Journal Notes

It’s a Giveaway! Enter now to win a copy of the new book More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West’s Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.

Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett is remembered best for being the man who shot Billy the Kid, but his contribution to taming the American West consisted of much more than that single event. For more than eighteen years the United States lawman tracked down numerous outlaws running wild along the Texas-New Mexico border.

He was born on June 5, 1850 in Chambers County, Alabama. When he was three years old, his parents, John and Elizabeth, purchased a plantation in Louisiana and moved their children to their new home near the town of Haynesville, Alabama. At the age of nineteen the 6-feet, 4-inch Pat struck out on his own and made his way to the Texas Panhandle. He signed on with a team of ranchers driving herds of cattle to market. He later left work to become a buffalo hunter.

The first gunfight Garrett was involved in occurred in November 1876 in Fort Griffith, Texas. A heated exchange with a buffalo skinner over some hides resulted in a fist fight and further escalated to gunplay. Garrett, who was an excellent marksman, shot the man in the chest.

To learn more about Pat Garrett and other western legends like him read More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West’s Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.

A giveaway written in stone. Enter now to win a copy of the new book More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West’s Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.

Throughout the month of July read a few tales that reveal the secrets surrounding the sometimes ironic, sometimes amazing, sometimes touching, sometimes surprisingly appropriate, and sometimes hilarious demises of a few western characters we thought we knew everything about.

Jesse James is perhaps the most beloved murderer in American history. He and his gang shot bank clerks in cold blood, killed passersby who looked the wrong way, and derailed trains and robbed the passengers as they lay injured.

But none of that mattered. To many alive at the time James a post-Civil War hero, satisfying the thirst of many defeated Confederates to get in a few last shots after the war. James, a handsome bearded man with blue eyes and a narrow face, was fashioned as a modern-day Robin Hood, though later historians were at a loss to find any evidence of charitableness.

As a Confederate guerrilla and later a bank robber, James came close to a violent death several times. But as long as he had his own guns, he always seemed to survive. During the war he was badly wounded in the leg and his horse was shot out from under him. Just after the war federal soldiers shot James in the lung and left him for dead. He lay on the ground for two days until a farmer aided him. When he was ambushed robbing the Northfield, Minnesota, bank in 1876, three of his gang were killed, three were shot and captured, and only Jesse and his brother, Frank, escaped.

To learn more about the James boys and others like them read More Tales Behind the Tombstones: More Deaths and Burials of the Old West’s Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen.

After spending six days with some of the most amazing western writers at the Western Writers of America convention in Lubbock, Texas and then two days participating in a documentary about the American West in 3-D, I’m finally home and eager to get back to work. I arrived on the other side of my journey minus my luggage. I’ve been told I’ll receive my bags in a couple of days. We’ll see.

Flying in this country has turned into an amazingly arduous process, especially boarding the plane, which has now become this tedious Bataan death march with American Tourister overnight bags. I always get stuck behind the one guy who takes forever to get situated. He clogs the aisle like a piece of human cholesterol jammed in the passenger artery. I just want to grab that soft drink cart and flush him out the back door. He folds his sport jacket like he’s in the color guard at Arlington National Cemetery.

If I’m not behind a human piece of cholesterol I am stuck behind a wizard who wants to beat the system by gaffer-taping a twine handle onto a refrigerator freezer box and calling it “carry on.” Wedging it into the overhead with hydraulic jacks.

You know what I hate is when you’re sitting in coach class and they pull that curtain on first class. Oh, I see, they paid an extra fifty dollars and I’m a leper. I always get the feeling that if the plane’s about to wreck, the front compartment breaks off into a little Goldfinger mini-plane. They’re on their way to Rio and I’m a charcoal briquet on the ground.

A lot of qualifications to set next to that exit door, huh? When did that happen? I’ve been a physical klutz for years. I’m like Clouseau. Nobody’s ever said a word. All of a sudden they want me to be a Navy SEAL. I guess they want to be sure the person sitting there doesn’t panic in the event that the plane goes down in water. Item number 8 on the qualification list was “You must not be Ted Kennedy.”

