Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West (98 page)
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Authors: Hampton Sides
Tags: #West (U.S.) - History; Military - 19th Century, #Indians of North America - Wars, #Indians of North America - History - 19th Century, #Frontier and Pioneer Life, #Frontier and Pioneer Life - West (U.S.), #Adventurers & Explorers, #Wars, #West (U.S.), #United States, #Indians of North America, #West (U.S.) - History - 19th Century, #Native American, #Navajo Indians - History - 19th Century, #United States - Territorial Expansion, #Biography & Autobiography, #Military, #Carson; Kit, #General, #19th Century, #History
Wallen, Henry Davis. “Prisoners without Walls.”
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74(1) (Spring 1967).Watkins, T. H. “Hawk High over Four Corners.”
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190(3) (1996): 80.Widdison, Jerold Gwayn. “Historical Geography of the Middle Rio Puerco Valley, New Mexico.”
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34 (October 1959): 248–84.Witherspoon, Gary. “Sheep in Navajo Culture and Social Organization.”
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75(5) (1973).Woodard, Arthur. “Sidelight on Fifty Years of Apache Warfare.”
Arizoniana
(Fall 1961): 2.Worchester, Donald E. “The Navajo during the Spanish Regime in New Mexico.”
New Mexico Historical Review
26 (April 1951): 101–18.Zollinger, Norman. “Ambushed: The Late 20th Century Attack on Kit Carson.”
Book Talk: New Mexico Book League
27(3) (July 1998).
The following museums and historical sites proved to be of tremendous value to my research: the Kit Carson Home and Museum in Taos, New Mexico; Hacienda de los Martinez in Taos; the Bosque Redondo Memorial in Fort Sumner, New Mexico; the Navajo Nation Museum and Library in Window Rock, Arizona; the Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Chinle, Arizona; Bent’s Old Fort National Historical Site in La Junta, Colorado; Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park in Sacramento, California; the Frontier Army Museum in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
I made six trips to the remarkable Navajo Nation. While there, I greatly benefited from the scholarly insights and warm generosity of the Roessel family—Ruth, Bob, Monty, and Mary—who, among other kindnesses, invited me to what has to have been the coldest Yeibichei ceremony ever held. At Canyon de Chelly, I must thank the estimable Adam Teller, professional guide and interpreter, and traditional Navajo storyteller, with whom I had the good fortune to tour the canyon by horse, foot, and Jeep.
I gained valuable insights from many Western scholars (both academic and non), a few of whom I’d like to acknowledge here: Marc Simmons, without question the most erudite—not to mention prolific!—scholar of the American Southwest; Howard Lamar, the gray eminence of all Western studies and my college dean at Yale; John Farr of the Kit Carson Museum, a priceless resource; Scott Smith of the Bosque Redondo Museum, whose knowledge of the Long Walk literature is unparalleled; and John Carson, great-grandson of Kit Carson, unofficial keeper of the family flame and (may I add) a dead ringer for the man himself.
Thanks to Dave Byrnes and the whole crew at CD Café who saw me through many dark hours and left me alone in my perfectly hideous piss-yellow thrift shop chair. Thanks as well to the good folks at Yaddo for a lifesavingly productive fellowship. I also thank the late great Shelby Foote, the first writer I ever met as a kid growing up in Memphis, who taught me what narrative history should aspire to be.
The editors at
Outside
magazine have been good to me all these years, and have smiled on this project in a number of ways. From the House of “O,” I must especially thank Hal Espen, Mary Turner, Alex Heard, and Jay Stowe.
Two friends and esteemed colleagues—Kevin Fedarko and Laura Hohnhold—read earlier drafts of my manuscript with much care and made astute suggestions for improvement. Other readers who offered valuable critiques include Dennis Romero, Davant Latham, Will Hobbs, Joe and Mary Neihardt, and Mack and Marnie Goodwin.
I was fortunate to have the formidable Alyssa Brandt as my research assistant and “charge d’affaires” in the early going—she led the way. Others who helped me with various phases of my research include Grayson Schaffer, Kevin Kennedy, Jason Nyberg, Link Sides, Michael Gerber, and Charles Bethea. Thanks to Robin Wiener, Verena Schwarz, and Munson Hunt for helping us keep the home fires burning, and to Christine Pride, my lifeline at Doubleday.
A final thank you goes to Sloan Harris, my loud-shirted friend, and a wise counsel to all denizens of the pain cave; to the intrepid Bill Thomas at Doubleday, who sees things others can’t; and to my amazing family—Griffin, Graham, McCall, and Anne Almighty, for whom the mantra always applies: Times that are good, goodness that is timely.
Title page:
Canyon de Chelly
by Edward S. Curtis. © Christie’s Images/CORBIS.
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GHOST SOLDIERS
AMERICANA: DISPATCHES FROM THE NEW FRONTIER
STOMPING GROUNDS
FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2007
Copyright © 2006 Hampton Sides
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2006.
www.anchorbooks.com
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Art credits appear on Backmatter.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sides, Hampton.
Blood and thunder : an epic of the American West / Hampton Sides.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. West (U.S.)—History—19th century. 2. United States—Territorial expansion. 3. West (U.S.)—History, Military—19th century. 4. United States. Army—History—19th century. 5. Frontier and pioneer life—West (U.S.). 6. Carson, Kit, 1809–1868. 7. Indians of North America—Wars—West (U.S.). 8. Indians of North America—West (U.S.)—History—19th century. 9. Navajo Indians—History—19th century. 10. Southwest, New—History—1848– I. Title.
F591.S54 2006
978'.02—dc22 2006016579
eISBN: 978-0-307-38767-7
v1.0