Pioneer West Romances 5 [Firehair]
This has an interesting cover drawing, that makes the reader want to open the book and see who this "White" young woman, dressed in dyed buckskin, holding a longbow, is. And we want two know if she'll be rescued by the "cowboy" behind her, or shot by him, with the pistol he's wielding, or trampled to death by the rampaging North American bison. The artwork in this book is quite good. The stories are entertaining enough to hold the readers' interests. But, to my taste, they suffer the same general problem of being so short, because the editors insisted on squeezing at least 3 or 4 stories (if not 5) into each book, and near the end of the 1940s and throughout the fifties, the comic books were even smaller, not only shrinking from 68, 60, and 52 pages during most of the 1940s, to 36, but also having less of those 36 containing comics, in favour of adding more and more advertising pages as the years crept by. So, eventually, many of the stories held between only 6, and even as low as 4 pages. Hardly long enough to develop a decently-paced plot, or even much of a plot, with almost no detail.
Firehair - First Story
So, Firehair was adopted by a Dakotah tribal village as an orphaned infant. She is shown on the first story page as an armed member of a Dakotah war party attacking a "White Man's" settlement (small town or ranch), firing a pistol at the enemy. Native American tribes didn't have their women fight along with them in raids. The only time they fought was during extreme emergencies, when their villages were attacked. And, the Plains Tribes didn't dye their buckskin. It was always natural colours.
This story has a complex plot, with Firehare saving a "White" miner, who is being terrorized by a villainous, greedy, wealthy local rancher. Not very realistic, that a woman who was raised by Native Americans among a small tribal unit, who likely would have remained in the village, wherever they set up their tents, and not have had any direct contact with "White" people, would be able to speak English, and would act so boldly among their men. She would have braided her hair, like the other Dakotah women, and not have been allowed to act differently, just because she had been born from foreign, different-looking people. In real life, it would have been a lot more likely that she would want to be accepted by her adoptive people, and would have gone overboard in the opposite direction, being the most Dakotah of The Dakotahs, in order to not stand out, and so, to be fully accepted.
In this story, she is behaving like she knew Blackie, the saloon owner, well, and knew the townspeople of Plainsville. That is very unlikely. The fact that Firehair, after seeing how The "White Man" behaves, decides to stay with her adoptive, Dakotah people, rather than return to "her" natural parents' people, which she had considered early, is a realistic action. But, it doesn't mesh logically with her behaving as if she had known Blackie and some of the townspeople of Plainville before, or had, at least, heard much about them.
Firehair - Second Story
Firehair observes the strife between 2 Dakotah braves over one's squaw, and sets up a plan to trap him, so The American soldiers can capture him, and release the brave who the villain framed. It was a bit far-fetched, but certainly good enough to hold the reader's interest.
Firehair - Third Story
In this story, Firehair takes a young boy from her village into Plainsville to see a doctor. She is maltreated by 2 "White" villains, who are plotting to steal gold from her tribe's territory. They steal soldiers' uniforms, and Firehair and Chief Tehama are taken as hostages during the fake soldiers' bust up of an intertribal meeting, and massacre of many of its attendees. Firehair and Chief Tehama escape, and rush to the soldiers' fort, to try to stop the Native Americans' attack, to avoid having many more soldiers come to the area to chase them into the mountains and steal their land, settling it with "White" ranchers, and townspeople. They succeed in stopping them, and preventing an "Indian War", that would take place some years later, in real history. The amount of horse-mounted braves shown attacking the fort was awfully small, considering it came from 5 large tribes who covered an area of thousands of square miles. It's mighty impressive that Firehair prevented a major war between The US Government and 5 major indigenous aboriginal tribes. What will she do next???
I guess I'll have to read other issues of "Pioneer West Romances" featuring Firehair to find out. Were there any others? By the way..... what western romances were involved in this book's stories? I guess the title reflects the old European sense of the English word "romance" (referring to a romantic novel, as opposed to a love affair between a specific man and woman).
There is a logic error when the villains overhear Firehair talking to Tehama, and understand what she is saying. Surely they were speaking a Dakotah dialect. So, we have to assume that at least one of the 2 thieves understood enough of their language to know what she was saying. That would have been possible. But, not very likely. Too much of a needed coincidence, and really not needed to make this story work. We have to assume that the talking balloons of the Native Americans appear in English text "for the convenience of the reader". I always liked to see an asterisk, and related footnote at the bottom of the page, stating that, upon the first instance of a foreign language being spoken.
The 4 tribes with representatives at the meeting declare war upon "The White Men". The Pawnees, Sioux, Dakotah, and Arapahoes lived quite a distance apart, and The Crow Nation, even a lot further away. At least they were all Tribes of The Great Plains, and no southwestern tribes, such as The Apaches, or Navajos were included (which really never happened), like I've seen is completely unresearched stories. Actually, I'm sure there never really was a joint war effort by these, particular, 5 tribes. I'm surprised that the word "ax' is used instead of "tomahawk". There shouldn't be a place called a "pueblo" anywhere near Dakotah/Lakotah, Crow, Sioux, pawnee, or even Arapahoe country (despite the fact that The Spanish did administer the greater Louisiana Territory, after it was ceded to them by France in 1763, before taken back by Napoleon in 1800).
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Topic: Reading Group # 288 What lurks behind the red Tab? Does the Shadow know? (Read 2257 times)
