Teachers searching for authentic literature about Native Americans will find this the perfect book for several reasons. First, it is not a set-in-the-past story. Rather, it opens in a modern day home, with a contemporary Native child and her grandfather. Second, it is written by a Native American woman, and her insider experience makes the text ring with the authentic speech patterns of the Kiowa people. Third, Stroud is an award winning artist whose work is known world wide. Her illustrations for the book are stunning. Finally, the story is about two different tribes: the Kiowa and the Comanche. By naming these two groups in the book, Stroud's story can help children understand the diversity that exists in Native American culture. There are presently over 500 tribal entities in the United States; Kiowa and Comanche are only two. It is truly wonderful to have this book in today's classrooms. It helps to counter the idea that Native Americans are extinct and that there is a monolithic tribe.

I absolutely need to contact Mr. George Fronval to ask him the autorisation to reprint some pages of his book "Contes et récits du Canada français. Can you help me?

Most of us are easily attracted to the old West of George Armstrong Custer, Zane Gray, and John Wayne.

"Dances with Wolves" caught the public's fancy and gave particular resonance to books like "Black Eagle Speaks" and Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". These works took thoughtful Americans beyond the sophomoric days of the Saturday afternoom western. However, it has been left to a little known writer, Elgin Groseclose, to lay bare the mind and heart of an American Indian during the period of the Civil War.

In "The Kiowa" Elgin Groseclose describes an Indian raid into Mexico to obtain horses and women. He vividly depicts the lurking savage threatening the sleeping village. The tumult of close combat follows.

Sanjak, the Kiowa chief, acquires a Mexican woman whose silver crucifix fascinates him. His new woman's presence leads him to search for the meaning of the faith most white men hold but few practice. The resulting spiritual confusion slowly overwhelms his life.

Groseclose penetrates the mind and heart of the warrior, who is also husband, father and intelligent human being. No other writer has accomplished this. There is no sentimental portrayal of the persecuted native American.

It is astonishing to notice that John Dunbar in "Dances With Wolves" finds a mythic counterpart in the Kiowa warrior. Sanjak lives among whites as Dunbar lives among Indians. His life is a surreal mirror image of Dunbar's. His tragic ending, like Dunbar's, is an inevitable comment on the white man's myopic ineptness.

This is an absorbing tale. The reader is surprised with an unexpected view of the American past.

