A Fate Worse Than Death: Indian Captivities in the West 1830-1885

A Fate Worse Than Death: Indian Captivities in the West 1830-1885 | Gregory Michno, Susan Michno | If a history book will ever get tears to form in your eyes, this is it.

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A Fate Worse Than ...

	A Fate Worse Than Death: Indian Captivities in the West 1830-1885 Gregory Michno, Susan Michno Caxton Press, 2007 - 552 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I'm not surprised...

I'm not surprised that A Fate Worse Than Death by Gregory and Susan Michno has fallen between the cracks in terms of being publicized. We live in such a "PC" world that any book that contradicts the "noble savage" theory, even if based on fact, is largely ignored. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but admiration for native Americans. I have studied Custer and the LBH Battle most of my adult life and have a significant library on the subject. As a culture living in the wilderness under sometimes harsh circumstances and as fighters the American indian is unsurpassed.

A Fate Worse Than Death examines real cases of captivity of whites by indians. It is unvarnished and may even shock. The brutality of frontier life is displayed for anyone who wants to look.

Gregory Michno's The Mystery of E Troop is unsurpassed. I suspect A Fate Worse Than Death will be equally regarded.

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If a history book will ever get tears to form in your eyes, this is it.

In this age of multiculturalism, it is difficult to find a book about the American frontier that sticks to the facts of the 19th century. Unlike their fellow historians, Gregory and Susan Michno, authors of A Fate Worse Than Death: Indian Captivities in the West, 1830-1885, do not attempt to gloss over the brutalities the settlers faced. While taking their no-hold-barred approach, they debunk many of the interpretations recently introduced by historians with an agenda.

The book is presented in a logical and coherent manner with chapters dedicated to Revolutionary Texas, Republican Texas, wagon trains and travelers, pre-Civil War Texas, the Minnesota Uprising, the Civil War years, the Central Plains, Reconstruction Texas, and the years of the last captives. Within each chapter, there are numerous accounts that relate the experiences of those who were enslaved, tortured, raped, mutilated, and or killed by their captors. If a history book will ever get tears to form in your eyes, this is it.

Despite the horrific treatment of the captives, including numerous accounts of despicable murders of babies, the book is not anti-Indian by any means; the authors simply present the reality of the moccasins and boots on the ground at the time. In fact, much of the condemnation--if you can get by the atrocities of the Indians--is reserved for the practices of the United States government and white society in general. For example, the bullets that were lodged into the settlers came from the government-ran agencies, and the lack of protection for the former Confederate state of Texas compared to that of the former Union state of Kansas.

There has not been a book published, in recent memory, that deserves the space reserved on your bookshelf more than this one.

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Good Research -- Antidote to Romantic Illusions

Let me recommend this quite readable and appropriately titled book to anyone who desires to become acquainted with some real, documented, quantified, substantive research about the history of trans-Mississippi Indian captivities, while simultaneously getting a much-needed injection of hardcore historical reality to counter the plethora of romantic, sentimental, and "politically correct" nonsense that burdens the shelves of contemporary bookstores.

With hardly any exceptions (aside from the extraordinary case of Cynthia Ann Parker, and perhaps a handful of others), it appears that being captured by Indians (especially if you were a female who had either approached or attained the age of puberty, and you were not otherwise too old or ugly!) amounted to a truly grim ordeal -- literally "a fate worse than death". And, most captives, who were apparently abused day and night (beaten, raped, starved, and tortured) and treated like dirty slaves, were more than eager to return to "civilization" when they had an opportunity. It all makes you suspect that the all too common notions of being taken captive and learning to cherish the wild and free life among the "noble savages" are, for the most part, romantic illusions, and that characters (such as the Caucasian woman who lived with the Souix as an adopted member of the tribe in "Dances With Wolves" -- by the way, a movie I really enjoyed) bear little resemblance to the harsh reality.

Beyond all that, the research presented in this book by the Michnos brings to light the sheer scope and scale of the Indian captivity problem that once prevailed out West. Apparently, many hundreds, and even thousands, of settlers either directly experienced or lived in fear of such an eventuality.

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A Fate Worse Than Death

This book details the real life experiences of old west travellers and settlers attacked and captured by Indians. Not a book to warm the hearts of Indian appologists, it helps balance the scales a bit from the noble Indian concept so politically correct today. I would recommend it for anyone interested in a broader perspective of life in the old west.

reviews: page 1, 2

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