A New Collection from Old West Books

Old West Books has issued their Catalogue 68 March 2025 of Rare, Out of Print Books on the American West. If you turn the clock back between one and two centuries, you will match the vast majority of items in this catalogue. Also, if you geographically locate them in the Trans-Mississippi West, you will also match most items. Those two conditions describe the “Old” and “West” that defines this catalogue. Here are a few examples you will find inside.

Texas bookseller John Jenkins and H. Gordon Frost introduce us to a famed Texas lawman from the latter days of the “Old West,” I'm Frank Hamer, The Life of a Texas Police Officer, published in 1968. His career spanned the first half of the twentieth century. Hamer patrolled the Mexican border in his early years, and there was no need for thousands of ICE agents and walls with Hamer around. He later served in various local law enforcement agencies, the Texas Highway Patrol, briefly for the Feds, and private security, but most of his career was with the Texas Rangers. He resigned when “Ma” Ferguson was elected Governor, unwilling to serve under a woman. It is said he was involved in 100 gunfights, was wounded 17 times, left for dead four times, and killed 53 men in the line of duty. There was also at least one woman as he tracked down and participated in the killing of Bonnie and Clyde, though he may not have shot the fatal bullets. He survived all the would-be killers except the insidious “natural causes,” which got him at age 71. He was called “one of the most fearless men in Western history,” and those statistics bear it out. Item 42. Priced at $125.

This next one could qualify as an “Indian captivity” if it weren't for the fact that the woman married her “captor” willingly. It is the story of Miss Barber, a religious woman (perhaps zealot) who led a boring life as a clerk in Washington when she met Squatting Bear, a Sioux chief. They quickly married and set off for his home in Dakota, where she could convert the heathen. When she arrived, it turned out differently than she had imagined. Squatting Bear had four other wives and she was not number one. He was abusive. While he hunted, she made baskets, and her women companions weren't that fond of her either. Finally, she attempted an escape. Squatting Bear tracked her down, beat her, and sold her to the Cheyenne as a slave. They were even worse, but after two more years she managed to escape to a military fort. Still, you need not shed any tears for Miss Barber. It is unlikely any of this is true. You see, Miss Barber supposedly brought back some miraculous Indian medical cures which this book is hawking. As Howes, in his USiana succinctly says, the book is “probably as spurious as the medical remedies contained.” The book does have some sage advice, that was not often followed. Other young women are cautioned not to take the course of a “silly girl” trying to reform the Indian. The title of this fiction is The True Narrative of the Five Years' Suffering & Perilous Adventures, by Miss Barber, Wife of Squatting Bear, a Celebrated Sioux Chief, published in 1872. Item 2. Priced at $1,750.

This book is about a true Indian captivity. However, in the real world, it was usually the Indians who were the captives. The title is Cheyenne Autumn by Mari Sandoz, published in 1953. It is the story of a band of Northern Sioux, pushed by force and starvation after the Custer battle onto a reservation in Indian Territory, today's Oklahoma. There, they faced continued starvation. A request to join their brethren on the Pine Ridge Reservation was denied. They wished to return to their homeland in Montana. Finally, a group of 278 led by Dull Knife and Little Wolf made their escape. They got as far as Nebraska before being captured, but they escaped again. This time they made it to Montana. The government wanted to send them back again, but public opinion turned against the authorities. The Indians were allowed to stay on a new reservation in Montana. The book is the basis of a 1964 film of the same name. Item 66. $300.

This next book follows naturally the previous one. It is also about Cheyenne warriors who joined the Sioux fighting Custer and eventually settled on a reservation in Montana. This book is focused particularly on the story of one participant. The title is A Warrior Who Fought Custer, and that warrior was Wooden Leg. The author who interviewed him and others was Thomas Marquis, a physician who for years lived nearby and gained the trust of the Indians, getting Wooden Leg to tell his and their story. Marquis had learned the Indian sign language enabling him to communicate directly with his subject. The book was published in 1931, Wooden Leg then being an old man. Most accounts of the Indian wars were told by white men, but in this case, the only eyewitness accounts came from Indians as no whites survived the battle. Only a few were left from the battle now 55 years in the past. While tales of the Custer battle, whose outcome is well-known, are of great interest, the book covers the entirety of Wooden Leg's life and the customs of his people. Item 53. $600.

I. P. “Print” Olive must have been an ornery man. You don't get into so many gunfights if you're a gentle soul. Print came out of the Civil War a tough man. He went in the business of rounding up stray cattle, of which there were many in Texas after the war. He may have been something of a rustler himself, but he was not about to tolerate anyone stealing his cattle. A few men lost their lives, whereupon Print decided it was time to move to Nebraska. Olive's Last Round-Up by A. O. Jenkins concerns his time in Nebraska. There, he got into an incident with two settlers named Ami Ketchum and Luther Mitchell. Olive's brother, Bob, was a deputy sheriff. He went out to arrest the two men for cattle rustling but it was an unpleasant encounter. Bob ended up dead. Ketchum and Mitchell fled, but were caught by the Sheriff, who turned them over to Print Olive. Print hung them, and he, or someone, burned their bodies. Print was blamed, earning the moniker “Man Burner.” Print moved on to Kansas and then Colorado, where one day he walked into a saloon unarmed. A man he had argued with shot him three times, the last one in the head while Olive lay on the floor. The Old West was not always a friendly place. Item 43. $250.

Old West Books may be reached at 719-260-6030 or oldwestbooks@earthlink.net. Their website is www.oldwestbooks.com.