The horse brought about a cultural revolution for the Kiowa

The horse brought about a cultural revolution for the Kiowa Indians enabling them to better prosper and extend their influence. It was the catalyst for the development of the Plains Indian culture, without which it would never have existed. Emerging in the seventeenth century, the horse oriented Kiowa brave literally evolved from a "half-starved skulker in the timber" to a daring buffalo hunter and valiant cavalryman. By 1790, with their new found sinew, Kiowas in confederacy with the Comanches drove the Caddos and Wichitas eastward along the Red River, taking over mastery of the Southern Plains.
The Kiowas, by Mildred P. Mayhall, published by the University of Oklahoma Press, is a topical study that systematically sets forth the cultural history of the tribe. Well written, it provides informative as well as engaging reading. She begins with a paleethnological look at the Kiowas as they emerged upon the Northern Plains out of the Yellowstone area; an Athapascan-speaking people, they had close ties in the north with the Crows and Arikaras who taught them the ways of the plains. Accordingly, they lived in the Black Hills for a number of years until they were driven out by the Dakotas about 1775. Mayhall goes on to present a proto-history of the tribe. Earliest descriptions go back to La Salle in 1682; Lewis and Clark note the earliest American descriptions of them. Then, at the Fort Gibson, on May 26, 1837, the Kiowas made their first treaty with United States government. As it turned out, American citizens were given the right to travel across the Southern Plains to and from Mexico; the Kiowas, in turn, were to be at peace with Mexico and Texas as well as the United States. In the mean time Texans "continued to drive" all Indians from the their state and historic Indian hunting grounds provoking immense enmity with the Kiowas. As it turned out, many Kiowas did not keep peace, especially with Texas, rather the "Tejannas" (Texans) became their "favorite" antagonists.
In considering the evolution of the Kiowa culture, Mayhall argues that there were no aboriginal Plains Indians prior to the arrival of the horse on the Plains; evidence shows that the Plains were not habitable in a practical manner until the introduction of the equine which became its modus vivendi. Hence the culture developed during the period of white intrusion onto the Plains. She disputes Clark Wissler's contention that the horse only "augmented" the already developing Plains culture.
Two important Indian records of the Kiowa culture were the Sett'an and Anko annual calendars. She provides a narrative interpretation of the two calendars, then narrates an extensive history of the Kiowa plains culture at its height starting in 1845. Events like the Wagon Train Massacre in 1871, Lawrie Tatum's work at the Fort Sill Reservation, and the ordeal of Satanta and Big Tree are presented in detail among other important occurrences.
She finally documents various difficulties related to Kiowa acculturation to the "white man's way" like farming and the great tension of the drift away from the glory of the Plains culture. For example on the trivial side, Satanta complained that eating corn hurt his teeth, but in a more serious light, as late as the Hoover Administration Indian Affairs was under the judicious guidance of Charles J. Rhoads who was extremely interested in Indians welfare and did much to help them.
She ends her study with a brief survey of archaeological evidence related to the Kiowa tribe. For instance, linguistic evidence directly links the Kiowas with Athapascan origins in Canada. Further evidence suggests that in the sixteenth century Indians inhabited the prairies but not the Plains.
The Kiowas, by Mildred P. Mayhall, published by University of Oklahoma Press, is a masterful study on the Kiowa Indians. Her writing style is fluid, succinct and interesting. The first part of her bibliography includes seven pages of primary source materials. The work is a systemic study of the Kiowas and is recommended for any student of the Southern Plains Indians.

If you enjoy reading about the Kiowa tribe you'll love this book. It provides an interesting insight into the life of Chief Satanta (White Bear), his family and all those involved trying to bring peace between the Kiowas and the white man. It is also very informative about the Native Indian culture. My fastest read yet!

My great and great-great grandfathers settled on the county lines of Young and Jack counties around 1876. We have walked the history of these lands and the arrowheads we find confirm the stories in this book. We have always been told of the history around us but it was never as clear as it is now after reading The Warren Wagontrain Raid. I gave this book to my father before he died; my sister and brother have since read and loved this book. They are waiting for it to be back in print so that they may have their own copy. I inhaled this book and did not want it to end.

This 8" by 11" volume contains illustrations of drawings by two extremely talented artists who were among the Fort Marion prisoners from 1875-1878; Making Medicine, a 33 year old Cheyenne and Zotom, a 24 year old Kiowa. The drawings are a full page size and the colors are beautiful and intense. The drawings combined with the commentary by Joe and George Horse Capture provide wonderful insights into the history of these two native nations as well as a better understanding of the Indians' experiences at Fort Marion. It also provides further awareness of the factors that motivated Col. Pratt to establish the Indian school at Carlisle.

It may be that what doomed the Tay-bodal series was the attempt to straddle three genres--mystery, American Indian, and historical. But if you haven't tried these offbeat mystery novels, you are missing a unique experience.

Kiowa healer Tay-bodal moves among the great figures of the most famous moment in the tribe's history, the period of Satanta and Satank and the beginnings of the reservation system. He is a traditional herbalist with a probing and inquiring mind, as open to white medicinal practice as he is to the more spiritualist methods of other Kiowa healers.

Each of the Tay-bodal stories hinges on a crime that has serious community implications for the tribe, and in each, Tay-bodal finds a solution through a combination of logic and action adventure. And the stories are linked together by the development of Tay-bodal's personal life.

In this, probably final, book in the series, Medawar does something daring and touching, casting the entire book as a reminiscence of her hero, deep in his old age. The device works, as the plot involves reconsidering a crime supposedly solved decades ago. As the book ends, the old man has lost most of what mattered to him. Losing him is our loss, as well.

