Oklahoma Books

Teddy Blue Abbott rode the old western cattle trails from his early teens and shares his memories in 'We Pointed Them North'. A willful young man, Abbott left his Nebraska home early and followed his dream of being a cowboy all the way north to his eventual home in Montana. Along the way he rode many a horse, chased a lot more cow critters, shared an occassional drink and dallied a bit with 'sporting' women and met numerous other young men with similar dreams. The times could be tough but looking back on his life, Teddy Blue wouldn't change a thing.

I purchased this book for research purposes. I was surprised to find it so engrossing - a real page turner!

Of all the books I've read and owned on the historic west - and they're many - among the finest is Teddy Blue's personal account of the early cattle drives from Texas to Montana. He lived it, he remembered it in all its finest detail, and he told it well. This book both informs and entertains, and with Teddy's tongue firmly planted in his cheek at the right times - such as his account of how he came by his nickname - it flat out amuses. Teddy walked it like he talked it, and there is no better, straighter picture of his wild times than We Pointed Them North.

This is another of the several books now available that describes the Texas trail herds and Eastern Montana cattle industry from a cowboy's perspective. Many people consider this the seminal book of the genre. My copy was published in 1939, the year I was born; however, it has been republished several times and is currently available.

My father knew Teddy Blue and I grew up around a mix of cowboys raised in Texas and the northern states. This book is an authentic view of the cowboy's life. Like Teddy Blue, many started out at a young age as an adventure-seeking, rather wild kid. Hard work that wasn't always fun molded them into skilled hands in handling cattle. Teddy Blue finally married, took a homestead, and became one of the settlers whom he used to detest for running livestock and farming on fenced land. That was typical of those Texas cowboys that came to Montana or Wyoming and didn't run back south with the first snowflakes.

This is the true story of trailing livestock from Texas to Montana and raising cattle on the open range. It has stampedes, blizzards, settlers, Indians, prostitutes, outlaws, and vigilantes. It is a story of love, courtship, and marriage. It relates the maturing of Montana from no government or law to established statehood and communities.

E.C. Abbott earned the nickname "Teddy Blue" during one of his more boisterous minutes in Miles City, Montana. Admittedly, it is a misnomer to call Mr. Abbott a Texan since his family moved to Nebraska from England when Teddy Blue was eleven and he fully adopted Montana as the state where he lived out his life. However, he, like the other cowboys who "came up the trail," refers to himself as a Texas cowboy.

This book is very readable. We are indebted to Helena Huntington Smith for recording Teddy Blue's memories, as well as her other writings such as "A Bride Goes West." Those two books are an anchor for the history of the "old west."

A good look at the life of a cowboy in Montana and Wyoming in the late 1800's. Not politically correct by any stretch. Not very well put together but a very interesting read.

Set in modern day Santa Cruz, Owens has constructed a fictional thriller based on events in and around the infamous mission's domain. Troubled spirits mingle with malignant minds as Native American professor Cole McCurtain finds himself and his Choctaw family drawn into a story he has dreamed for many nights. Find yourself drawn to Cole's wise young daughter Abby and his wise-cracking cross-dressing Navajo friend Alex Yazzie. This literary novel is a great thriller which provides lots of laughs and some sexy characters along the way.

Bone Game is the sequel to The Sharpest Sight, a mystery set many years earlier with protagonist Cole McCurtain coming of age along the Salinas River. Another excellent and very funny literary text that doubles as a sensational mystery

The whole history of the opression of Native Californians is not widely known or spoken of, even in California (I still hear that misbelief that the missions were good for the Indians occaisonally -- don't get me started0. And unfortunately, many times people aren't even aware that native peoples such as the Ohlone that figure into Owens' book still exist (they were, after all, declared extinct by anthropologists like Alfred Kroeber, which is extremely untrue). So I commend Owens for drawing upon the rich history of California in a way I have not seen many other authors do. Plenty of books rely on the premise of the wronged native -- most deal with horse-back riding Plains Indians with names like "Big Wolf" or "Two Eagles."

As for plot, and story, Owens scores here as well. I notice that many other reviewers found the plot line confusing, which in turn confuses me as I found it easy to follow. I even figured out that there were two...well, I don't want to spoil it for you. Owens also has good descriptions of the local scenery -- the redwoods forests of the Santa Cruz mountains as well as the juniper-pinyon forests of New Mexico - that come through as authentic to any who has ever walked in those places.
It's too bad Owens isn't still around producing works like these.

I ran across this book in my search for mysteries written by Native Americans. The jacket blurb and book reviews made it sound intriguing and worth picking up to read.

The story line weaves back and forth between murders set in present day California and Spanish Colonial times.

Owens prose is haunting; his images catch just at the edge of the reader's mind. Ok, one asks, is this happening today? Or 300 years ago? Is it real? (whatever that means.) Or just one of the protagonist's screwy dreams?

