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Review Date: 11/19/2014
The Comanche tribe, consisting of at least 5 subgroups, speaking a dialect of the Shoshone language, along with their allies the Kiowas and mixed blood Comancheros, ruled a huge area of the Southwest high plains. They hunted the buffalo, numbering in the millions, from horseback for hundreds of years. The horse, introduced by the Spaniards in the 1500s, profoundly transformed their society and culture, as it became an extension of the individual Comanche. Young men learned how to ride, break, fight, trade, capture, and hunt atop a horse like no other tribe of Indians. The horse was a symbol of wealth and prestige. The complete story of the tribes' history, researched extensively using a large number of first hand accounts from the era, is ably told by the author. After the tribe was decimated by half from disease and low birth rate, its inevitable decline and submission by white society is factually related through the life of its last noble leader, Quanah Parker, the half breed son of captive Cynthia Ann Parker and chief Peta Nocona,
Review Date: 6/2/2014
A very informative book bringing together the diary entries of those on the journey that survived afterwards. The author focuses on Sacajawea's contribution to its success and uses what others wrote to construct a plausible personality of a young women of 16 years of age who, with a baby on her back, traveled 3,000 miles over the roughest landscape without complaint, panic, or cowardice. An indomitable spirit we can only try to emulate, who was left in the background of history because she was a Native American until the 20th century.
Review Date: 11/13/2013
Helpful Score: 1
I had not realized this book was written for adolescents when I ordered it. It did present basic information on his life from birth through the battle in which he was killed, so for an adolescent who wants to know about this famous person the book was a confirmation of the facts which could be found elsewhere. For an adolescent who would want a more complete understanding of who Tecumseh was and what he accomplished it would be a disappointment.
Review Date: 3/25/2014
An extensively researched and very well written account of America's first civil war. The last page of the author's treatise thumbnails the basic fact of our revolutionary war: it was a war fought between Americans and Americans. Within a year after the war ended about 100k Americans left their homes, most relocating to Canada. These emigres transformed a wilderness into a vibrant nation. Today 1/5 of the Canadian population can claim Tory ancestry. Within a generation the people below the border started a country built by Rebels who would begin to forgive and forget the fact that they largely fought against their brethren and their neighbors, minimally supported by the greatest military power at the time. Lost from their collective memory was a war between Americans and Americans, somehow being arrogantly transformed into a war against the British and their German mercenaries. I found this book extremely enlightening, revealing the untold story not taught in any history class or book I read during my educational experience, including the part played by escaped slaves who joined the British forces when offered their freedom.
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