A town to town rifling through the long-protected legacies of the American West. Texas artist and historian Russell Cushman digs for the unvarnished West beyond the popular myth, and finds meaningful lessons and useful truths- and a wagon load of deceptions- about our American pioneer heritage.
Adah Menken, world famous actress from Louisiana, claimed to have taken up with the Comanches during her tour of Texas. She found them quite tolerable, and wrote fondly of her stay with them, but left because the Comanche brave who was in love with her became too possessive.
Esa Ton yet was typical of Native Americans, who found the White culture's clothing and weapons quite useful. They just hated the American laws against slavery, murder, stealing and other things which they depended on to survive. They did not care much for the White's religion either, which taught love and forgiveness for your fellow man. They just wanted to be left alone... so they could continue to hunt the buffalo, and raid their enemies. Their neighbors called the Comanches "Paducah," which meant "he who always wants to fight."
This an enhancement of a rare cabinet card in my collection of the famed Comanche chief Quanah Parker, and his wife Tonarcy. The original Plains Indians, mostly of the Comanche, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, Wichita and Kiowa tribes, were herded away to Reservation life in the Indian Territory by the mid 1870's. But there were a few like Quanah who had not submitted to the White invasion and were planning co-ordinated attacks to rid themselves of their hated interlopers.
Kind-faced Kiowa leader Kicking Bird always sued for peace, understanding the impossibility of the Plains Tribes ever regaining their territory or their way of life.
The Indians would often take White children captives, and hold them for ransom, or just disappear into the vast plains with them, never to be seen again. Two brothers named Jeff and Clinton Smith were taken when young and raised as Plains Indians. The Apaches took one and the Comanches the other, and they adapted with amazing willingness to Plains life. Seen here (I THINK! My pic,) after they were re-introduced to White civilization, they were popular fair attractions all over Texas, often posing in their Indian costumes.
A sixth generation Texan, landscape painter, sculptor, photographer, writer and historian, Russell Cushman shares his passion for the music, art and history of the Brazos Valley.
I grew up in Texas, in a home where the Old West shaped our culture and our perspective on the world. For many school days I spent my after...
No comments:
Post a Comment