Frankly, I got exhausted trying to figure out where and when I was supposed to be. I fought my way through several hundred pages, searching for a plot I could hang on to. We finally got there, but by that time I had become bored with Cole - the angst-ridden, usually drunk, central character.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned - I like my mysteries to unfold in a more or less straight line. Too much poetry, imagery, and symbolism for my taste.

I just happened to stumble upon this novel through a book club. I enjoyed every sentence of it! Owens blends Native American history, lore and custom with his characters' modern-day American concerns and fears. Cole McCurtain, teaching Indian Studies at Santa Cruz, finds that he is lonely, drinking far too much, and missing his family. His daughter, Abby, comes to stay with him at the same time that body parts start floating ashore. Cole is haunted by nightmares that seem to be telling him a story. He is also surrounded by a fascinating array of characters who fill the novel with humor, sarcasm and wisdom.
Owens' writing is first-rate. This is a chilling novel that, at the same time, is quite touching. I cared about what happened to the characters and had to keep reading to find out the next twist.

After reading the novel Bone Game, a common reaction of many readers must be confusion. There are so many visions and dreams in this novel. These visions seem to occur independent of time and space, leading a reader used to highly structured "Western" novels to throw up their hands in futility. On reflection, however, several themes can be discerned from this confusing novel. One overarching theme seems to be the pervasive force of evil that manifests itself throughout the book. Louis Owens definitely has a grasp of criminal history. He has borrowed from real life events to construct his novel. Most of the events in Bone Game occur at the University of California, Santa Cruz where Cole McCurtain works as a professor. During the early 1970's Santa Cruz suffered through a crime wave when three serial killers committed crimes there.

Herbert William Mullin was, by anybody's account, a strange bean. A heavy user of LSD and a frequent pot smoker, Mullin eventually suffered a serious psychological collapse. He began hearing voices that commanded him to kill people in order to prevent earthquakes from destroying Southern California.

Edmund Kemper embarked on a sadistic rampage of murder and mayhem that culminated with his arrest in Pueblo, Colorado in April 1973. Kemper was a giant of a man, 6'9" tall and 280 pounds. Inside lurked a monster. Kemper despised women, especially his mother. When Kemper began to hunt women, his mother, a UCSC employee, inadvertently aided her son's murderous desires by providing him with a parking sticker for his car. This sticker allowed Kemper to lure young college co-eds to their deaths. After killing his victims, Kemper dismembered their bodies and decapitated them. Kemper buried one particular head in the yard outside his room, with the head facing towards the house so he could "talk" to his victim.

The third killer was John Linley Frazier. Frazier's spree was limited to a single event in 1970, when he torched the house of a local doctor. Frazier left a note at the crime scene expressing his outrage at the exploitation of the ecosystem and the rampant materialism prevalent in American society. When arrested, it was discovered that Frazier was a rabid ecologist and a practitioner of Tarot cards. Police believed that the murders Frazier committed might have been linked to the hippie culture movement that existed in the surrounding areas of Santa Cruz.

This lengthy description of madness is not an attempt to skirt discussion of Bone Game. Rather, Owens uses these real events to create fictional characters that adopt, and ultimately subvert, Indian culture. Can any reader look at the hulking figure of Paul Kantner and not see Ed Kemper? The murderer in Bone Game uses a car with a UCSC parking sticker to pick up one of his female victims. Kantner even murders his mother in the same way Kemper killed his mother. Paul also admits to burying the head of one of his victims so that it faces his room, allowing him to talk to the head. Again, this is the same thing that Kemper did.

Herbert Mullin and John Frazier are also represented in the story. Robert Malin, Cole's graduate assistant, seems to possess some of Mullin's attributes. Both Mullin and Malin (the names again share a similarity) engage in hallucinogenic experiences. Mullin takes acid and Malin takes part in the peyote ceremony. Mullin's experience with hallucinogens does not have the spiritual and healthy connotations of an Indian peyote ritual. Instead of receiving visions helpful and cleansing visions, Mullin's visions are nightmares of depravity that lead to murder. Even Robert does not share in the healthy experience of the ritual because he runs out before the ritual is finished. Robert talks about his "dreams" to kill, closely resembling Mullin's own sadistic visions. It is also important to point out that Malin seems to have adopted Mullin's fascination with earthquakes, as can be seen when he talks to Abby after he has abducted her.

Frazier's fascination with ecology and the prevention of materialistic consumption are both ideas that are closely associated with Indian values. In the hands of Frazier, they become twisted beyond recognition and turned into a reason for murder and destruction. The hippie culture that Frazier was immersed in also presents a problem. The hippie culture attempted to co-opt many Indian ideas, especially the concept of community. While this may seem to be a noble goal, in the hands of Whites it had a propensity to occasionally produce a John Frazier or a Charles Manson. The hippie culture that Frazier was a part of actually does makes an appearance in Bone Game, when Paul takes Abby to a place called Elfland. Elfland is a place where white students go to take part in wacky "New Age" rituals. These rituals are actually pathetic attempts by Whites to copy Indian ritual.

