DYING THUNDER BY TERRY C. JOHNSTON (1992)

This novel about the subduing of the Indian tribes of the Staked Plain is actually more history than fiction, with almost all the characters being the actual people who engaged in the battles and skirmishes. The exception is one fictional character who becomes an observer and a participant in the events. His thoughts about his lady love and his eventual return to her provide the only sustained narrative thread in what is otherwise an episodic account of how the buffalo hunters and later the U.S. Army destroyed the way of life of the Plain's tribes and forced them to choose reservations rather than starvation. The two main incidents recounted are the Fight of Adobe Walls and the decisive Battle of Palo Duro Canyon.

Initially, I had trouble with this novel because Johnston provides an extremely large cast of characters, and I didn't know which ones I should remember and which ones were incidental. After a bit, I realized that the book should be read as a history of events rather than as a conventionally constructed novel and my problems with it disappeared. Johnston obviously heavily researched his subject and is, as far as I can determine from cursory internet research, quite accurate in his depictions. Most of the incidents are narrated through the eyes of various Anglo characters, with a few from the viewpoint of Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Kwahadi Comanche.

I don't know if Johnston intended that a reader should have this reaction, but I found myself rooting for the Indians, even though I obviously know that they were, indeed, subdued. He seems to be attempting to present a balanced account, portraying the good and the bad of individuals from both sides. The real villain is the U.S. government, which broke treaties and promises and then attempted to exterminate all those who resisted being herded onto reservations.

One thing I found amusing about Dying Thunder: Since the action concerns battles and skirmishes, women are obviously not usually present. Johnston thus introduces some pretty detailed sex scenes by having his fictional protagonist and the Comanche Quanah Parker think between battles about hot action with their respective women. That was pretty hokey, and also tells me that this was a book written primarily for men.

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For those interested in the history of the struggle between the Comanche and the U.S. Army for the possession of the llano estacado I would also recommend the novel The Lord of the Plain by Max Crawford and the non-fiction Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne.