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Buckskin Man Tales #3
Scarlet Plume
Widowed and captured during the 1862 clash between the Sioux and white settlers, Judith Raveling finds salvation with Scarlet Plume, the sympathetic nephew of a powerful Sioux chieftain. Reissue.
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1973
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About the author
Frederick Manfred
76 books21 followersManfred's novels are very much connected to his native region. His stories involve the American Midlands, and the prairies of the West. He named the area where the borders of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska meet, "Siouxland."
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 7, 2009
Wow, just . . . wow.
The scene when the Sioux warriors cut the unborn baby out of some lady's stomach and then impale it on a tree . . . I mean, my God. What the fuck is wrong with this dude that he needed to write that.
The scene when the Sioux warriors cut the unborn baby out of some lady's stomach and then impale it on a tree . . . I mean, my God. What the fuck is wrong with this dude that he needed to write that.
May 20, 2012
When my 81-year-old grandma mailed me a dusty, signed, hardcover copy of this book, I figured it was fated that I read it. I had recently enjoyed the hell out of Manfred's LORD GRIZZLY, and I was eager to dive into SCARLET PLUME with its fascinating story of the Sioux Uprising. Since 2001, I've lived in Mankato, the site of the largest mass execution in US history (38 Indians hanged as a result of the Uprising in 1862), and the story of the Conflict, and the Hangings, hangs over this place. City officials, Native Americans, and citizens are arguing right now in a public forum about details concerning a new memorial that is to be erected at the hanging site.
Manfred's tale starts out with an Indian attack on the white settlement of Skywater. The violence he delves into is intense, horrific, and historically accurate to my knowledge. It is also, for the sake of the story, excessively excessive and overly graphic. The way Manfred handles, in particular, the rape and murder of the child daughter of one of protagonist Judith is neanderthal-ic. I mean, where's the touch, Manfred? It wasn't the only overdone spot, violence-wise. A scene near the end--involving a mob of New Ulm-ite, German "Bad Talkers," the hero Scarlet Plume held captive in chains, and a phallus-slicing knife--pretty much took the "overdone violence" cake. And then there was the "Scarlet Plume wrestles (yes, WRESTLES) a puma for a page and a half and then kills it with his bare hands" scene. Oh but wait, after wrestling and ripping out of the puma's throat, Scarlet Plume has a boner. And then, slicked in puma blood, he re-enacts the killing, but in sexual fashion, with his white goddess. If you're reading this--for some reason--and just went, "What???" and think I'm getting carried away in this review, know that I know what going "What???" feels like, because I did it while reading that puma scene. And Mr. Manfred definitely got carried away with himself. So why did I have trouble with the getting carried away in Scarlet Plume but not so much in Lord Grizzly? Good question.
Getting carried away with oneself is easy to do. Violence-wise, I've always thought Martin Scorsese has been guilty of it often in film, The Departed (a great movie despite the overdone violence) and all the bullet-in-the-head shots there within being a most recent example. REally, does everybody need to get shot in the head? It's so uncreative. But I rue it with Manfred because he's so gifted in other areas.
The man was highly educated in the history of his home area of "Siouxland" (the area around the place where the state borders of Minnesota, Iowa, and So Dak come together). The man knew how to pick subject material. The man wrote apt and fresh animal and nature metaphors like no other. He had a championship vocabulary. He had a sense of humor in his writing style, and he wrote characters that had personality to go. So why compromise it with getting carried away? I think it caused some readers to not take him seriously. It caused some to chalk his work up as schlock. And that's not befitting of his talent.
My theory is that he had no trusted editor. It's lonely out on the prairie. If he did have an editor, he ignored him.
So three stars is the decision here, though it's not right. If I could give alternating ratings of five-star and then one-star, that'd be more fitting. I'm glad I read it, and that Manfred tackled it. It's a worthy topic for historical fiction, a topic that still breeds debate today.
After I finished, I asked my Grandma if she remembered reading it way back when, and if she remembered anything about Manfred. She said, "Ooh, yes, I read it. It was so violent! When he signed my book, I asked him, 'Why'd you make it so violent?' He said, 'Because that's the way it was.'"
An interesting anecdote. I can accept that "that's the way it was." But that has nothing to do with touch. I kind of feel like I could go on about this, get carried away. Wish I had a puma to wrestle.
Manfred's tale starts out with an Indian attack on the white settlement of Skywater. The violence he delves into is intense, horrific, and historically accurate to my knowledge. It is also, for the sake of the story, excessively excessive and overly graphic. The way Manfred handles, in particular, the rape and murder of the child daughter of one of protagonist Judith is neanderthal-ic. I mean, where's the touch, Manfred? It wasn't the only overdone spot, violence-wise. A scene near the end--involving a mob of New Ulm-ite, German "Bad Talkers," the hero Scarlet Plume held captive in chains, and a phallus-slicing knife--pretty much took the "overdone violence" cake. And then there was the "Scarlet Plume wrestles (yes, WRESTLES) a puma for a page and a half and then kills it with his bare hands" scene. Oh but wait, after wrestling and ripping out of the puma's throat, Scarlet Plume has a boner. And then, slicked in puma blood, he re-enacts the killing, but in sexual fashion, with his white goddess. If you're reading this--for some reason--and just went, "What???" and think I'm getting carried away in this review, know that I know what going "What???" feels like, because I did it while reading that puma scene. And Mr. Manfred definitely got carried away with himself. So why did I have trouble with the getting carried away in Scarlet Plume but not so much in Lord Grizzly? Good question.
Getting carried away with oneself is easy to do. Violence-wise, I've always thought Martin Scorsese has been guilty of it often in film, The Departed (a great movie despite the overdone violence) and all the bullet-in-the-head shots there within being a most recent example. REally, does everybody need to get shot in the head? It's so uncreative. But I rue it with Manfred because he's so gifted in other areas.
The man was highly educated in the history of his home area of "Siouxland" (the area around the place where the state borders of Minnesota, Iowa, and So Dak come together). The man knew how to pick subject material. The man wrote apt and fresh animal and nature metaphors like no other. He had a championship vocabulary. He had a sense of humor in his writing style, and he wrote characters that had personality to go. So why compromise it with getting carried away? I think it caused some readers to not take him seriously. It caused some to chalk his work up as schlock. And that's not befitting of his talent.
My theory is that he had no trusted editor. It's lonely out on the prairie. If he did have an editor, he ignored him.
So three stars is the decision here, though it's not right. If I could give alternating ratings of five-star and then one-star, that'd be more fitting. I'm glad I read it, and that Manfred tackled it. It's a worthy topic for historical fiction, a topic that still breeds debate today.
After I finished, I asked my Grandma if she remembered reading it way back when, and if she remembered anything about Manfred. She said, "Ooh, yes, I read it. It was so violent! When he signed my book, I asked him, 'Why'd you make it so violent?' He said, 'Because that's the way it was.'"
An interesting anecdote. I can accept that "that's the way it was." But that has nothing to do with touch. I kind of feel like I could go on about this, get carried away. Wish I had a puma to wrestle.
April 18, 2016
I'm sure this book was not written as a comedy and yet at times it reads as one. Honestly who writes like this... "He moved too slowly for her. She took hold of his coppery knob and helped him. She saw that he had a wonderful cucumber of love for her". (page 244) I was hysterical with laughter, a cucumber of love? That has to be my favorite line from any book of all time which made me elevate this book to a 2 star rather than a 1. At times the writing was graphic and brutal and other times it completely missed the mark and became quite comedic. Another quote worthy line is from page 284 "His testes were slowly stirring, first one, then the other, inside his scrotum. Their movement reminded her of moles working under a turf of grass, a pair of little pigs caught in a sack and snouting quietly around trying to get out." I'm crying with laughter here...
December 23, 2022
Jack, finished Scarlet Plume, brutal, ugly, scenes that I wanted to stop along the highway and throw up out the truck widow. The narrative, I’m sure true to the era, brutality from booth the Whites and the Indians. Manfred descriptions literally place you in the scene, seeing and admiring the vegetation, flowers, running streams, hiking through the tall grass, but also his writing brings you into the brutality, the horrid things done to humans.