Another important event in Bone Game that illustrates the idea of subversion deals with the Indians themselves, as people. Luther and Hoey run into a gang of criminals who deal in a sort of Indian slavery. The evil committed against the Indians here is twofold: not only is an Indian abducted and denied dignity as a human being by Whites, the Whites have also turned Indian against Indian. One of the gang is an Indian who has nothing but contempt for his own people.

A weird book but worth reading if you like Indian literature.

As I began to read the book, I constantly keep in mind just who the authors were. Having read "Others Unknown", I knew that James Nichols was a suspect at one point.

The first several chapters is mainly concerned with James Nichols' lashing out at the FEDS for raiding his farm. It's loaded with hilarious jabs at the federal government which at times overshadows the facts. The book poses some very interesting questions about the bomb and obstruction of justice. But I think the best information in the book comes from the last several chapters begining with "Witnesses". I was losing enthusiasm in the book until I hit this chapter. From then on the book took a more serious approach to the facts. Stephen Jones' book had a chapter on US v. McVeigh and he rattled off a list of names of people who the goverment never called as witnesses without explaining what the significant of those witnesses were. This book explained what those witnesses saw the morning of April 19, 1995 as well as the weeks/days leading up to the bombing. (The fact that I was able to cross-reference FE with Jones' book gave it more credibility).

The book also gave more in-depth information on the ATF informant, Carol Howe and exactly what she had reported to her superiors which was ignored at the expense of 168 men, women and children.

My lasting impression is that there was a grand COVER-UP, the government had been tipped off (Jones said the same in his book) and we may never know what really happened and why.

WORTH THE READ FOR THE SECOND-HALF, WILL LEAVE YOU WANTING MORE INFORMATION.

Being the brother of convicted co-conspirator Terrry Nichols does not give the author any inside info on the bombing. Terry was able to tell him very little about the plot while being visited in jail. This is only about the FBI's high-handed investigation of the author due to his relationship to Terry. Not relevant to the main event. I wish I hadn't bought it.

I have read almost all of the books out there about the Oklahoma City bombing and the Assault on The Branch Davidians in Waco which is often cited as having been the inspiration for the destruction of the Murrah Building. This book contains LOTS of scathing information regarding The US Governments manipulation of people and its censorship/fabrication of information released to the public. The story it tells is vitally important for all Americans to read although I found the book to be tedious reading in certain areas. Nichols tells his story with all the emotion it deserves and what he has to say is important. Read it!

This is a great book which gives a lot of information that the most American's have NO IDEA. James Nichols has a great sense of humor through it all as well. It shows the INJUSTICE in this case. I highly recommend.

As I began to read the book, I constantly keep in mind just who the authors were. Having read "Others Unknown", I knew that James Nichols was a suspect at one point.

The first several chapters is mainly concerned with James Nichols' lashing out at the FEDS for raiding his farm. It's loaded with hilarious jabs at the federal government which at times overshadows the facts. The book poses some very interesting questions about the bomb and obstruction of justice. But I think the best information in the book comes from the last several chapters begining with "Witnesses". I was losing enthusiasm in the book until I hit this chapter. From then on the book took a more serious approach to the facts. Stephen Jones' book had a chapter on US v. McVeigh and he rattled off a list of names of people who the goverment never called as witnesses without explaining what the significant of those witnesses were. This book explained what those witnesses saw the morning of April 19, 1995 as well as the weeks/days leading up to the bombing. (The fact that I was able to cross-reference FE with Jones' book gave it more credibility).

The book also gave more in-depth information on the ATF informant, Carol Howe and exactly what she had reported to her superiors which was ignored at the expense of 168 men, women and children.

My lasting impression is that there was a grand COVER-UP, the government had been tipped off (Jones said the same in his book) and we may never know what really happened and why.

WORTH THE READ FOR THE SECOND-HALF, WILL LEAVE YOU WANTING MORE INFORMATION.

I used this years ago in college and just got it off the shelf as I prepare to take up Homeric Greek again for fun.

This was a great help when I first needed it for both 'Odyssey' and 'Iliad' readings. I can certainly agree with those who want principal parts and more definitions, but that's why you also need Liddell and Scott's or Cunliffe's 'Lexicon...' My sticking point is that nouns could've been given a definite article and a genitive ending, even so supplying them yourself (as I did) is a great exercise.

What is so nice about this book is the great number of words listed for you and especially its portability. Take it every where; use it any time!
What Owen and Goodspeed wanted to do is provide vocabulary as simply as possible. And they succeeded.

If you wish to read any language, vocabulary is necessary. The listing of words by frequency and parts of speech helps one to focus study time where it will bear the most fruit.

This wordlist is of inestimable value to all those few yet thrice-blessed who still learn to read Homer in Greek. By the time you finish it, you will have at least a nodding acquaintance with every word that appears ten times or more in the Iliad and Odyssey. That may indeed leave a trireme of unknown words, but trust me, knowing the most frequent ones makes it much easier to get the gist of a passage before running to the lexicon. If you are learning Homer from Pharr--as nearly everyone does--this is a good reference to consult to see which words in his chapter vocabularies are worth committing to your active memory. (I wish that Pharr had marked the words of infrequent occurrence. Wright should have done this in his "revision" but he didn't really revise Pharr much at all.)

