"The promise and the price of this great mission propel �Blood and Thunder,� Mr. [Hampton] Sides�s rousing, full-throated rendition of an old story, the making of the American West

Within this larger story he concentrates on the territory of New Mexico and the long, losing struggle of the Navajo to defend their land and way of life, culminating in the exodus from their tribal lands known as the Long Walk in 1864 and 1865.

Not until the reader arrives, breathlessly, at the last page does a nagging question arise: What exactly was all that about?

The short answer is, Kit Carson, the one man who figures in each of Mr. Sides�s multiple subplots. A legendary mountain man and Indian fighter, he accompanied Fremont on his mapping expeditions, served with General Kearny�s Army of the West, fought on the Union side against Texas and brought the Navajo nation to its knees in a ghastly war of attrition. It was Carson whose feats of daring on the wild frontier were presented to the public in the pulp novels known as blood and thunders, where he was described as a colossus, whose �lynx-like eye� and �imperturbable coolness� made him invincible in a thousand battles. He is hero, antihero and, in every page of Mr. Sides�s book, a mesmerizing star."

Get the Story:
Books of the Times: A Real-Life Wild West Show, With Kit Carson as Star (The New York Times 10/11)
pwnyt

Relevant Links:
Navajo Nation - http://www.navajo.org
Navajo Nation Council - http://www.navajonationcouncil.org
New Mexico State Monuments - http://www.nmmonuments.org

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