firsthand account of life with a Yokut tribe

 

I'm really curious about the artwork on the front of this book. I tried to do some research about it, but I'm not sure if it's an impressionistic drawing of a tule reed or something? My grandma wanted to read this. It is out of print and it's a shame because it's amazing. I haven't even finished it yet, but I'm hoping to soon. Latta was a California historian. This particular book is based off of interviews with a man dubbed "Uncle Jeff" who lived much of his childhood with a Yokut Tribe near the San Joaquin valley before the turn of the century. It has pictures and fascinating information about how the tribe lived. It was really rare to be able to have such a unique account. I hope to read more of Latta's work. 

What is heartbreaking, is that the interviewee never talked much about his experiences prior to this because there was so much bias against Indians. Basically people never wanted to hear anything positive about them. His account is very balanced and factual. 

Well crafted western with authentic characters and realistic livestock descriptions

 

Texas again! A hardbitten settler based off of the real life type of Charles Goodnight, fights his way to becoming an established rancher alongside a faithful sidekick named Homer. The story flashes back and forth between a trial when he is an older man and past episodes which unveil his back story. 

The story is well crafted and historically accurate. It combines an element of mystery with authentic characters and very realistic details about cattle, horses, ranching, and the area in which is was based near the Brazos river. 

"She had quickly acquired the American habit of addressing all problems as violently as possible"

 

I grabbed this at the library! Yes, my first visit to the hallowed halls of a library since covid response shut everything down. It was a lovely reunion. I must have navigated to the fiction or western section or something. I have never read McMurtry - most famous because his book Lonesome Dove became a popular mini series (I think in the 80s). Anyway I had this impression that it was a soapy kind of crowd pleaser thing - which it may be because I still haven't read it have I?

This is apparently the first book of a series of books about a family called the Berrybenders. This book was awash with characters and caricatures. There might not have been a fantastic plot - it's more like a series of interesting descriptions and predicaments while the family winds their way down the Missouri on a steamboat. It's not predictable. The main love interest that arises is between the oldest daughter Tasmin (great name!) and a frontiersman who everyone reveres who pops out of the wildabrush in his birthday suit. This novel is definitely not Victorian, but neither were the Indians or English gentry and their entourage. 

I kind of enjoyed it, but I'm not sure if I'll continue the series. McMurtry knows his history and is kind of a reluctant writer of westerns but his dialogues really flow. He's a famed Texican. Here's a sample

             "It just slipped out sir, I swear it." Tasmin said, timorously- her brains rattled like peas from the                violence of his shaking and her teeth cracked against one another."

     "I'll do better-I promise no curse will escape my lips," she said, desperate to undo the damage her careless outburst had caused. But it was too late. Those flinty eyes looked into hers for a moment and then the Sin Killer turned and left. Before her incompetent brother could properly beach the pirogue, the gray plains had swallowed him up."

            "I say, who is that gentleman you were wrestling with Tassie, in the year of our Lord 1832?" Bess asked, in her most grating tone. Tasmin at once slapped her sharply-- she had quickly acquired the American habit of addressing all problems as violently as possible.

You can see why this kind of wit and insight is amusing! 

Orphan Train - a fictional account of an historical movement ("an historic" when will that fall out of use?)

 

Source: Readers Digest condensed novels from my mom and Grandma. These editions usually contain a story about WWII. I generally avoid those. This one is a fictional account of the historical orphan train movement which occurred in the 1800s. 

Here's the account from wiki: he Orphan Train Movement was a supervised welfare program that transported children from crowded Eastern cities of the United States to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. The orphan trains operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating about 250,000 children. The co-founders of the Orphan Train movement claimed that these children were orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless, but this was not always true. They were mostly the children of new immigrants and the children of the poor and destitute families living in these cities.

In this story, a "spinster" - poor 27 year old throwback lol, takes on somewhat by default, due to her uncle's sudden heart seizure, the leadership of transporting a group of unruly street children out to be placed with new families. The story is heartwarming, includes romance (yay), tragedy, and depicts certain hardships and realities of the times in which it is set. 

the Mogollon Rim (pronounce it right btw! Mug - ee - own)

 

This book isn't really about Nevada, the state. It's about a dude named Nevada, or nicknamed Nevada,  should say. He calls himself Nevada to hide his true identity as "Jim Lacy" a slick gunfighter with a past. 

He's the typical Zane Gray protagonist - sorrowful past which led to a corrupt life, possesses the glacier beneath the iceberg of noble heart just waiting for an angelic maiden to transform and redeem him into the white hatted hero that he was meant to be. 

I find Zane Gray females to be pretty one dimensional but I really love his nature descriptions. This book in particular interested me because the majority of the story takes place around the Mogollon Rim in Arizona which is near Payson where I was born. Last Summer, my girls and I travelled there and sat atop this picturesque rim overlooking the Tonto basin. Zane Grey actually kept a hunting cabin in the area which has now been relocated to Payson alongside a museum of local history. His writing and the fact that he had a place there suggests that he loved the area. It comes across in his writing.

I want to get back there and explore some more.