This and the first book, *Death at Rainy Mountain*, are the best in the series.

I loved the Fort Larned Incident, as I have loved all of the previous Tay Bodal mysteries. Ms. Medawar not only infuses these novels with her keen sense of history and tells the story through the viewpoint of a great quirky protagonis, she also makes all of her secondary characters so real you feel like you know them personally. This was a terrific mystery and I never even came close to guessing whodunit. Actually, I wasn't that anxious to find out because I wanted the book to go on and on. Of course, I want time to stand still while the characters play out their dramas, since Tay Bodal lets us know what ultimately happened to his loved ones, friends, and enemies later on. I am not at all anxious to get to that part of history. I like to think these folks maintain their independence and strength forever, as none of us really manage to do. Unlike some of the smug and savvy current day detectives, Tay Bodal isn't sure of anybody. As well as he knows these people of the Rattle Band and as closely as he lives with them, he never quite has anyone figured out completely, least of all his wife Crying Wind or even his best friend Skywalker. This adds that very realistic human mystery that makes each character, as well as each plot, fascinating. Much as I hate for history to roll on, I sure hope Ms. Medawar has another Tay Bodal story in the works now. I miss him and the Rattle Band already.

Just before the ten-year war between the Kiowa Nation and the US Army, the tribe tried to make peace with the whites. The Indians traveled to Ft. Larned, Oklahoma, the site of the first Bureau of Indian Affairs, for a peace celebration. While the tribesmen waited for their supplies, fighting and tribal conflict continued. Three Elks, son of the chief, is killed and the powerful Skywalker asks Tay-Bodal to determine who is the murderer.

Tay-Bodal has solved three previous tribal homicides. He agrees to uncover the killer's identity, but becomes very reluctant when he learns White Bear is the prime suspect. Tay-Bodal is having marital troubles; White Bear is trying to court his spouse. While Tay-Bodal investigates the crime, someone else almost loses her life.

THE FT. LARNED INCIDENT is a rich exciting historical mystery that places as much emphasis on the period as it does on the investigation. Readers see how the Kiowa lived, loved, and related to one another over a century ago. In his fourth appearance, Tay-Bodal retains his fascination because he believes he is just an ordinary guy even though he performs heroic feats when necessary. Fans will anxiously await the next entry in Mardi Oakley Medawar's wonderful Americana fictional series.

Harriet Klausner

In short, I am impressed with Ms. Medawar's novel. It is a pleasant read, with reasonably interesting plot twists and a good backdrop. I must admit that when I first began the book, I got the erroneous first impression that it would be another "new age" apology for the long-lost and noble Amerind culture of the Kiowa-Comanche; a point of view that I confess I do not share. I put the book down. I returned to it months later (this weekend) with a mind to read it no matter what, and was most pleased. It provides a fairly accurate (though perhaps a wee-bit sugar coated) depiction of Kiowa-Comanche camp life prior to the Red River War. Also, Ms. Medawar provides what I beleive to be an even-handed portrayal of the Kiowa-Comance ethos and ethic, warts-and-all. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the fact that she spins an enjoyable mystery with a most enjoyable setting and all-too-human characters. I strongly recommend this book.

I love reading mysteries...and I read Death at Rainy Mountain by this same author. The authors style really captures the richness of each character and made me feel a part of the story. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. Keep creating the Tay-bodal books there excellent.

Late in 1866, the Kiowas are starting to prepare their winter camp at Palo Duro Canyon, Texas when trouble besets the tribe. A renowned healer and seer, Skywalker, mysteriously disappears. Several horses are killed and just about everyone claims to have seen a shape-changing witch. However, all hell occurs when the wife of one of the chiefs suddenly, for no apparent reason, dies. Everyone believes the witch killed her. So when Tay-bodal's spouse, Crying Wind, accidentally gives too much medicine to an ailing infant, Red Bird convinces his tribesmen that she is the evil witch.

