Hampton Sides

Examines America's westward expansion, describing the forcible subjugation of Native American tribes, including the fierce battles against the Navajo which ended with a brutal siege at Canyon de Chelly and the "Long Walk" migration.

An Epic of the American West

Blood and Thunder

Andrew John Kinney

This is history as it should be written, with rigorous attention to facts, but with a novelist's talent for drawing in the reader. Hampton Sides tells the story of the US acquisition and "pacification" of the Southwest using the story of Kit Carson's remarkable life as its central thread. This is a part of US history in the Southwest with which I was mostly unacquainted, from the mountain man era of the 1820's and 30's to the Mexican War to the post-Civil War era.

One reason I'm doing this review a little at a time is I am helping take care of my grandchildren this week, and that experience colors my view of the story of the US "conquest" of the West. Also, I have hiked one of the "sky islands" of northern New Mexico near the key area of Santa Fe with my son, and as a person interested in forest ecology, that left a strong impression on me; the micro-climates above 7,500 feet in the mountains there give rise to beautiful Ponderosa pine forests that are filled with wildflowers and hummingbirds in the summer; above 9,000 feet, one enters a magical Alpine environment of aspens, spruce and fir trees, and from about 11,000 feet on up the trees become smaller to stunted, but even so, the tops of the mountains are green without a tree-line. Finally, having served in the Army, I appreciated Sides' depiction of the small units of troops tasked with enforcing the often benighted policies of the US Government, and how the actions of those units were dramatically affected by the integrity and intelligence of the particular local commanders.

It is interesting and telling that in Americans' initial contact with the tribes of the Southwest, most of the reports from individuals (mostly soldiers) were positive, like a young Lieutenant's comment about how honest and hardworking the Pima Indians were, or the description of a first meeting with the Navajo, in which the soldiers and Navajo traded clothes and bartered for various objects after enjoying a feast held by the tribe. Kit Carson was no exception to this record of positivity; he had lived among various tribes and spoke several of their languages, and his first wife was an Arapaho woman, Singing Grass, who was reportedly the love of his life. In the Mexican Southwest, the Spanish and then Mexican settlers had reached a sort of stasis with the Navajo and other tribes - there was mutual raiding by each side, but the borders of the Navajo Nation were not seriously challenged by the Mexicans. The victory of the US in the Mexican-American War changed everything, and the Santa Fe Trail became a major thoroughfare for those heading to California, and this brought the increasing instances of settlers' conflict with tribes along the trail to the attention of Washington. And so the Army was directed by Congress and multiple Administrations to get the situation under control, probably in words about as general as that.

One thing I was completely unaware of was that the westernmost battle of the Civil War was fought at Valverde in the vicinity of Santa Fe by the US Army against a ragtag Confederate force from Texas commanded by a habitually drunk "general". The Union forces under General Canby wisely conserved their strength while seeking out the Texans' baggage train, which they captured and burnt, leaving the Texans to straggle back to Texas, a journey which left most of them dead from starvation, dehydration, and Indian attacks. During the main battle, Kit Carson commanded a US Army regiment which distinguished itself in the fighting.

After the Civil War, the number of white settlers increased dramatically, along with atrocities against the tribes. A sometime Methodist minister and Colorado Militia Colonel named Chivington carried out a despicable massacre at Sand Creek, which Carson described in bitter terms to his Army superiors, with the recommendation that Chivington be tried for murder. The very idea of attacking the Arapahos and purposely killing babies and their mothers makes me nauseous, especially since this week I'm a caregiver for little children, and it raised Carson to a fury when he heard of it. The idea quickly spread among the Army leaders that the tribes must be physically separated from white settlers to prevent trouble, and so Carson was dragooned into leading the effort to move the Navajo and other tribes to a remote outpost, Bosque Redonda. This was the beginning of the reservations that were the successors to the Oklahoma "Indian Territory". Carson succeeded in inducing the Navajos to move, but he was ultimately privately ashamed of what had transpired, since the approach to "persuading" them was to burn their crops and kill their livestock, and ultimately the Navajos had a choice of moving to Bosque Redonda or starving. After Carson's death, and the removal of the martinet commander who drove the Navajo relocation, General Sherman of Sherman's March fame met with the Navajo leaders, was moved by their tale of suffering, and he directed that they be given land in their traditional area. Not perfect, but better.

It is hard to see how the outcome in the Southwest could have been much different, given the pressure from Washington to aid settlement of whites in the West, but the US has much to answer for in its actions there. So much has been written on that topic, and I'll not add to the pontifications except to say that with wise commanders and Indian Agents, the results could have been so much better for the Navajos and other tribes. There were several examples of these, and it is tragic and shameful that the Chivington model seemed ultimately to win out. Kit Carson was saddened by the reduction of the proud peoples of the Native American tribes, but he was a realist about the direction things were moving, and he seems to have believed the establishment of reservations was the least bad choice. His role was a tragic one, considering his personal honesty in dealing with the tribes.

Blood and Thunder An Epic of the American West

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