“I was positive now that the trailers were Apache and that they wished to capture Powell alive for the fiendish pleasure of the torture, so I urged my horse onward at a most dangerous pace, hoping against hope that I would catch up with the red rascals before they attacked him.” 6
The language throughout this passage is so striking to me. The vivid descriptions of both his attackers and his surroundings paint a picture of panic that almost allows the reader to enter the situation.
American literature, especially that which we have read about the west likes to paint natives as a “savage” and constant threat. In reality the west was huge, how often did westward expanders encounter Native Americans and were these interaction entirely violent or were their civil interactions as well?