The new book More Tales Behind the Tombstone will be released in a week. I’ll be focusing on that title and the big giveaway next week.

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

After the massacre at Sand Creek the Indians assembled at a camp near Cherry Creek, Colorado. Mochi was one of the many survivors who has escaped with Black Kettle to the prairie. The forlorn band was grieving the loss of family and friends. Under normal circumstances Mochi would have been able to bury her mother, father, and husband soon after they had been killed. The Cheyenne believed that ghosts might linger near the bodies of the deceased and take their spirit if they weren’t buried quickly. This was particularly so with children. Wives would remain at the graves of their husbands, parents would stat at their children’s plot, and none could be persuaded to leave for days after their passing. Mourners would cut their hair and gash their heads or legs with a knife, shedding their own blood in remembrance of the loved ones lost.

If Mochi’s husband had any property that belonged to him she would have laid him to rest with those items. If the lodge she and her husband had lived in had not been burned to the ground, she would have torn it down herself and given it to others in the community. Mochi would have kept only one blanket for herself and returned to live with her parents. There was no one left from her immediate family to turn to, and, apart from the clothes she wore, she had no personal possessions.

Mochi’s despair turned to rage. She joined the warriors who attacked the outpost near Julesburg and vowed to avenge the death of her family.

To learn more about Mochi read Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

Giveaway! Enter to win a copy of Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

On the morning of November 27, 1868, the stillness in the camp along the Washita River was broken by rifle shots and cavalrymen that descended upon the lodges from all directions, and the unfamiliar strains of “Garry Owen” blasted through the early dawn.

When the sun made its full appearance Cheyenne leader Black Kettle got his first look at the chaos in and around the camp. Riding at the lead of the main column was General George Custer. Confused tribesmen scurried in every direction; each sought refuge from the stinging, death-dealing fire of the soldiers’ guns. High-pitched screams of tiny children mingled with the dying groans of old men. Brave Indian youths sacrificed their lives so others might have a few minutes longer on earth. Grief-stricken mothers clutched the limps bodies of children as they, too, turned the white snow scarlet with their blood.

Cheyenne history notes that Mochi fought valiantly during the Battle at Washita, but, while defending her home and children from the soldiers, she was separated from her daughter, Tahnea. The five-year-old girl panicked when she saw the people in the village running for cover. Tahnea fell in with the other racing about and became disoriented by the screams and gunfire. She ran toward the river behind several women and children who plunged themselves in to the icy water.

To learn more about Mochi read Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

It’s time to enter to win a copy of Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

At daybreak on November 29, 1864, the sound of the drumming of hooves on the sand flats interrupted the hushed routine of the Indian women and children. Some of the women believed it was only buffalo running hard in the near distance, but it was Col. John Chivington and his men and they had come to attack and kill the Cheyenne in the camp.

Mochi was among the numerous Indians frantic to escape the slaughter. She watched her mother get shot in the head and heard the cries of her father and husband as they fought for their lives. Mesmerized by the carnage erupting around her, she paused briefly to consider what was happening. In that moment of reflection one of Chivington’s soldiers rode toward her. She stared at him as he quickly approached, her face mirrored shock and dismay. She heard a slug sing viciously past her head. The soldier jumped off his ride and attacked her. Mochi fought back hard and eventually broke free from the soldier’s grip. Before the man could start after her again she grabbed a gun lying on the ground near her, fired, and killed him.

To learn more about Mochi read Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

It’s time to enter to win a copy of Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

Sunflowers were in full bloom at the site of the Sand Creek Massacre yesterday. I stood alone at the top of a bluff looking down on the dry creek bed Cheyenne women, children, elderly, and the infirmed raced along as they tried to flee from Col. John Chivington and his troops hell-bent on massacring them more than 150 years ago. I convinced myself I heard the voices of the survivors in the wind through the tall grass. For a moment I occupied the same ground Mochi had and I’ll never forget the emotion that washed over me.

