The Coming of the Sacred Dog

The Coming of the Sacred Dog

“The God of the Christians is dead. He was made of rotten wood.” These words, allegedly uttered in his native language by Tewa holy man Popé, marked the beginning of the Indian renaissance in North America. For some time, Popé had been telling his fellow Pueblos...
Trading Post Profiles

Trading Post Profiles

Buffalo Bill Cody founded the Irma Hotel in 1902, calling it “just the sweetest hotel that ever was.” Located in Cody, Wyoming, the town that the legendary showman helped establish in 1895, the Irma was named for his youngest daughter. Wanna-be performers often tried...
A River Runs Through History

A River Runs Through History

What was Juan de Oñate thinking when he named the Rio Grande in 1598? Great River? Criminy, at some places it’s not even a mediocre ditch. Explorers from Álvar Núñez Cabesa de Vaca (1535-1536) and Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1540) to Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike...
Take No Prisoners

Take No Prisoners

The late November dawn broke cold and foggy. Below the barren Southeastern Colorado plain, some 600 Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians were camped in a ravine alongside a dry streambed called Big Sandy Creek. Six hours later, a quarter of them—mostly women and children—were...
Judgment at Jacksboro

Judgment at Jacksboro

Throngs of people descended upon Jacksboro, Texas, on a hot summer day in 1871 to witness a murder trial. Murders were commonplace in reconstruction Texas, but this would be no ordinary event. Cause No. 224 (actually two trials held July 5-6) would be the trial of the...