Fantastic book about the history of the Comanche Indians. Includes lots of Texas/US history and tugs at the heart strings with the stories of Cynthia Ann Parker and Quanah Parker.

I've been fighting the urge to pick up a copy of it. I'm thinking it'll make a good suggestion when someone's doing some Xmas shopping for me. It sounds like a great book.

[This message has been edited by chris1515 (edited 9/3/2010 8:55p).]

Reading it now (Christmas present) Some glaring inaccuracies (50 foot snowdrifts on the high plains???) and a bias that started on page two, referring to McKenzie and the Red River Wars as "The Final Solution".

Still well written, pulls lots of info from first-hand accounts such as On the Border with McKenzie.

Only about 4 chapters in (had other Christmas books to read first) but I like it. Living here in the middle of Comancheria and a dozen miles from the battle of the Palo Duro, it's a subject that has long fascinated me.

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 1/4/2011 10:44p).]

Canyon,

Please give us a final review when you are finished. Your opinion on the subject I will value.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've read a lot on the Red River Wars, and being from Canyon (and Texas) I've known the Cynthia Ann Parker story forever. Even been to the reproduction Parker Fort in Grosebeck. I've read Carter's On the Border with McKenzie, so I recognized Carter's influence.

As stated above, I was instantly on guard when he used the politically charged term "final solution" And there are spots were his obvious bias creeps in.

But all in all, I thought it was well-balanced, mostly accurate, and most of all, well-written book. Reads more like a novel than a history book. Tells the story from both sides, without painting one side or the other as heroes or villains.

Lots of footnotes and references in the back for further consideration.

Sounds like a great book. I will get a copy.

Thanks for the report.

Have you read this book?? I ran across it while ordering the Summer Moon book.

"The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker"

by Bill Neeley



Bill was the DA in the Paducah, Seymour, and Guthrie area.

He has written several books. And is very knowledgeable of the local history of that area.

Haven't read Neely's stuff. I have read Bob Izzard's stuff. It contains fictionalized accounts of several Red River War battles. Izzard was a nice guy, but the fiction was pretty pitiful. But there is a bit of information in there that makes them somewhat worth plowing through.

As I recall, his dad Wes Izzard knew Olive Dixon, the widow of Billy, and interviewed her over the years. I thought Wes had helped her write Billy's bio, but I'm not so sure after Google.

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 1/11/2011 3:02p).]

I read a couple of the books Bob wrote on the Red River Wars. Interesting to me because I have been up and down the Mulberry Creek and its intersection with the Prarie Dog Fork. And my Great Great Grandfather spent time at the Adobe Walls during that time.

The Izzards and my family had close ties. My mothers family had the paper in Clarendon since the teens. (My cousin has had it for the last 15 years) There are three generations who have served as President of the Panhandle Press Association.

I really enjoy historical novels and Bob's are very interesting, just not so great on character development or story line. Though I think he probably got the history pretty correct

And I will never forget his sign off of his news broadcasts "Bob Izzard, . .14 . .KPUR" I was in HS when he was with that station. But I was on a tractor listening to KGNC as a mere kid when he was on KGNC. Along with Roy Houdeshell. I hope I got that name right. That was a long time ago. About the time you were in Aggieland.

I just finished this book last night and thought Gwynne was very balanced in his look at the Comanches. He made no excuses for the actions the Comanche took which forced the US to finally force them onto reservations. He also pointed out that the whites were to blame as well, but didn't make it look like their was only one set of "bad guys."

I give it a thumbs up as a very readable history of the Comanche interaction with the encroaching Anglos.

I always found it interesting that the Commanche seperated their rivals for Commancheria into three distinct ethnic groups: Mexicans, Texicans and Americans. The former two they hated with a passion but acutually liked or tolerated the third group and did not understand when they went from Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and attacked Texicans why the Americans cared.

The Texicans considered the Commanche vermin on horseback and called them "Red N*ggers." The Mexicans just feared them.

This book was one of the best history books i've ever read. Amazing history on the Comanches, the formation of the Texas government, the westward migration of Americans (and Indians trying to get away from the Americans).

Tremendous descriptions of the travel of the comanches and their one of a kind horse culture (no other tribe in America was as centered around the horse as the Comanches).

Just 150 years ago the state was teaming with Indians from some 30 tribes or more (Comanches, Apaches, Wacos, Sioux, Seminoles, Alabamas, Wichitas, Choctaws, etc). Bands that used to be on the east coast had migrated into east Texas in their last ditch effort to avoid reservation life. Meanwhile the Comanches had near absolute control over all of Texas west of the I-35 corridor from Laredo up to San Antonio through Austin, Waco and Ft. Worth. If you went west from that imaginary line you put your life at risk. Each "Comanche moon" summer night the packs would attack a farm or village, steal the horses, kill most of the men, kill or brutalize the women and carry of several children or women along with the horses. Both the horses and children would have value later in trade with the Comancheros or other tribes.

To think that the Comanches hung out at Barton Springs here in Austin then would raid locals and take off up the Colorado, the Brazos or other river bottom lands on their way back to the Panhandle area of Texas.

You'll learn about the history of the first Colt revolve ever used by any military in the world. You'll learn about Jack Coffee Hays (Hays County) and how he became so effective at hunting the Comanches. You'll learn so much about Quanah and his mom Cynthia Ann Parker. Quanah was an Indian that became very well respected by the US government and world leaders in the last 20 years of his life after going on to the reservation in SW Ok.

[This message has been edited by WestAustinAg (edited 1/14/2011 1:37p).]

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To think that the Comanches hung out at Barton Springs here in Austin then would raid locals and take off up the Colorado

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In the Custer thread I mention that Custer's men camped out on Shoal Creek near what is 38th Street today. During the Republic days it was the homestead of a man named White and he was the last man killed by the Commanche in what is within today's Austin city limits. It happened a couple of years before statehood.