What Readers of Westerns Need to Know

Some of the last territory settled by Anglo-Americans in the southwest United States was an area of west Texas extending northwest from San Antonio into New Mexico and extending north through Indian Territory and the west Kansas plains. The area was especially arid and usually seen as uninhabitable. It was here that the Comanche tribe flourished with their mastery of horsemanship and plains warfare. Prior to the Civil war the U.S. Army established progressive lines of forts deeper and deeper into the territory beginning at Fort Worth. After the war the line of forts penetrated deeper into the area with famous forts such as Fort Griffin, Fort Phantom Hill, Fort Concho, and Fort Belknap. Eventually the army led by such famous Indian fighters as Captain Ranald Mackenzie and his MacKenzie’s Raiders eliminated the threat of the Comanches and the area was rapidly settled by the beginning of the 20th century.

The area has captured the imagination of numerous Western writers such as Elmer Kelton and Larry McMurtry. It lends itself especially to antimyth Westerns because of its barrenness, sterility, and the nature of its original inhabitants. Few if any efforts have been made in Western fiction to romanticize the Comancheria.