There is only one shortcoming, though I do consider it a serious one: the list of verbs does not include principal parts, and the noun list does not give genders or stems. You could easily write in the article and genitive forms for the nouns, but good luck trying to fit the five remaining principal parts of a verb on the same line as its entry. So no matter how you solve this problem, you will still need to look up nearly every word. That's an onerous task to inflict on a beginner. With a class of students, though, I suppose the teacher could divide up the drudge-work.

The greatest obstacle to reading Homer in Greek is the sheer density of the vocabulary. That is to say, Homer's vocabulary is
enormous. As an attempt to help the student of Homeric Greek acquire a good grasp on Homer's vocabulary, this little book is useful yet not as useful as it could have been.

The book contains word lists covering words that occur up to ten times in the Iliad and Odyssey. Unfortunately, there are serious faults with the word lists. As one reviewer has already mentioned, the verbs give only the present indicative active; with a verb such as audao (to speak, say, utter (something)(to someone)), this is no problem, since the verb only appears in a few tenses in which context and form always guarantee one's recognition of it. However, there are countless verbs which undergo such dramatic changes in form from one tense to the next
that knowing the present indicative active alone is well-nigh useless. Thus, principal parts should have been provided for such words.

Also, there are many words whose meaning changes from one context to the next. The definitions provided for such words in the word lists are almost useless, since they only equip the reader with an understanding of them in certain contexts.

One last criticism: There are a number of words which really do not need to be included in these word lists. Words like kai, de, and alla are so common and so basic that only the most intellectually challenged of Greek students would need to practice them.

So the book is useful for the absolute beginner in Homeric Greek, but its defects become more and more obvious the more
one progresses in one's learning. It's a shame that no one has come up with a better alternative to these word lists. Personally, I would love to see a full vocabulary guide to Homeric Greek such as one can find for the vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, in which principal parts and variant meanings are included, and in which all of Homer's vocabulary is covered down to those pesky hapax legomena (words used only once).

I will disagree with the reviewers that fault Owen & Goodspeed for the lack of principle parts and alternate definitions; for me, the strength of this little volume was the ability to carry it tucked in a pocket and quickly drill vocabulary when I had a few minutes. Anyone reading Homer should have a good lexicon and use that for examining meanings and forms; if you memorize the contents of Owen & Goodspeed, you'll be able to quickly identify words and, if necessary, look them up for other meanings or unusual forms.

I purchased this book after reading a review about it on someone's blog. The book presents the fascinating history of the planning and building of the Hoover Dam. I was particularly struck by the descriptions of the working conditions that the workers endured. While the text appeared to be fairly dense, it was actually a fast read. The only real complaint I have about the book is that I think it could have used a few more maps to help the reader get a sense for where things were. I believe there was one map, and it wasn't very details. If you are at all interested in the history surrounding the construction of the Hoover Dam I highly recommend getting this book.

What a wonderful book. As a civil engineer, if I had been born 50 years sooner, I probably would have gone in dam-building, but by the time I came along, the great dam-building era in the US was over. On a recent trip to Las Vegas, my wife and I visted Hoover Dam three times, we were both so fascinated with this monumental structure.

So I bought "Hoover Dam - An American Adventure" by Joseph E. Stevens. The author does a great job of describing the technical details without getting too technical for laymen, and he also covers the human details and the political background of the huge project.

One thing that really made the book so enjoyable was the liberal use of photographs, and unlike many books where the photographs are all in the middle of the book, the photographs are located throughout the book in the appropriate chapters.

This book made me proud to be an American, with the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-the-job-done attitude that typified the early dam and bridge builders.

If you have the slightest interest in major engineering feats, read the book, it's a good one.

Excellent book. I have read a number of science/engineering histories and this is one of the best. It follows the building of the Hoover Dam from start to finish. If I ever go to Las Vegas, it will be because I wanted to see the Dam. It has just the right amount of detail, both technical and political to keep me interested. It read faster than its size would suggest.

I was a young boy who lived in Boulder City for five years when my father helped build the dam. This is an excellently written - maybe one of the best I have ever read - and very accurate account of the construction, the people who did it, and life at the time. I stop and reminisce every time I go through Boulder City and drive over the dam. I loved my Dad and am very proud of his participation there. This book took me back in a very instructive and entertaining manner. It did the entire project proud. I won't hesitate one second to recommend this book to anyone who appreciates excellence in writing, or who loves America and its history. For this was a truly great undertaking, excellently and excitingly performed. And by people who, in my opinion, are prime examples of the so called "Greatest Generation". Detailed accounts of the construction of the dam are available, and are also excellent. But that is not the focus of this book.

According to the jacket, this is the first book for this author. You can't tell after turning the last page. Well written, easy to read history of the Hoover Dam project. Never overly technical, yet highly informative.