The following are remembrances past down from one generation of Cheyenne to another about the events at Sand Creek in 1864.

“They never really forgot what happened. They would cry whenever they told about Sand Creek… When everyone started running the young ones would get lost. Those that hid watched the soldiers from their hiding place. During that time when it was almost over, soldiers came out and cut open the bellies of women who were going to have a child. When they cut the child out they cut his throat.” Emma Red Hat and William Red Hat, Jr.

“The battle scattered people… At Sand Creek, you can go there at any time of the day or night and if you close your mind to everything else you can feel the children, when they’re congregating and laughing and having fun. The old ladies mostly congregating and laughing and having fun. The old ladies mostly congregate in the shade. The young warriors congregate in the rocks.” Robert Toahty

To learn more about Mochi read Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

Traveling to Colorado today to launch the book Mochi’s War:  The Tragedy of Sand Creek.  I’ll be at the Tattered Book Store in Denver Thursday, June 11 from 7 – 8 p.m. and in Eads, Colorado at the Pioneer Theatre from noon to 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 14.  In between those dates I’ll be Montrose, Colorado talking about women of the Old West.  Hope to see you there.

Enter to win a very special book entitled Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

Colorado Territory in 1864 wasn’t merely the wild west, it was a land in limbo while the Civil War raged in the east and politics swirled around its potential admission to the union. The territorial governor, John Evans, had ambitions on the national stage should statehood occur–and he was joined in those ambitions by a local pastor and erstwhile Colonel in the Colorado militia, John Chivington. The decision was made to take a hard line stance against any Native Americans who refused to settle on reservations–and in the fall of 1864, Chivington set his sights on a small band of Cheyenne under the chief Black Eagle, camped and preparing for the winter at Sand Creek.

When the order to fire on the camp came on November 28, one officer refused, other soldiers in Chivington’s force, however, immediately attacked the village, disregarding the American flag, and a white flag of surrender that was run up shortly after the soldiers commenced firing.

In the ensuing “battle” fifteen members of the assembled militias were killed and more than 50 wounded Between 150 and 200 of Black Kettle’s Cheyenne were estimated killed, nearly all elderly men, women and children.

As with many incidents in American history, the victors wrote the first version of history–turning the massacre into a heroic feat by the troops. Soon thereafter, however, Congress began an investigation into Chivington’s actions and he was roundly condemned. His name still rings with infamy in Colorado and American history. Mochi’s War explores this story and its repercussions into the last part of the nineteenth Century from the perspective of a Cheyenne woman whose determination swept her into some of the most dramatic and heartbreaking moments in the conflicts that grew through the West in the aftermath of Sand Creek.

To learn more about Mochi read Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

Enter to win a very special book entitled Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.

This book captivates a ruthless woman warrior who was born out of the pits of the Sand Creek Massacre. The word ‘warrior’ sends a tingle of fear down the spine and conjures up an imaginary fierce, merciless fighter seemingly invulnerable to fear or intimidation.

There are many reasons that a Native Indian woman would fight and become one of the women warriors. Most nineteenth century women warriors who fought in battles and conflicts did not pursue the life of a warrior on a permanent basis.

Most women fought because there was an urgent need for them to do so, which the reader will find out quickly that was the case for the young 24 year-old Cheyenne warrior.

The authors of this book writes of the malice in the young woman’s heart and the revenge that sat heavily on the edge of her tomahawk. The woman warrior fought to the death using bloodthirsty tactics to achieve victory. Not the usual image that we would associate with women, but there were many Native American warriors.

When asked to name some famous Indian women, most people have difficulty in recalling anyone other than Pocahontas or Sacagawea, the reader will have no difficulty with remembering Mochi, the Cheyenne Warrior after engaging themselves in this title, Mochi’s War.

Rebecka Lyman

Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune

To learn more about Mochi read Mochi’s War: The Tragedy of Sand Creek.