Wild West – June 2019

McLaurys because,
among other things,
he believes Tom Mc-
Laury was unarmed
and “the other Cow-
boys had their hands in
the air when Doc Holli-
day and Morgan Earp
fired the first shots.”
The other tales of
two stories presented in
this volume include the
James-Younger Gang
raid on the Northfield
Bank, Wild Bill Hickok
in the showdown at
Rock Creek Station,
“wild woman” Calam-
ity Jane, Buffalo Bill
Cody the man, the
death of Crazy Horse,
whether Pat Garrett
killed Billy the Kid, the
real-life Geronimo, and
the Johnson County
War between cattle
barons and rustlers in
Wyoming. Geronimo
is a natural for this vol-
ume, as the famous
Apache warrior has
been viewed as either
a freedom-loving holy
man (Markley’s take)
or a terrorist (Cuts-
forth’s argument). The
others also seem logi-
cal, except perhaps
the debate on whether
Garrett killed the Kid.
Note to Cutsforth: Yes,
Garrett did. Before
taking opposing posi-
tions in each of the 10
stories, the two authors
present “just the facts,”
which should help
anyone not familiar
with the events, but it’s
a fact that having so
many frontier facts in
question makes “taking
sides” possible. We can
think of many more
potential subjects, of
course—from the death

of Sitting Bull and

the hanging of Sheriff

Henry Plummer to

Custer at the Battle

of the Washita and

Kit Carson in the

Navajo campaign.

Old West Showdown,

Vol. II, gentlemen?

—Editor

The Ranger Ideal:

Texas Rangers in

the Hall of Fame,

Vol. 1, by Darren L.

Ivey, University of North

Texas Press, Denton,

2017, $39.95; Vol. 2,

by Darren L. Ivey, $45

Darren Ivey is no

stranger to Rangers—

the Texas kind, that is

—and neither is anyone

who has been following

his literary output. Here

he seeks to discern the

common thread guid-

ing the Ranger ethos

through an evolution

that paralleled the de-

velopment of Texas

from breakaway repub-

lic to Lone Star State.

Toward that end he

compiles a series of

biographies drawn from

the Texas Ranger Hall

of Fame in Waco, tak-

ing scrupulous care to

research their exploits

and contributions while

separating them from

the Texas-sized myths.

Vol. 1 covers eight

men involved from the

very inception of the

Texas Ranger con-

cept, which originally

constituted a paramili-

tary force to “guard

the colony,” as first

named by the repub-

lic’s founding father,

Stephen F. Austin.

After Austin gets his

due, Ivey profiles seven

Rangers who emerged

from the crucible of

hardship and combat

to establish a formida-

ble reputation between

1823 and 1861—fairly

familiar names like John

Coffee “Devil Jack”

Hays, Ben McCulloch,

William A.A. “Big

Foot” Wallace and John

Salmon “Rip” Ford.

The end of the Civil

War effectively closed

that chapter of Ranger

history, but the force

was revived in 1874 to

tackle a new mission—

to uphold law and order

in a state that remained

fairly wild and woolly.

The dozen wearers

of the star covered in

Vol. 2 succeeded to

varying degrees in

tamping down inher-

ent Ranger grit to

better match their new

role as the good guys

wearing the white hats.

From early lawmen

John B. Jones and

Leander H. McNelly

to the “four Great Cap-

tains”—James Abijah

Brooks, Bill McDon-

ald, John R. Hughes

and John H. Rogers—

who guided them into

the 20th century, Ivey

traces their action-

packed path up to 1930.

For Western enthu-

siasts who like their

chronicles comprehen-

sive—even if their Colt

.45s are single-action

with cylinders, rather

than double-action

with magazines—Ivey

is working on Vol. 3,

which will cover the

past century and bring

things up to date in

time for the Rangers’

2023 bicentennial.

Whatever the era,

even given “just the

facts,” it promises to

be a wild ride.

—Jon Guttman

Blood Moon: An

American Epic of

War and Splendor

in the Cherokee

Nation, by John

Sedgwick, Simon &

Schuster, New York,

2018, $30

During the American

Civil War the Cherokee

Nation was as divided

as the United States.

Out in Indian Terri-

tory (present-day Okla-

homa) Stand Watie led

his Confederate Chero-

kees—some of whom

owned black slaves—

and other Indians

against Union forces in

guerrilla warfare, as well

as a few small battles.

John Ross, the principal

chief of the Cherokees

from 1828 to 1866,

wanted neutrality at

first, then sided with the

Confederacy for largely

financial reasons before

switching his allegiance

to President Abraham

Lincoln and the Union.

Toward war’s end some

of Watie’s men switched

allegiance to the Union,

while still others, author

John Sedgwick writes,

“dreamed of murder-

ing the Confederate

leadership that had

abandoned them.”

As with the broader

conflict, the allegiances

and enmities were far

more complicated, not

to mention the Civil

War hardly marked the

onset of such divisive-

ness in the Cherokee

Nation. In the 18th-

and early 19th-century

Southeast the Chero-

kees had their share

of conflict with both

other tribes and set-

tlers pushing west-

ward. The biggest

fights were waged over

the issue of removal.

While President An-

drew Jackson and

Georgians didn’t al-

ways see eye to eye,

they were largely in

accord in wanting the

Cherokee and the four

other Civilized Tribes

(Chickasaw, Choctaw,

Creek and Seminole)

to abandon their

homeland and start

all over again west of

the Mississippi River.

It mattered little the

Cherokees had their

own language, news-

papers and government

and were considered

culturally advanced.

The long, painful

process of removal

(culminating with

the wrenching 1830s

migration known as

REVIEWS

8 4 WILD WEST JUNE 2019