The third edition to Garrison's Catullus is an improvement from the last edition. A minor revision includes updated bibliography concerning textual tradition. But the big improvement is the reformatting of the book's type-face. It is now set in Minion Pro which is easier to read, in my opinion, than Times New Roman. In other words, it is beautifully laid out to present a good book overall. Other things: still remaining are the commentary and vocabulary in the back of the book.

Garrison's book is not the soundest text for people reading Catullus in Latin. For one thing, the book does a disservice in "titling" every poem in the collection with an English one-liner...this goes a long way towards influencing the reader before s/he even reads the Latin. Second, there is no critical apparatus with the Latin text...and with a poet like Catullus, for whom textual issues are more than marginally important, this is a lamentable loss...even beginning Latin students can be sophisticated enough not to think that the text of an author was handed down by Jupiter on golden tablets...or in this case, in a forest green paperback. Fordyce's 1961 Oxford commentary remains standard for the poems he covers (and contrary to popular lore he did not leave the others out out of a sense of Puritanism but rather because the Oxford Press at the time thought the book would sell to a larger market with the obscene poems omitted)...there is also Merrill, still in print (he has every poem)...and for more accomplished Latinists, we now have Thomson's big 1997 volume. If you can find it, Kenneth Quinn's 1970 commentary on the whole corpus is also worth a close look...

I am a T.A. for a course in Catullus, and I find this book to be very helpful. Included in this volume are the complete extant works of Catullus, a Catulluan vocabulary (crucial because some of Catullus' more colorful vocabulary does not appear in all dictionaries), a brief and informative commentary, a list of people to whom Catullus makes reference, a review of Catullus' meters, and a glossary of terms and their definitions. This book is extremely helpful and is ideal for a student reading Catullus for the first time or a more experienced Latin reader who is attempting to read Catullus' corpus as quickly as possible.

Daniel H. Garrison's THE STUDENT'S CATULLUS, published by University of Oklahoma press, contains all 113 poems of the standard collection which are belived to be authentic, including the fragmentary poems. Garrison provides an introduction and notes for the individual poems, as well as four appendices on various matters ("People", "Meters", "[Poetic] Terms", and "Poetic Usage") and a complete vocabulary. In his notes, Garrison often directs the student towards the meaning without giving it away as such, preserving the comedic impact of much of the shorter poems. While no scholar could deny the obscenity of much of Catullus' poetry, Garrison sometimes shows a shyness in his notes which I found odd. I used THE STUDENT'S CATULLUS for a semester-long course at Loyola University Chicago, and thought that it served my needs well.

If there is one big downside to the book, it is the typesetting. The Latin text is fine, but the notes and commentary are all done in hideous double-columns and a typeface smaller than the Latin. This is one of the least professional-looking academic books I've come across in a while. Still, that doesn't stop the content from being useful, so THE STUDENT'S CATULLUS is worth seeking out.

This handy edition is perfect for the casual reader of Latin. Garrison's extensive notes answer most questions a reader is likely to have concerning the grammer and they also provide a considerable amount of relevent mythology. The book also contains a complete vocabulary which I have found invaluable. This is not a scholarly edition, but provides everything for the non-scholar.

Archaeology and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, what's there not to like! Nicely written with fascinating photographs. Starting at $8, what a bargain!

Custer's Fall: The Native American Side of the Story

I found 'Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of Little Bighorn' to be a very interesting read indeed, it served to answer many questions that, up to the time of the archaeological investigations, were not known.

An interesting comment in the book referred to the fact that the investigations backed-up the indian's side of events & refuted that of the army's.
Many comments made by various authors over the years have also been negated by the evidence unearthed.

I recommend the book mentioned above, ('Custer's Fall'), which is the indian account of the battle; many people I am sure will be dismayed to discover that; Custer was shot down within a few moments of the first charge across the Little Bighorn to attack the indian camp, that the charge immediately halted mid stream & that shortly afterwards the army, faced with overwhelming numbers of indians, commenced it's futile race to try & find a defensive place on high ground.

Unfortunately Custer's luck on that day was not as good as Reno's.

In my opinion, Custer was an egotistical murdering glory hound, he had the opportunity to save his men's lives & failed to heed the word of his scouts.
He went in with guns blazing & met the fate he truly deserved, there was no last stand, at least not for Custer, that ultimate terror was left for his unfortunate men to face.

My only (minor) criticism of 'Archaeological Perspectives' is that a detailed map of the arenas of battle was not included in the book.

Well done the indians; if only they had overrun Reno & captured his ammunition packs, it could have led to the destruction of the other army detachments closing in upon them, alas... it was not meant to be.

I was lucky enough to visit the Battlefield in 1984 shortly after the fire and the first field season. I have visited it twice more since. The last time I was armed with not only Richard Allen Fox's book but this one as well.

Having an abiding interest in the battle for over 30 years it is amazing how the application of good sound science has unraveled many of the "mysteries" and myths associated with what happened on those dusty slopes the day of the battle.

This book delves more into the personal fate of numerous combatants as evidenced by their remains found on the battlefield.

The mere fact that so numerous remains were there to be found after reported exhumation and reburial under the monument, shows that then as now "good enough for government work" still has the same meaning.

