Gwynne's exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads - a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.Įuropean-Americans in the southern Great Plains feared them, other Native Americans quickly learned to get out of their way, and eventually the United States army would have to learn to be like them to defeat them. The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun. White settlers arriving in Texas from the Eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.Īlthough listeners may be more familiar with the names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. Gwynne describes in sometimes brutal detail the savagery of both whites and Comanches and, despite the distance of time, demonstrates how truly shocking these events were, juxtaposed against the haunting story of an unforgettable figure of a woman caught between two worlds.Highly recommended by HAWL Reading Group.įROM AMAZON: Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories.

She grew to love her captors and eventually became famous as the 'White Squaw.' She married a powerful Comanche chief, and their son, Quanah, became a warrior who was never defeated and whose bravery and military brilliance in the Texas panhandle made him a legend as one of the greatest of the Plains Indian chiefs. Empire of the Summer Moon tells of the rise and fall of this fierce, powerful, and proud tribe, and begins in 1836 with the kidnapping of a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower blue eyes named Cynthia Ann Parker. Their 40-year battle with settlers held up the development of the new nation. Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Historyįew people realize that the Comanche Indians were the greatest warring tribe in American history.

Empire of the summer moon audio book