Francis X. Tolbert’s second novel, The Staked Plain, tells the story of a white blacksmith living among the Comanche Indians in the 1870s. First published in 1958, its based on his interviews with old timers – white and Indian alike – while a student at Texas Tech and later.
The novel is often reprinted, and it’s worth the price, but it’s also available “used” on Amazon. I think it’s a realistic view of life among the Comanches and Kiowas, the best I’ve seen yet. Tolbert is a story-teller, and he blends fact into his fiction in a manner that makes me jealous. Tolbert’s book is the best glimpse we’re likely to get, of a vanished way of life.
The book was nationally acclaimed when it appeared, but was not immediately popular in Texas. It dealt casually with the sex life of the Comanches, and that didn’t meet with approval of some Texans. Comanches making love on horseback? Tolbert tells a straight-forward story. Those Indians were savage, living by their own rules, and stories about tortured captives were recounted by old timers in my youth. However you view the Comanches and Kiowas, it’s clear that coexistence with them was impossible.
For you non-Texans: The Llano is that high plain, roughly sitting between I-40 on the north (Amarillo) and I-20 on the south. The vast grassland there was the final refuge of the horse Indians in Texas. Ranald Mackenzie finally defeated the Comanches, not in battle, but by destroying their horse herd. After that, the Indians walked to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Tolbert’s book raises two questions for me. He insists that some of his book characters were real, and this includes his hero, Lonnie (Llano Estacado) Nabors, the girl gambler Dulce Deno, and an army scout for Mackenzie, named Woman. However, I can’t find any reference elsewhere to any one of those three. Somebody help me with this one. Those characters are fascinating.
And – why did Coronado name the area Llano Estacado? In
school we thought that Coronado might have driven stakes into the prairie. Or,
perhaps, the yucca stalks might have been responsible. More recently,
“estacado” has been translated as meaning “palisades.” That would have been
Coronado’s view of the caprock as he trekked along the Canadian River. I can
relate to that – the view of the caprock as Larry C. and I approached it at
Post, Texas. On our way to Lubbock and Texas Tech.
If you like Western fiction that rings with truth, you won't find any better than Tolbert's novel, The Staked Plain.
dac - 5/23/2008