If you are interested in the fate of individuals, the nuts and bolts of the recovery of remains, this book is for you. If you are more interested in the unraveling of the mystery of the battle itself. Richard Alan Fox's book Archaeology, History and Custer's Last Battle will appeal to you more. It details the unraveling of the stages of the battle using firearm forensic techniques and puts to bed the notion that Custer died in a glorious last stand.

Rather the famed 7th Cavalry disintegrated into a panic stricken mob, and at the last it was every man for himself, as the last 28 lone survivors on foot and horseback fled Last Stand Hill for the illusion of saftey of the Deep Ravine.

Both books are excellent and both will help final dispel the myths surrounding the battle.

Even though I know all the writers of this book, I'm still NOT biased when I say that Scotts, et al book has changed interpretation dramatically on the Little Bighorn fight. Having worked at the Little Bighorn Battlefield as an interpreter in 1985, I personally know how this interpretation changed, i.e. before the archaeological digs of 1984-85, most of us believed that Custer's men fell mostly to arrows. We now know that the U.S. soldier's were outgunned, thanks to this field work and as reported in the book.

Since Scott's final report, headstones on the battlefield marking where "unknown soldier's" fell have been replaced by actual names, e.g. Mitch Bouyer. This reality came to place thanks to the forensic work of Dr. Clyde Snow (his complete report is included in this book).

Finally, Scott and his team create a vivid picture of where the soldiers and the Indian warriors moved over the battlefield fighting for what they believed was right.

This book goes into great detail about the archeology performed on the battlefield site. It has the feel of being written for an audience of archeologists rather than just a casual reader. If you are an archeologist, the book probably rates a five. If you are really interested in the battle, I also recommend it. If you just want to learn the basics of the battle, howver, other titles are probably more appropriate.

Steltenkamp continues the tradition of looking at Indians through the lens of Christian prejudice. The book neglects to explore the fact that Black Elk's daughter, Lucy, was kept from any knowledge of Nick Black Elk's medicine training and practice. Nor does the text examine the shame and shock inducing behavior of the Christian priest who barged into the middle of Black Elk's healing of a patient, discarding the healer's tools, ridiculing him and depriving the patient of healing, literally yanking him out of practice, nor the other priests who continued to badger this medicine man, (a man revered by his people) until he gave in for the safety of his family. The book also fails to give the details behind the fact that Lucy's brother was knowledgeble about and supportive of Nick's practice as a medicine man. For those who are willing to give the text a close reading, you'll see how the author unwittingly reveals the methods of Christian clerics' destruction of an ancient culture, the results of that destruction, and how Nick Black Elk, deposed and put in service of the priests, was at least able to tap their pockets and provide for his family. As an example of yet another writer's Christian bias toward the Indians with examples of their brainwashing and coercion, so thorough, that even the child of this famous healer was kept in the dark about the truth of her own father, this book is worth a read.

This is a mild revisionist biography of Black Elk. The account has a definite ring of truth. The book received the *Alpha Sigma Nu Award* in 1994. Based on extensive ethnohistorical research of archival sources and extensive interviews with the daughter of Black Elk, author Steltenkamp (who has a Ph.D. in anthropology) shows that many of the biographies of Black Elk are highly mythologized. Most interesting, it turns out that Black Elk was a committed Catholic and Christian missionary to his own people for the last 46 years of his life (he died in 1950 at about age 90). Why did the previous biographers fail to tell that? Why keep secret that Black Elk was a Christian? Steltenkamp concludes that it would have compromised his Indianness. For example, John Neihardt, who wrote the classic biography *Black Elk Speaks* (1932)--which I personally read several times by the time I had graduated from high school in 1953--avoided the issue by focusing on Black Elk's 19th century life. (Black Elk participated as a teenager in the Custer Massacre and witnessed the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee.) Neihardt instead "highlighted 'the end of the trail' and 'vanishing American' themes" (19, xiv). Steltenkamp reviews the work of the Jesuit missionaries among the Lakota in a good light. He leads his reader to understand the lay public's bias against missionaries, seeing them as part of the ethnocide of the Lakota, and how the mythological accounts of Black Elk, the "traditionalist who will lead his people back to cultural revival," supports this view. But of course if Black Elk was a Christian trying to lead his people into American Catholicism, this would ruin everything. Like the famous Chief Seattle (see the July 1993 issue of Reader's Digest), Black Elk was used to perpetuate false romantic myths of Noble Savages. key words: missiology, ecological Noble Savage, revisionism, myth of primitive harmony, New Ageism, idealization of primitivity

Michael F. Steltenkamps research of this widely researched Indian is a fascinating for lack of a better word. He shows the man's later coversion to Catholicism in the 60 years following "Black Elk Speaks." A great resource!

"Black Elk - Holy Man of The Oglala" by Michael F. Steltenkamp is a most fascinating little treasure.

You may "think" that you know something about Black Elk (perhaps from "Black Elk Speaks" and other books about him, but Steltenkamp presents "Nicholas Black Elk" as he lived more than two thirds of his life: as a Catholic catechist and Christian community leader.

