77 books like The Wolf and the Buffalo

I was delighted to discover this compilation of personal accounts by enlisted men who’d served in the U.S. Army during the settling of the American West. Though the educated class of officers left extensive documentation of their lives on the frontier, the mostly illiterate rank and file were unable to chronicle their experiences. Rickey filled this void in the early sixties by interviewing over three hundred troopers, both black and white, who were still alive at that time.

The wealth of detail they supplied was invaluable to me in creating both Cathy’s voice and the world she passed as a man in.

Published more than a hundred years after the first Black regiments were formed during the Civil War, historian William Leckie’s marvel of a book was a landmark achievement. For the first time, the extraordinary contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers were documented and celebrated in exhaustive detail.

The Buffalo Soldiers was the Rosetta Stone I used for translating the few bald facts we have about Cathy’s life into a language vivid and vibrant enough to match her courageous decision to risk everything in pursuit of a life of freedom and dignity.

First published in 1967, the book is still in print. Attesting to the volume’s enduring popularity, nearly a dozen revisions and updates have been released since then.

Drawing from military records, newspaper articles, personal correspondence, and other source materials, historian Billington shows that despite often extreme prejudice, inferior equipment, and intense bigotry from the citizens they were protecting, the Buffalo Soldiers not just survived but triumphed. I particularly appreciated his focus on New Mexico as Cathy was posted in that state.

Billington has excavated a wealth of detail about the daily life of a Buffalo Soldier. He writes of them storing pickled meats, molasses, pickles, and vegetables, making 25,000 adobe bricks, burning smoky fires to control mosquitoes, and repairing hard to replace shoes.  I found this granular examination of daily life invaluable in bringing Cathy to life.

I based one of the most riveting portions of Daughter on Carlson’s meticulously-researched account of what one newspaper called the “Staked Plains Horror.” And horror it was.  In the middle of a dangerously dry summer, forty Buffalo Soldiers led by white officers set off on a routine scouting expedition. Several days later three Black troopers returned to report that all the men of Troop A were missing and presumed dead.

Eventually, all but four of the party made it back to Fort Concho with tales of having survived by drinking the blood of their dead horses and their own urine. Carlson’s careful examination of the records of the court-martial trials that followed reveal what a large role the officers’ bigotry and ineptitude played in triggering this catastrophe.

Dead Man’s Walk is the third book in the Lonesome Dove series. It is difficult for me to write a review because the book and film are part of my family story. Dead Man’s Walk is a true story inspired by McMurtry’s research into the failed Santa Fe Expedition of 1841. His fictional characters Matilda Jane Roberts, Gus McCrae, and Woodrow Call make a brutal story of humanity, a fun read. Most of the characters' names are fictitious, however, the Comanche Indian Chief named Buffalo Hump was real. His tribe in 1841 killed my great-great-great grandfather Thomas W. Smith and his son James in separate attacks. The Comanche also captured my great-grandmother’s nine-year-old cousin Fayette Smith in the attack that killed his father Judge James Smith on the banks of Shoal Creek. I have written their story in my book and its soon-to-be-released sequel.   

I’ve been hearing about Cynthia Ann Parker since I was a child growing up in the part of northern Texas once ruled by her Comanche captors–and her Comanche compatriots! Captured as a child by Comanche raiders at the Parker family’s frontier compound at the time of the Texas Revolution, Cynthia Ann fully became a Comanche. She married a warrior, Peta Nocona, and together they had a son, “Quanah Parker,” who eventually became the most famous “Indian” in America.

I was amazed by the authors’ ability to penetrate the myths surrounding Cynthia’s recapture by Texas Rangers. Speaking virtually no English, she was desperate to return with her infant daughter to her Comanche family, but both of them died in captivity, being held now as sad, unwilling captives of the Texans.

I heard about this book on the car radio. The speaker said John Graves was Texas’ best living writer. He was certainly Texas’ best living travel writer. Graves takes us on a canoe trip down the Brazos River in late fall through an area soon to be dammed and obliterated by the Army Corp of Engineers. Graves grew up on that river and loves it. He knows its history and details elements of that history with scenes from pioneer days, the Comanche wars, feuds, hermits, and encounters with modern citizens as Graves and his little dog, a dachshund, wind their way downriver for three weeks, camping out on gravel bars, fishing, hunting, and exploring.

His book inspired me to take my son on a 1000-mile canoe trip that I wrote about in my own book.

The famous movie is extremely faithful to the book, although the book adds to the richness and depth of both plot and character.

In addition to heralding the transformation of spiritual awareness through empathetic identity with the indigenous peoples of the Lakota Nation, Dances with Wolves focuses upon the power of animal spirits and the lessons embedded in observing their behavior. Despite the title, the most prominent animal spirit is the Buffalo.

This book took me on a rollicking romp through antebellum Central Texas when the American frontier ended just west of Austin (where I currently reside). Gwynne expertly breathes life into the Comanche way, how they mastered side-saddle riding and rifle shooting and became such an overwhelming force on the high plains that even Mexico retreated its northern border to San Antonio.

It was captivating how Gwynne placed the reader within U.S. forts during Comanche raids or inside sprawling Comanche camps, bustling with stolen horses, abducted Westerners and with drying buffalo hides. At the book’s crux is the remarkable story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who is abducted at a young age and raised among Comanche, and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who becomes the tribe’s greatest and last chief. 

The Comanche Kid is a breathtaking book that follows Jane, who witnesses her family's murder and her sister's kidnapping during a Comanche raid.

She disguises herself as her brother and embarks on a journey to find her sister and seek revenge. Along the way, she joins a cattle drive, encountering cowboys, Buffalo soldiers, and Comanches, experiencing the beauty and wrath of the West.

This intense novel fearlessly exposes the atrocities committed by all parties, while highlighting the destructive nature of vengeance. Nonetheless, it remains a compassionate tale of bravery and forgiveness. Trust me on this – you will not forget this novel. It’s on my shelf next to True Grit.