Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West 1846-1890

Filtered through the alembic of presentism

Good information. Too bad Larry doesn't do more non-fiction because this is very good.

Some have argued about the length of this book. I think fine writing is fine writing whether we are talking about a poem of 4 lines or a novel of 1,000 pages. I am really enjoying this book, and would have been happy to read 500 more pages if they were of the quality of this short book. However, in the summer, I appreciate the brevity of this book since I might not have tackled it if it were long. What do I like? I find many insightful comments although as McMurtry clearly points out: we will never truly find out exactly what happened in these massacres but who could really know the truth about a massacre since each one is terribly messy and each one causes intense, complicated emotional responses in the people who were massacred and the people who did the butchering. If he talks about spin, how the winners tried to appear heroic and downplay the nastiness of their deeds, we should not be surprised because recent history is being besieged by spin doctors. Just as he says and as we can see if we think of the Sudan, Bosnia, Rwanda, etc., no massacre stands in isolation but is a part of a history of animosity between the two groups. A book which attempted to give the history of the struggles and misunderstandings which led up to these massacres and which later followed as consequences flowing from reactions to these massacres would be very long indeed. Two other things in this book which I enjoyed were the wonderful photos and the interesting little-known details about some of the colorful characters involved in these little histories. Who will forget the portrait of Kit Carson as a horribly efficient Indian-killing machine who felt very sad at the end of his life since he understood the Indians better than anyone else? Also, I find the whole history of the quick extermination of the Indians which lived in California (including the very-little-known Maidu, Wintu and Yana Tribes) to be revealing.

As the author points out in his forward: "What I have to say, after having spent some months with the books about these baloody events, is often opinion, conjecture, or surmise - or just a best guess." This is pretty much what we get here, but as far as I am concerned this is okay. I like opinions and guess work, and enjoy reading McMurty's just as much as the opinions and guess work of anyone else. The potential reader should know though, that this is not a tabloid type review of various massacres. There is very little sensational "blood, guts and gore" involved in this work. The author does attempt to show that there always has been a potential for such horrible events and probably always will be. I do feel the author could have avoided being quite so politically correct at times...hey, there were good guys and bad guys on both sides of any conflict, but he does point out over and over again that there are events in our history that certainly should not make us proud. There again, can any country or society since the beginning make the claim that did ever thing right? I think not. This is not a particularly scholarly work, but I don't get the impression that the author ment it to be. He has given credit to those historians he bases his opinions on and given credit where credit is due. I like to think of this sort of work as a "tickler," one that prompts me to do further reading on the subject. Even if you do not agree with all the author has to say, it is a short read (a couple few hours) and you will certainly be no worse the wear for having read it. All in all I recommend this one.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry has turned his attention to a dark period in American history. To this end, "Oh What a Slaughter; Massacres in the American West: 1846-1890," is a concise and objective examination of a violent era of conquest and conflict. McMurtry's mission statement is straightforward, "I want to do in this book is look at several massacres that occurred in the American West during the several decades when the native tribes of our plains and deserts were being displaced from their traditional territories by a vast influx of white immigrants." The author's short list includes; The Sacramento River Massacre: Spring 1846; The Mountain Meadows Massacre: September 11, 1857; The Sand Creek Massacre: November 29, 1864; The Marias River Massacre: January 23, 1870; The Camp Grant Massacre: April 30, 1871; and The Wounded Knee Massacre: on December 29, 1890. The roster of American legends examined in this short compact book includes Kit Carson, Ulysses S. Grant, John C. Fremont, Brigham Young, General George Armstrong Custer, Chief Bigfoot, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and many others. The truly horrific massacre in this book is the September 11, 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre. The author includes the highly regarded work of Juanita Brooks, the devout Mormon and Stanford scholar. The author concludes that South Utah Mormons used a decoy to disarm a large wagon train of Arkansas immigrants. The Arkansas families were counting on Mormon decency for safe passage but instead were betrayed, killed and hacked to pieces. Recommended. Bert Ruiz

The history of the American West is replete with double-dealing on the part of our government with the Native Americans. Their land was taken, they were moved to reservations on ground that no white person wanted, and often they were killed without justification. This (unfortunately) short book tells of some of the killings that took place, all but one of them of whites against natives. It is a dismal, gruesome story, and one that even today we should not have any pride in. There is a great debt owed to these people by the government and the white citizens, and it can never be repaid. All that we can do now is acklowledge what happened in the past, and this book can help us do it. Must reading!