It is so inspiring to see how this "holy man" (and I believe "Saint" , though not canonized by the Church) interpreted the religion of the native Americans into a proleptic vision of the arrival of Jesus Christ and the christian faith.

and even more inspiring is to read of how this man truly lived that faith day to day himself. i know how impressed i was by one simple photgrpah of Nicholas Black Elk standing with a group and holdong his rosary beads . . .proud but devout.

Some "pseudo-scholars" may try to down-play the true religious piety of this Sioux "holy man" by claiming it was a mere ruse to adapt to the "power" of the occupying white invaders . . . but read the book and see that those who actually knew him knew better.


He walked miles praying his rosary to go and lead funeral services (though only a catechist he served almost in the role of "deacon"). . . He even had the experience of a miracle attributed to the intercession of Saint Therese of Lisieux healing his little "Nicholas" and saving the boys life when he asked that a prayer be said to saint Therese.

And as he predicted there were even signs in the night sky the night he passed away into eternity.

I recommend that you get a copy of this book and read it and then re-read it again and again. You will gain a new spiritual friend and companion on your own pilgrimage journey through this world and through your life. And it sure is nice to have a "holy man' and a kindly man like Nicholas Black Elk praying for you and with you in heaven . . . and to inspire you by his own life story.

Whether the Church he loved ever gets around to enrolling him with the "official saints" or not, he will always be on my own scroll of saints when i pray. And i suspect if you read this book, he will be on yours as well. :)

Steltenkamp does a superb job of describing Black Elk's years as a devout Catholic -- Black Elk converted in 1904 and remained a praying Christian until his death in 1950 -- and demonstrating that the Lakota holy man's Christianity was an organic continuation of his earlier years as a Lakota traditionalist. This book thus provides a necessary complement to Black Elk Speaks, which avoids discussing the second half of Black Elk's life. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to learn about the real Black Elk -- and thus give a great saint and prophet his due.

An interesting review of Jane's life. Well written, this book shows the real Calamity Jane not just the Dime Novel Legend. Make no mistake, Jane lived a hard life, but her story is well worth your time to read.

Though it's not mentioned in this biography, it's worth noting that cowboy artist C.M. Russell, who was more or less Calamity's contemporary, and who shared at least one mutual friend, cowboy Teddy Blue Abbott, never painted nor even mentioned Calamity in any of his artwork, stories, or recollections. It was Russell who wrote, "The worst old timer I every knew, looks dam good to me." James McLaird's painstaking new book suggests that perhaps Russell didn't find Calamity scandalous but dull.

Martha Jane Canary / Calamity Jane was, in her childhood and adolescent years, an example of resourcefulness and grit. She survived a broken home, neglect, and abandonment. That she survived at all, much less as a camp follower who chanced to visit some famous camps, would be enough to earn her a footnote in history books. Had she never returned to Deadwood after her first visit, she'd probably have some polite mention in the town's history. When she came back a second time, she was an item of nostalgia; but when she returned a third time, she was a nuisance and embarrassment.

James McLaird has done nothing less than a phenomenal job, and possibly a thankless one. He sifted and sorted through every book, article, memoir, and dime novel that might make mention of Calamity in order to establish just who she was and how much of her legend had any basis in fact. And the truth is neither flattering nor thrilling. If Calamity has anything to be memorialized for, apart from occasional nursing duties, it would be her travels. When not following the U.S. Cavalry into the Black Hills, she followed the railroad as it pushed its way across the West. She hobnobbed with Wild Bill Hickock, but probably never shared a bed with him. She was nowhere near General Custer and the 7th Cavalry when they encountered Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. She tended bars, drove wagons, whored, drank, and fought till she was asked to leave town, and might have continued to do so comfortably if she hadn't become a celebrity. Behind her dime novelesque façade, she was a bitter alcoholic, aging prematurely and sinking toward an early death in her late 40s.

McLaird paints as sympathetic a portrait as he can. Calamity fell victim both to herself and the legend she engendered. Some years after her death, she was exploited again by Jean McCormick, a con artist who fabricated an elaborate and clumsy hoax to "prove" she was the daughter of Calamity and Wild Bill Hickock. McLaird commendably restrains his sarcasm and lets irony speak for itself. The McCormick ruse not only found believers in the 1940s, but continues to have adherents in these days of "Deadwood."

In the past 20 years I've read a lot of information on Calamity Jane, and James Mclaird's book is the most reliable, well-researched book on the subject of this woman. Most of the information floating around about her is false, and Mclaird painstakingly dissects myth from fact, including how each myth or rumor was started in the first place. Since reading Calamity Jane:The Woman And The Legend, I feel like a pseudo-expert on her myself, and can easily spot misinformation and poor research whenever I see it in other publications. I highly recommend this read for Old West enthusiasts, students who are looking for a topic, and anyone interested in what a genuinely thorough biography is supposed to be. If you're considering another source on her life other than this one, don't bother because it's probably a jumble of misinformation. This book is the only way to go.

Calamity Jane is a major figure in Western history so it's not surprising numerous titles have been written about her previously: what is surprising is that Calamity Jane: The Woman And The Legend has so much new material to reveal. Here's the definitive biography of one Martha Canary, written by one of the best modern authorities and packed with meticulous research. McLaird had to study conflicting accounts of her life and adventures to arrive at the truth: Calamity Jane comes packed with depth and detail on known facts and you won't find a better coverage elsewhere.

This well researched and documented biography of Mary Canary a.k.a. Calamity Jane (1856-1903) lifts the veil behind a Western myth. The real Calamity Jane really did have a calamitous life. She spent most of her life in the roughest spots - as a military camp follower, in rough and tumble mining towns, and in the ever raucous and short lived railroad junction towns springing up as the tracks were laid across the country. She made her living as a dance hall girl, prostitute, laundress, cook, Madame, and similar pursuits. She was a life long alcoholic and was clearly dissipated at an early age. Later in life, some ways, she lived off the kindness of others or cashed in on her unearned fame as a frontier hero.

McLaird does a good job of uncovering the real Calamity Jane and explaining how her myth was built up through Western dime novels and newspaper reporters, thirsty for good stories. For example, stories about Calamity the camp follower turned into her being a scout for the army. As her legend grew, the stories became even more farcical. Later in life Calamity cashed in on these stories to garner sympathy and support from others. But ultimately she died young, most likely simply from alcoholism.

The downfall to this biography is twofold. First, the author could have cited other writers that discuss the process of Western myth building and incorporated that into his thesis. Secondly, the prose is very matter of fact and rather bland. I found the topic fascinating but the writing style a bit boring, so at times the biography gets a little tedious and academic.

Nevertheless, it does offer another solid academic work on Western myth building, with Calamity Jane maybe the biggest farce of them all.

A well written book on a subject not covered anywhere else!

The western most battles of the civil war are in Arizona.

I felt like I was in the minds of the California volunteers as they marched into Arizona in the 1860s to support the Union, chased the Rebels back to Texas, fought the Indians, set up territorial government, established roads, mines.

As an Arizona resident, I can only imagine how rugged this country was in those days with few towns, no law and Indians everywhere.

The diaries and letters of the Union Troops stationed in Arizona are like a window to the bast.

The battle of Picacho Pass captivates the readers as the advance Union Troops come upon the Confederates (Arizona Rangers) at the old Butterfield Stage station on the way to Tucson.

The Mexican government had surrendered the territory to the United States just a decade earlier, yet the US had not really controlled this vast territory. The Confederates came for gold and control of the Colorado River. The arrival of the Union army changed the shape of Arizona as we know it today.

Recommended.

It is probably not common knowledge, even among many students of Arizona history, that the Civil War played an important role in the early development of the Arizona Territory. Author Andrew Masich guides his reader through the evolution of the California Volunteers' war-time military occupation of Arizona with great attention devoted to the soldiers' personal experiences, as well as their military accomplishments. He goes on to highlight the generally unheralded contributions made by the Californians which fostered progress toward stability, settlement and commerce in the fledgling Territory.

The author gives us a glimpse of the research process by devoting fully one-half of his volume to one of his primary resources, namely the personal accounts of some of the Volunteers submitted as dispatches to one of the pre-eminent California newspapers of the day. What better way to glean a true feel for their unique experiences than by following the personal accounts of these "soldier-correspondents" in their own words?

As a descendant of an Arizona pioneer family and a student of her fascinating history, I'm always searching for writings that will expand my understanding of the paths that brought us to where we are. Masich's book certainly fits that bill. This is a thoroughly-researched and fascinating tribute to the soldiers of the California Volunteers. I highly recommend it.

Neil Donkersley
Tucson, Az

Unlike other civil war books, this one covers the soldiers from California that occupied Arizona and New Mexico. Not a lot of civil war action but more dealing with the desert and the Indians. It's not a page turner, but what civil war book is. But when your done with the book you know more then you did before. A civil war book with a different slant.

I just learned that the Border Regional Library Association (includes Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, and Sonora) has awarded Civil War in Arizona Southwest Book of the Year honors--and deservedly so! This book makes a real contribution to the study of the Civil War in the Western Territories.

For Civil War buffs and scholars, for all those who love Western History, this book will make for compelling reading. Andrew E. Masich, president and CEO of Pittsburgh's Senator John Heinz History Center and former director of museums in Colorado and Arizona, serves up a riveting story of how the California Column marched across Arizona and New Mexico to not only defeat Confederates and Apaches but also to carve out an American community in the deserts of the great Southwest. In Masich's definitive account, readers will feel the sting of sand and the hot breath of desert winds as the California Column fights its way to victory. The depth of Masich's research is truly extraordinary, and his use of soldiers letters home published in the San Franciso Daily Alta California adds remarkable dimension to the story. Masich carefully annotates the soldiers letters and allows the reader to relive the events as they happened. This is one of those truly unique books that belong on the shelf of every student of the Civil War and the American West.