I share below my favorite “Original People” book, “Fools Crow” by James Welch, available Audible, although I read the paper version, a gift to me from someone I mentored in back country adventure when he was growing up. Fools Crow writes about the Hanging of First People as does Scarlet Plume
In 1862 the largest Indian uprising in American history occurred in southern Minnesota. Enraged Sioux attempted to throw off the broken treaties that still bound them and to avenge the insults and depredations they had been forced to bear. Hundreds of whites were killed. Women were taken captive.
Told from the point of view of Judith Raveling, a young woman widowed by the uprising, Scarlet Plume draws on the brutal history of the conflict from beginning to end. Taken captive by the Sioux, Judith is given to Scarlet Plume, one of the many warriors who know their cause is lost. Caught between the men who would wage war ruthlessly and his own judgment, which tells him how dearly the Sioux will pay for every white person killed, Scarlet Plume tries to save as many as he can. Defying the dangers of a pitiless war, he returns Judith to the safety of her people. Soon she must try to save him. Scarlet Plume is the third of Frederick Manfred’s five-volume series, The Buckskin Man Tales."Fools Crow”, James Welch
The year is 1870, and Fool's Crow, so called after he killed the chief of the Crows during a raid, has a vision at the annual Sun Dance ceremony. The young warrior sees the end of the Indian way of life and the choice that must be made: resistance or humiliating accommodation.
"A major contribution to Native American literature." (Wallace Stegner)
I share below my favorite “Original People” book, “Fools Crow” by James Welch, available Audible, although I read the paper version, a gift to me from someone I mentored in back country adventure when he was growing up. Fools Crow writes about the Hanging of First People as does Scarlet Plume
In 1862 the largest Indian uprising in American history occurred in southern Minnesota. Enraged Sioux attempted to throw off the broken treaties that still bound them and to avenge the insults and depredations they had been forced to bear. Hundreds of whites were killed. Women were taken captive.
Told from the point of view of Judith Raveling, a young woman widowed by the uprising, Scarlet Plume draws on the brutal history of the conflict from beginning to end. Taken captive by the Sioux, Judith is given to Scarlet Plume, one of the many warriors who know their cause is lost. Caught between the men who would wage war ruthlessly and his own judgment, which tells him how dearly the Sioux will pay for every white person killed, Scarlet Plume tries to save as many as he can. Defying the dangers of a pitiless war, he returns Judith to the safety of her people. Soon she must try to save him. Scarlet Plume is the third of Frederick Manfred’s five-volume series, The Buckskin Man Tales."Fools Crow”, James Welch
The year is 1870, and Fool's Crow, so called after he killed the chief of the Crows during a raid, has a vision at the annual Sun Dance ceremony. The young warrior sees the end of the Indian way of life and the choice that must be made: resistance or humiliating accommodation.
"A major contribution to Native American literature." (Wallace Stegner)
December 1, 2023
This book was the fourth book written in Frederick Manfred's Buckskin Man series (third in the chronology of the times for the series) and tells of the time of the Dakota Uprising in 1862 in southern Minnesota. The book begins with the horrific killings of white settlers at Skywater (Lake Shetek, in reality) by Dakota warriors at the beginning of the Uprising. Manfred brings out all the gory details of the killing of the men and children and capture of the women. The book then seems to leave the Uprising as we follow the life of Judith Raveling, one of the white women captured, as she settles into Dakota life and falls in love with one of their warriors, Scarlet Plume. Only near the end do we return to the Uprising, when Judith escapes the Dakota,is found by Scarlet Plume, they fall in love, until he is captured. I found certain parts to be strong, like the description of Dakota life, but wondered how nothing was made of how Judith and the Dakota were able to communicate with each other with most not really knowing the other's language; the superhuman physical and emotional characteristics given to Scarlet Plume, and the goriness of some of the descriptions. This is the third book I have read in the series but the weakest.
