Although almost extinct nowadays, the soldier-scientist was once a
venerable figure in the US Army; men such as Bourke, the subject of
this captivating biography, played a significant role in the
opening of the American West through their work as explorers,
cartographers, folklorists, and ethnologists. Bourke first set foot
on Indian land in 1869 - the same year he graduated from West Point
- as part the federal government's effort to quell the Apaches. For
seven years he lived by sword and gun, participating in several
major Indian wars (described here in sometimes grisly detail). But
by the end of the Sioux War in 1876, Bourke's attitude towards
Indians had begun to change from enmity to admiration. He became an
ardent student of Indian life and an advocate of Indian rights. For
the next decade, he lived as a sort of rough-hewn anthropologist
among different tribes, compiled an Apache vocabulary of 2500
words, witnessed the Sioux Sun Dance and the Hopi Snake Dance, and
authored several books, including The Medicine Men of the Apache
and Scatalogic Rites of All Nations (printed in 1913 in a German
edition with a preface by Sigmund Freud). Bourke's tireless work on
behalf of Indian rights seriously damaged his military career. It
also makes him something of a hero in modern eyes, and elevates
this readable, richly detailed biography into must-read status for
students of the American West. (Kirkus Reviews)
John Gregory Bourke was a U.S. Army officer who became an
ethnologist, military historian, and prolific writer on the
American West. Bourke spent most of his military service in the
post-Civil War West. After graduating from West Point, he fought in
last-stand battles with the Sioux, Northern Cheyennes, and Apaches.
He was in General George Crook's command, pursuing the fugitive
Chiricahua Apaches into the rugged Sierra Madre. Bourke's contacts
with Indians brought a growing interest in their lifeways and
ceremonies. Ranging from Texas and Mexico north through Hopi and
Zuni lands to Montana, Idaho, and the Rockies, Bourke observed and
made extensive field notes. The Apaches began calling him ""Paper
Medicine Man."" To the Sioux he was ""Ink Man."" Bourke began
publishing his observations and quickly developed a reputation as
an accurate reporter of American Indian customs and rituals,
earning praise from John Wesley Powell, Theodore Roosevelt, Francis
Parkman, and Sigmund Freud. Bourke also wrote firsthand military
history, chronicling Crook's exploits in the classic On the Border
with Crook, which established him as one of the first historians of
the Indian Wars. Based on prodigious research and drawing on
Bourke's voluminous diary, Paper Medicine Man is an adventure in
itself.
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