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Destruction of civilisation
11:55am Thursday 28th August 2008
Comanche Empire Pekka Hamalainen (Yale, £25)
Books on the American West tend to overlook the immense contibution to the nation of the Indian tribes, except perhaps to focus on their ultimate tragedy (Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is the epic of this genre).
The Comanches, who roamed vast tracts of land from Louisiana and Mexico to the Rockies, were a gifted tribe who knew the value of nature. Three million bison and a million wild horses were their heritage, giving them a sound foundation in economic power. French withdrawal from North America and Spanish weakness gave them freedom of the grasslands and this would sustain them for more than a century. In a cultural sense, they ruled an empire.
The Civil War was the catalyst of destruction along with the greed of ranchers, "an invasion they could not stop nor escape". The infamous reservations awaited. Hamalainen has done a great service with this fascinating saga of Comanche history and lifestyle.
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