April 5, 2021
The narrative was as an observer of Judith, the kidnapped white woman. Her thoughts and words were throughout the book. There were many stomach-turning accounts of the violence (of the white men and the Dakota Indian). The description of the customs of that particular Indian society was excellent. The actual love relation between Judith and Scarlet Plume didn't really begin until 70% into the story but it was worth the wait.
August 7, 2018
Awful. I couldn't get through the first few chapters.
January 7, 2021
I was recently reminded of this book and remember it well. I may have to read it again, I know I read it several times and recommended it to others. No date given, as it was over 25 years ago.
May 12, 2012
Well Manfred did it again: managed to horrify me and delight me with his topic choice and writing. He is capital in uneven writing, has moments of huge clarity and insight and then drudging clunkers of terrible dialogue and ridiculous scenes. I first read this book ages ago, when I was teaching high school and did a unit on Minnesota History and Literature in New Ulm, Minnesota. Then, I tossed the book aside for its outrageous romance-novel quality. Today, I find much to admire in the historical accuracy and seamless inclusion of important information into the plot. I live in Mankato and as the 150 anniversary of the hangings approaches, sensitivities are again heightened by descendants on all sides and even people who have no connection other than living here now. Many seem interested in claiming the pain and playing victim to crimes of the past, but few seem interested in bearing the sins of the forefathers, as well, except the few Indian apologists who seem wholly ignorant to the full history of the Native American nations that once existed in these parts and who are intent on offering Native Americans complete absolution no matter what the real events or facts prove, all in the name of political correctness. While erring on the side of political correctness is probably good (especially since we have a good number of racists here who can't imagine a history past their own existence), falling over ourselves to ignore the sexism and brutality in the Dakota tribes, and romancing their lifestyle as some kind of Eden-esque existence is another kind of folly. Before white settlers ever arrived, they too were party to war, racism, sexism, displacement, mayhem, and murder on the prairie, and after the whites arrived alternately worked with and against the army to push traditional enemies out of territories they wanted. For decades, the Lakota pushed out the Arikara and other tribes, some of whom then aligned with Custer's army against the Sioux in 1876. I think this book does a good job revealing the complex relationships that contributed to the events of 1862. He reveals the complicated alliances between the various Dakota bands, he reveals that not all were guilty, that not all were innocent. He reveals how exploitation by white settlers and traders and military men made life complicated, at best, and impossible, at worst, for the tribes. Manfred is really hard on the German settlers of that influx, who were probably the catalyst for the bloodshed and who did suffer many dead, but with their unfriendly nature and unsharing ways were bound to conflict with the social, sharing culture of the tribes. In any case, while some still try, sorting out the guilt and innocence and motivations of the real people involved is difficult. Only one thing is certain, bravado and greed caused the suffering of many, many innocent women and children, many of whom died horrific, painful deaths. This book, at least, attempts to reveal, albeit through an unrealistic god-like hero with a must-have phallus, the perspective of the traditional Dakota during the late summer through winter of 1862. In the coming months, Mankato will continue to debate exactly what kind of a memorial it wants to add to Reconciliation Park, where the 38 men were hung. I keep coming back to thinking that it should be a quiet place of contemplation and study rather than an altar to killers and martyrs. Figuring out the difference requires a time machine and an eagle-eye perspective.
March 22, 2013
Wow, this now 50-year old historical-fiction book was fascinating. Almost shocking! I have read a few of Manfred’s other books – my favorite was Lord Grizzly – but this trumps LG.
The facts upon which he crafted this novel take place in SW Minnesota in summer 1862. A Sioux uprising led to about 1000 settlers killed and 200 women taken as prisoners (and abused). Later, the Union army under Henry Sibley wins a major Indian battle, frees the prisoners, and hangs 38 Indians at one time in Mankato MN in December. Manfred researched the customs and habits of the older Sioux, and he knew the country where the novel is set for he lived near Pipestone. Interestingly, my maternal great grandparents lived about 15 miles (Tracy) from where the tiny settler village in the novel begins (Lake Shetek).
