BOB
(Bob N Dawn Rundell ) RUNDELL is another highly
successful western novelist who can’t make up his mind about his favourite of
his own novels! (It’s a tough choice, I know.) He likes all of his 3 ‘Buckskin
Chronicle’ series equally, so why not start with the first one, TO KEEP A PROMISE?
Jeremiah
Thompsett has been raised by an escaped slave in the Arapaho Nation in the Wind
River Mountains of Wyoming. Now he’s on a vengeance quest to track down the
slave catchers who killed his adopted father and stole their cache.
Wind River, Wyoming
An
escaped slave who did become a ‘mountain man’ was JAMES BECKWOURTH (c.1798 –
1866 or 1867.) A mulatto born into slavery in Virginia, he was freed by his
father (and master.) Venturing west as a fur trapper or ‘mountain man’, he lived with the
Crows for years. He’s credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass through
the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California in 1850, and improved the Beckwourth
Trail, which thousands of settlers followed to the central part of that state.
JIM BECKWOURTH
In 1864 he
was press-ganged into leading the Colorado Volunteers towards Sand Creek,
Colorado, where they carried out the infamous Sand Creek Massacre of peaceful
and Cheyenne and Arapaho. (Beckwourth wasn’t present at the massacre.) He died
in mysterious and disputed circumstances; one account claims he was poisoned by
the Crows.
Here’s
some Arapaho chiefs from 1869.
‘Mountain men’ have featured in movies like
JEREMIAH JOHNSON,
ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI
and THE REVENANT.
It’s curious that
the ‘mountain men’ who roamed the west between 1810 and 1840, trapping beaver, have
featured relatively rarely in westerns, particularly compared to cowboys. After all,
their lives were much more perilous!
Thinking
of the fur-trapping era and escaped slaves brought to mind the comic western THE
SCALPHUNTERS (1968.)
As
for TO KEEP A PROMISE, the last time
I looked 92% of the reviews are 4 or 5 star!
‘A
beautiful page-turning and action filled story.’
‘I just
finished reading this book the same day I got it, along with To the Tall Timbers and To the Absaroka. All three books are
spectacular!! … Should turn this series into film or a miniseries on cable.’
‘I really enjoyed this book from
beginning to end. Recommend this novel to lovers of the true wild western
episodes. You will be deeply satisfied.’
‘Very
real characters and situations.’
‘Awesome story.’
Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Keep-Promise-B-N-Rundell/dp/1629184772/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483521319&sr=1-1&keywords=to+keep+a+promise+b.n.+rundell
