Blood and Thunder

The dime novels about Kit Carson and the other early western heroes that were sold to young and old alike in the mid 1800's were often called 'Blood and Thunder' readers.  They were full of blood and thunder, and not so discreet references to sex and lust.  However no American frontier hero who earned these historically inaccurate but exciting anyway stories about them who I have read of actually matched or beat the stories written of them like Kit Carson.  In fact, as I read this extremely well researched and well written history of the American southwest and biography of Christopher Carson himself I kept finding myself thinking, "This can't be true! I'm reading another fake blood and thunder dime novel myself!"  But it was, and is, true.

This book captures the mid nineteenth century from the Indian and White American perspective clearly, and savagely; and the savages are often NOT the Indians.

The church where we are parked this week, Stratmoor UMC, Colorado Springs, sent its leadership to Sand Creek during the Rocky Mountain Conference Annual meetings in Pueblo, Colorado, this June.  There a day was spent with some descendants of the Colorado Militia and Black Foot's Cheyenne clan who were massacred along that creek, near Eads, Colorado.  Forgiveness wasn't just talked about; it was made real, and plans for continued practical healing were made.

Kit Carson died of an aneurysm in 1868, just a couple of years after Methodist Pastor and General Chivington's horrible attack upon the defenseless camp. Kit was a fearless Indian fighter himself when he had to be, said this, as recorded in Side's book, about that day:

"...treacherous, brutal, and cowardly butchery. an affair in which the blame is on our side."

Reading this book will either change your attitude about who won the west and how it was won, or it will add to your knowledge of our American dichotomous past.   Americans have been both the bringers of great freedoms and peace, and the the harbingers of great wrongs and evil.  We need to learn which to celebrate and which to seek forgiveness from.

This book, along with its soul stirring history, may help us do just that.

I give it 5 stars *****.
-Ken