The plot is this: Essentially everyone (including her daughter) from the village is killed and scalped, but they Indians keep Judith. The chief wants her for a wife. She complies, but is attracted to another Indian, Scarlet Plume. She eventually escapes, he shadows (protects) her as she wanders in South Dakota to Sioux Falls, and then NE to New Ulm. They connect, and is it sensuous and interesting! Eventually they get to the army camp. Scarlet Plume is arrested. And, you guess the outcome.
Judith is a strong-willed, independent, woman. You love her and root for her. Even though she has a husband serving in the Civil War, she realizes she never loved him. He never measured up. Scarlet Plume does!
The facts upon which he crafted this novel take place in SW Minnesota in summer 1862. A Sioux uprising led to about 1000 settlers killed and 200 women taken as prisoners (and abused). Later, the Union army under Henry Sibley wins a major Indian battle, frees the prisoners, and hangs 38 Indians at one time in Mankato MN in December. Manfred researched the customs and habits of the older Sioux, and he knew the country where the novel is set for he lived near Pipestone. Interestingly, my maternal great grandparents lived about 15 miles (Tracy) from where the tiny settler village in the novel begins (Lake Shetek).
The plot is this: Essentially everyone (including her daughter) from the village is killed and scalped, but they Indians keep Judith. The chief wants her for a wife. She complies, but is attracted to another Indian, Scarlet Plume. She eventually escapes, he shadows (protects) her as she wanders in South Dakota to Sioux Falls, and then NE to New Ulm. They connect, and is it sensuous and interesting! Eventually they get to the army camp. Scarlet Plume is arrested. And, you guess the outcome.
Judith is a strong-willed, independent, woman. You love her and root for her. Even though she has a husband serving in the Civil War, she realizes she never loved him. He never measured up. Scarlet Plume does!
March 31, 2016
I've just reread Scarlet Plume, as well as Lord Grizzly and King of Spades, all by Frederick Manfred. As a girl in junior high and high school back in the 1960's I was completely engrossed in the works of Manfred and distinctly remember my mother taking me to the library when I was about 7th grade, demanding that I be allowed to check out not only books by Manfred, but any other book I wanted to read. The librarian had previously told me I wasn't old enough to read these books. I'd often wondered if my love of these stories were more because of the graphic and violent nature of the tales (and the forbidden fruit as per the librarian) or if they were really good literature - thus my drive to go back and revisit Manfred in my 60's. I'm delighted to find these works of historical fiction vivid, well researched and compelling tales. I was as caught up in the stories today as I was as a teenager. On to Conquering Horse!
April 13, 2008
A Minnesota author whose home is now the Blue Mound State Park visitor center. His writing is VERY graphic. I almost didn't get into the book: The first chapter was so horrific! Later I realized how the gravity of the novel (based loosely around the Sioux uprising that led to 26 Native Americans being hung in Mankato)was only achieved because of the graphic writing. He wrote books about the people and their relationship with the earth and his surroundings much like Ivan Doig and Wallace Stegner. I love their books!
January 2, 2010
Despite the listing for this book it was really first published in 1964 and I read it in 1966. I was really into Indian captivity stories. Did not record much in my diary about it except to mention it in comparison to a similar book that I found lacking . My comment was "boy, what a difference from The Scarlet Plume!"
May 29, 2016
Pretty interesting, then devolved to a porny romance... Then back to violence.
I had a hard time with the characters odd motivations, and things just didn't make any sense. Apparently based on real events, then he just made shit up about what happened. I enjoyed it in Lord Grizzly, here not so much. But the romance was horrible.
I had a hard time with the characters odd motivations, and things just didn't make any sense. Apparently based on real events, then he just made shit up about what happened. I enjoyed it in Lord Grizzly, here not so much. But the romance was horrible.
January 9, 2008
This novel about the Indian raids on SW MN (where I grew up) was an amazing adventure! Going to Lake Shetek where the attacts took place brought it to life.
January 7, 2014
Love Love Love this book
January 19, 2016
My favorite of Frederick Manfred's books. You won't be able to put this down.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews