bounding over the sagebrush

The last moments at Greasy Grass:

It is usually assumed that Custer’s regiment consisted of blue-jacketed, wind-burned, agate-eyed, tobacco-chewing roosters who could live on alkali, sagebrush and a little biscuit, and who would gallop across the field of Armageddon without blinking. Partly this was true. But the Seventh also included unbaptized recruits – perhaps thirty per cent – many of whom had not once fired a carbine. Senator Thomas Hart Benton, a Missourian who grew up close to the frontier, referred to these troops as ‘the sport of Indians’. They could not even stay on a horse, he said, but rolled off like pumpkins. Yet such was their faith that most of these innocents thought that a yelping mob of Sioux would retreat faster than the Red Sea when old Iron Butt charged. When this did not occur – when, in fact, their intrepid commander tried to organize a defensive pattern – some of the recruits went bounding over the sagebrush like jackrabbits.

Red Hand, a Miniconjou chief, spoke of the whites with contempt. He said many of them asked to be taken prisoner.

An Arapaho named Left Hand rode up to a soldier who simply held out his gun, which Left Hand accepted. Then a Sioux came along and stopped long enough to kill the coward.

‘John’ is said to have been the name ordinarily used by whites when addressing an Indian. One trooper was heard sobbing this name as though it might save his life.

‘John! John! Oh, John!’

The plea echoes horribly down a hundred years.

That’s from Son of the Morning Star, the brilliant history of the American West written by Evan S Connell, who died yesterday.

Comments

[john malpas]

is there a point to this?

[Strategist]

John, looks to me like a tribute to Evan S Connell, who died yesterday.

[bert]

Malpas, misstep.
In French, what's more.

I saw McCabe & Mrs Miller again recently, and the quoted passage makes me think of that. Maybe, to revision the revisionism, we should also take another look at the stereotype we've absorbed via Dances With Wolves. It's kind of similar to the one Connell is taking on: straight-backed, hawk-nosed, deep-voiced, mystical, etc. You can bet that in the war party there were plenty of squinting pock-marked scrofulous blokes, who enjoyed the scalping every bit as much.

[NomadUK]

Yes, except that they had rather a better excuse.

[bert]

Prior provocation would add to the enjoyment for many of those involved. Let's not delude ourselves about human nature here. It'd be mixed with other emotions of course, especially among those able to take a longer view and see the what history likely had in store.

[jamie]

The book's not meant to be revisionist, or even especially political. The general sensibility is similar to Cormac McCarthy in Blood Meridian, the idea of a fairly fragile civilisation mythologising its origins in relentless territorial expansion amid ruthless irregular warfare.

[Richard J]

So Flashman and the Redskins then?

(Speaking of GMF, I found a stray copy of the Hollywood History of the World last weekend. First impressions suggest it was one of his old duffer books, depressingly.)

[bert]

Having recently seen Prometheus, I do hope Ridley doesn't fuck up Blood Meridian too.

Sorry, being from Yoorp I filter the West only through movies. But then, how does that make me different from today's Merkins?