Review: A Comanche battle in 'Empire of the Summer Moon'

Arts & Entertainment

Thursday, June 17, 2010

"All American schoolchildren learn of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, in which General George Custer and the federal cavalry got trounced by Indians in present-day Montana. Far fewer know about the desperate, brutal struggle that played out just a few years earlier for control of the southern part of America’s Great Plains. In this riveting book, S.C. Gwynne turns the spotlight on his home state, Texas.

Mr Gwynne’s focus is the Comanches, a tribe that he describes as “the greatest light cavalry on earth” during their heyday. They could loose a flock of arrows while hanging off the side of a galloping horse, using the animal as protection against return fire. The sight amazed and terrified their white (and Indian) adversaries. The Comanches dominated the Plains; their very identity was rooted in war.

Comanche lore took a memorable turn in 1836. That year warriors attacked an ill-prepared Texas fort and kidnapped nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker, along with several others. In itself, this was not particularly notable: the Indians waged a campaign of terror against white settlers streaming into the brand-new Republic of Texas. Rapes and scalps were common. Mr Gwynne is frank about the butchery on both sides.

In 1860 the whites recaptured Cynthia Ann. By then she had become a full-fledged Comanche squaw. She had married a chief (who Mr Gwynne says died during the attack), forgotten English and had no desire to live among whites again. Yet the settlers, who thought they had saved her from heathen murderers, kept her against her will for the rest of her days."

Get the Story:
The battle for Texas (The Economist 6/17)