although most eventually -- and against their will -- were settled onto a reservation in Oklahoma.

The Kickapoos survived much better than most Indian tribes. Perhaps that is attributable to their social conservatism, warlike character, and contrary nature. They do not seem to have exerted themselves at fostering positive interpersonal relationships and endearing themselves to other tribes or Whites. A Texan, comparing them to the ferocious Comanches and Apaches, said the Kickapoos were "the worst of the lot" and the most vicious, calculating, and enterprising of Indians. The Mexican Kickapoos were described as the "meanest, least civilized, and most worthless" of all the Indians. Coming from Whites, those are impressive endorsements. The prickly Kickapoos didn't get pushed around much by anyone.

Macho Indians with guns and feathers are more interesting than downtrodden, doormat Indians and the Kickapoos fill the role perfectly. The author probably overestimates their historical prominence compared to other tribes such as the Shawnee, but he's compiled a fascinating history that brings the history of the tribe up to about 1910. This is an old book and readers may find it a bit politically incorrect. It's well worth a read, however, especially for the odd tale of how forest dwelling Indians from the north woods of Wisconsin came to live in the deserts of northern Mexico.

Smallchief

Extensive history of the King Ranch Quarter Horses. A must have for those interested in Quarter Horse history. I have read it a couple of times, and refer to it often.

I found this book to be very interesting and informative, if a bit dry in areas. It was a wonderful insight to the people who help to shape the Quarter Horse world.

Isabel Crawford came fearlessly among the Kiowa Indians; among the last of the tribes to be confined to reservations. The work of all the missionaries transformed the lives of some of the Kiowa people and gave them a spiritual path that the Kiowa continue to follow. Crawford's recording of the words of these early Kiowa converts have the power to make one laugh and to weep. How poigniant the words of the old Kiowas, the so-called savages.

Isabel Crawford, a Canadian woman, came to southwest Oklahoma and was a missionary to the Kiowas for ten years. This book is a compilation of her journals which she kept faithfully throughout her years with the Kiowas, with entries that include personal reflection and testimonies from the Kiowa people. Crawford brought a unique perspective to life on a Native American reservation at the turn of the century. Crawford showed that most Kiowas respected her and she also had a favorable view of the Kiowas.

Most of her entries were written from a Christian's perspective and how she tried to share gospel with the Kiowas and in fact, many became Christians because of her. Crawford also with the help of the Kiowas built a church at Saddle Mountain, Oklahoma. Unlike some missionaries who preached to save the "savages", Crawford truly respected their cultural identity and in fact sought a middle ground, where cultural exchange took place. She told them that becoming a Christian would not change their identities.

This book is valuable because it contains speeches, conversations and testimonies given by the Kiowas which can help to increase our understanding of both their culture and the complexity of their relationship with missionaries.