An absorbing plot with a minimum of melodrama, A Woman describes
the last fifteen years of a Comanche tribe before it finally
surrenders to the white man and is, presumably, shipped off to a
reservation. The full tragedy of the tribe's decimation is shown,
although the story ends right at the point where it might
deteriorate into social protest. In 1854, Helen Morrison, 9, and
her little Sister are abducted by Indians after their family is
murdered. The girls are sold as slaves but reared as family members
of a branch of the Comanches. Through the years it is the older
girl's fixed idea that she must some day rescue her younger sister
and return to the White Man's world. She develops certain skills in
order to facilitate her escape, and resists marriage to an Indian
until she is twenty-three. But at the end both girls are totally
integrated and, after the death of the younger sister, Helen
transfers her sense of duty to her husband... Foods, the seasons,
hunting, raids, funerals, etc. everything is presented in a
straightforward fashion. Less successfully does the novel
communicate the Indians' powerful identification with nature which
was quite as intense as that of the early Greeks. (Kirkus Reviews)
A Book-of-the-Month Club selection in 1966, A Woman of the People
is one of Texas' best-known and most-respected novels. In this
story of the Texas frontier, Capps dramatizes the capture by a
Comanche band of a ten-year-old white girl and her five-year-old
sister from the upper reaches of the Brazos River a decade before
the Civil War.
As the narrative progresses, Helen Morrison slowly -- and almost
unbeknownst to herself -- goes from being a frightened, rebellious
white girl to becoming "a woman of the People". Like many of the
people who figure in true-life Indian captivity narratives, Helen
adopts the ways of the Comanches, marries a member of her small
band, and becomes a major figure in tribal life.
A Woman of the People parallels in some ways the real story of
Cynthia Ann Parker, who was taken by Comanches, married Peta
Nocona, and became the mother of the celebrated Quanah Parker, the
last great chief of the Comanches. But unlike the Cynthia Ann
Parker story, where many mysteries abound, the novel takes the
reader inside the mind of the main character, and we are allowed to
grow with her as she forgets her white heritage as Helen and
becomes Tehanita (Little Girl Texan).
General
Imprint: |
Texas Christian University Press,U.S.
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Texas Tradition Series |
Release date: |
1999 |
First published: |
1999 |
Authors: |
Benjamin Capps
|
Dimensions: |
220 x 141 x 14mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
248 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-87565-195-8 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-87565-195-X |
Barcode: |
9780875651958 |
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