Southwest Books

Other Stories: Bad Manners (about Texas Bill Anderson); Vengeance of Burt Wilkinson; A Saturday Hanging (George Woods); Obituary For a Sheriff (Mason Bowman); and El Bandito (Peter Taisch). Entertaining!

There is a small (but growing) subculture of families in the United States with adopted children from Guangxi Province. For us, there have been few (if any) comprehensive English language texts on Zhuang cultural history. Finally, with the publication of this book, a resource exists which explains the origins of the Zhuang, their cultural history back to the Bronze Drum people, and the social ramifications of gaining offical minority status within the PRC.

Holm's book is written at the level of a college text, but is not a difficult read. The quality of his research is high, and the reader gets a real sense of how little contact there has been between Western scholars and the keepers of Guangxi cultural relics.

I am sure that other parents of children from Guangxi will cherish this book as highly as we do, and put it on a special shelf - ready for the day that our girls want to explore their native culture.

Although the ordinary copies of this book have been long out of print (2001), a special edition was prepared of 100 copies on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Kino's arrival in the Pimería Alta. These books, internally labelled "Rim Edition," include a parchment page with the official postal stamp issued in honor of Padre Kino and inaugurated on March 12, 1987. These special copies were numbered, signed by the author, and cancelled in Cucurpe, Sonora, on the day of first issue 3/12/1987. This edition also contains four photographs of events that took place in celebration of the anniversary. At this writing (July, 2001), forty copies are all that remain. The price of this extremely rare and special edition is $...(US). The edition was inscribed as the "Rim Edition" because Kino had reached Cucurpe on that very date, and the historian Herbert Eugene Bolton coined the phrase: The Rim of Christendom to describe the launching of Kino's great explorations and missionary apostolate.

In the historical profession the term "Presentism" denotes writing a history book or article using the values of the present to judge the events of the past. For instance, apologists for the Confederacy--called neo-Confederates--have attempted to rewrite Civil War history. They attempt to prove--from their modern perspective--that slavery was wrong and had nothing to do with the outbreak of the Civil War because the "noble" leaders of the Confederacy could not have fought for so evil a cause. Much better to claim that they fought for states rights. Similar attitudes damn Presidents Washington and Jefferson for holding slaves despite the fact that abolition was an idea that had barely appeared in the American consciousness of their time. Similarly, other "presentists" damn the whites for taking land from the Indians at a time when taking land from aboriginal inhabitants any where in the world was then the norm. One wonders what sins our generation will be condemned for two or three centuries in the future because we did not have the wisdom to see that far ahead.

In this vein, R.C. Gordon-McCutchan, as editor of "Kit Carson: Indian Fighter or Indian Killer" has collected essays from modern scholars who have done their best to place Carson in his correct time and place. In short these authors have tried to let Carson live by the standards of the mid-19th Century rather than those of the 20th (the book was published in 1996).

Carson lived in a time and place where, since 1607, the Navajo raided first the Spanish, then Mexicans and finally the Americans. During this long period the Navajo also raided the resident Hopi, Pueblo, and Zuni, whose urban-agricultureal life produced a wealth worth stealing. There is some irony in the fact that both the archaeological and historical evidence clearly shows the Navajo were themselves invaders of the area.

The Americans were simply another group to raid as were any other non Navajos of the area. Kit Carson, as a man of the 19th Century, was in reality just carrying on an established pattern, and he did it, according to the research in this book, in a remarkably--for the time-- humane manner. The Navajo rendidtions of his cruelty are mainly, according to this book, legends that were spawned in the 1970 through the 1990s. They were not part of the Navajo opinion of the 1860s,

Timothy R. Roberts Ph.D (Univesity of Missouri 1976)

I gambled when I ordered this book, since I hadn't a clue what I'd find inside. And this gamble paid off! What a fantastic compilation of kokopelli imagery....a marvelous source of inspiration for my own carving work. You will find photographic documentation of the original petroglyphs as well as line-drawings....masses of them! And the discussion of the mythology behind kokopelli gives life to these spritely images. One of the best buys I've made this year! I've recommended it to others I know who work with ancient imagery.

This is the definitive book on the phenomenon. If you want a discussion of the real "Kokopelli" rather than a compendium of fanciful and spurious "new age" ideas, this work provides that and more. Along the way you will gain interesting insights into Hopi culture, and how the Kokopelli phemomenon may have started and grown. Nicely illustrated.

I purchased this book originally to help me pass the time on a business trip in my hotel room - my mother grew up on a farm in Kansas traversed by trail and I had heard stories all of my life - mostly a lot of legends - I had occasion to visit northeast New Mexico several times over the past twenty years and now having read this book I have a deep respect and reverence for those persons whose dreams and visions made possible the taming of the American frontier - I became personally involved in the life story of Marian Russell and came away at the conclusion of the book feeling as if I had heard the story of a close family member - it was as if I were there with her living the story as well - wished there were more

I bought this book at the Amon Carter along with the companion VHS back when it came out. The book is a beautifully produced, very comprehensive biography in words and photos of this great photographer. Like a few others, Ms. Gilpin managed to live long enough to be appreciated in her lifetime. Her life is a study in adversity and obligation. She came from a family with a father who was a poor provider and a great dreamer. In fact, well into her adulthood, she was the supporter of her family. She was a lesbian who had a relationship with another for decades, but by the time they were able to share a home in their middle age, her partner suffered declining health and Laura supported them both. She worked hard and consistently over decades supporting herself mainly through photography, but during the Depression even had a turkey ranch! Nothing in this difficult life dampened the spirit and good humor and independence of this large, strong woman. Her love of the Southwest in landscape, and her documentary photography of the Pueblo and Navajo Indians, radiates through her work. Along with this volume, purchase her masterwork, "The American Navaho". It is a remarkable work, moreso when one realizes that she created this with virtually no support from anyone else. This book can serve as an inspiration not only for photographers, but anyone else who respects human strength and spirit.

The Lawmen by western author Alton Pryor is an engaging focus on law enforcers that plied their trade on the western American frontier. Introducing an intriguing cast of known lawmen and outlaws, The Lawmen depicts a gripping story of their daily lives in the west with special attention to the mentality and practices of those who upheld the law (as well as their indecencies and character flaws nowadays so sparsely known or acknowledged). The Lawmen is an interesting and evermore enthralling tale, very highly recommended and to be given high praise as the ideal addition to the libraries of Western fiction novels, as well as to those who have studied the west, as there are a great many of historical figures tactfully intertwined throughout the story.

Bob Alexander's new book is filled with 15 chapters of great stories of the old southwest. This book is a collection of many desperate bandits who lived and fought in the southwest. Alexander writes with a lively style with several endnotes to each chapter. Highly documented with great photographs, most of which have never been seen in books before. Many of the outlaws described in this book have been lost in time, but now have been reborn through Bob's excellent detail to work. I would recommend this book to all those wishing to go back in time to revist the wilder days of the old west and the men that made it's history.

Mike Koch, Author of "The Kimes Gang."