Tay begins to investigate what is causing the mishaps that are happening to his fellow tribesmen in order to not only save the life of his spouse but to save the tribe from falling apart. Instead of relying on special powers, Tay uses scientific investigative techniques to learn the truth behind the problems that have led to the tribe being on the brink of mass hysteria. However, by his inquiries, Tay has placed himself in danger with the conflicting political sides of the tribe and a dangerous individual who desires the truth to remain hidden. Still, the mischief maker does not understand that Tay loves his wife and nothing will stop him from insuring that the charge of witchcraft is proven false.

WITCH OF THE PALO DURO, the second novel in the historical fiction Tay-bodal series, is a well written book that complements the original novel, DEATH AT RAINY MOUNTAIN. Tay is a unique character, who approaches his investigations using deductive and inductive reasoning while being surrounded by superstitious individuals who seek mystical solutions to problems. The story line is interesting and the secondary characters add to the genuine feeling of a post Civil War nineteenth century tribe. However, this series is all about contrasting Tay with his peers and Mardi Oakley Medawar succeeds in her endeavor.

Harriet Klausner

This book is deceptively short: it can be read in about an hour, but you find yourself going back and reading its various passages and thinking about them long afterwards. Momaday tells a story of the Kiowa Indians by tying in three aspects: folklore, actual historical events and his own family history. The book's format underscores this, with the first, folkloric item printed on one page, and the historical and personal reflections in separate paragraphs on the facing page, all set in different fonts. Not meant to be a comprehensive account of the Kiowas, it is rather an attempt to express the author's own feelings and his own view of his heritage. In this he largely succeeds, as he writes poetry in a simple yet powerful prose form. The only shortcoming for me were the illustrations (done by Momaday's father), which seemed to add little to the overall narrative. Otherwise, "The Way to Rainy Moutain" is a very unique and worthwhile book.

THE WAY TO RAINY MOUNTAIN is a fscinating account of the Kiowa spirit's core through the poet N Scott Momaday's three voices: the collective tribal story-telling voice, the historic voice (based on historical documentation), and the poet's own experiential voice (Momaday retraced the migratory route of his ancestors from Montana to Oklahoma). These three voices work on the reader's imagination to produce a fourth voice on the stage of the reader's mind. THE WAY TO RAINY MOUNTAIN depicts an epic journey of the Kiowa people through space (Montana southward) and time (mythological to modern). The ancient Kiowa's psyche fuses with primal nature be it with dog persons, antelope beings, or the mythological (but very real) creature called Taime.Once in Oklahoma the Kiowa mastered the horse and became among the best of hunters on the Great Plains. Brave in spirit, sharing in heart, they became a proud people. But European civilization closed in and all but crushed them by killing off the buffalo, killing herds of horses and turning hunters into farmers. Yet the Kiowa people held their vital contact with the land in today's hectic world: "Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe," writes Momaday. "He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it." Momaday helps the reader do just that--gain an appreciation for the multi-dimensional land of North America

The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday; illustrated by Al Momaday. Highly recommended.

Rainy Mountain, a "single knoll [that] rises out of the plain in Oklahoma," is an old landmark for the Kiowa people. It is a land of bitter cold, searing heat, summer drought, and "great green and yellow grasshoppers." It is a land of loneliness, where the Kiowa were drawn after a long journey from the northwest through many types of lands.

The Way to Rainy Mountain is about the journey-in myth, in drawings by Momaday's father Al, in reminiscences, and in historical snippets. All reveal aspects of Kiowa culture, life, philosophy, outlook, spirituality, and sense of self-the beauty and the desolation, how the introduction of the horse revolutionized Kiowa life, the story of Tai-me, and the richness of the word and the past. It is a literal journey as well; Momaday, in Yellowstone, writes, "The Kiowas reckoned their stature by the distance they could see, and they were bent and blind in the wilderness."

This is a small gem of a book, beautifully written, illustrated, and designed. It has moments of insight, beauty, and sadness, as the ending of the Sun Dance, telling as the sun is at the heart of the Kiowa's soul-a soul that survives in every word and drawing of The Way to Rainy Mountain.

Diane L. Schirf, 3 March 2002.