Spanish Peaks: Land and Legends

The Spanish Peaks stand alone some distance from the main cordillera of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, south of Pueblo, Colorado. The towering twin mountains have served as beacons for Native Americans, Spaniards, trappers, traders, travelers on the Santa Fe trail, miners, and homesteaders. Spanish Peaks shares the legends the mountains have inspired and tells of the peoples drawn to the peaks' shelter. Author Conger Beasley Jr. and photographer Barbara Sparks portray the people who struggle to sustain their lives here and document traditional events such as the Ute Bear Dance and Holy Week among the penitentes of Huerfano Church. Beasley's vivid writing and Sparks's photographs offer tribute to a rugged, mysterious place.

History

Beasley Jr., Conger

Americas

University Press of Colorado

-- 1991 Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Achievement

Sundancers and River Demons: Essays on Landscape and Ritual

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

University of Arkansas Press

In this compelling book, the author alternately recounts the events and details of the 1890 massacre of the Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee and his participation, one hundred years later, in the commemorative Big Foot Memorial Ride. The counterpoint and contrast between the two events produces a powerful effect; the oral accounts of the survivors of the slaughter are sometimes so brutal that the reader needs to be taken away, if only into the cold and wind of a century later.

We Are a People in This World: The Lakota Sioux and the Massacre at Wounded Knee

This is the story of Watson Mithlo, Chiricahua Apache, his family, and his life. Watson?s story embodies the life of the Chiricahua Apache people, who in 1886 were forced into exile to Fort Marion, Florida, by the US government and considered prisoners of war until 1914. This story tells Watson?s lived history as the Chiricahua were relocated from Arizona to Florida to Alabama and finally to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. But this is also a story of Harry Mithlo, Watson?s son, and Conger Beasley, Harry?s friend. It is a story of telling a story. The three voices that serve as our narrators--Watson, Harry, and Conger--all contribute information and emotions, caught up in a kind of ongoing, never-ending, simultaneous present. This story is a composite, a mosaic, a song. It is imbued with oral tradition, Apache medicine, and the dance of the Chiricahua Mountain Spirits. Through Watson, Harry, and Conger, one man?s life becomes a circle, blending history with the sacred in the telling of a distinctly Native story.

On Becoming Apache (Voice in the American West)

Biographies & Memoirs

Mithlo, Harry

Community & Culture

Texas Tech University Press

From a world traveler who is also a well-known novelist & essayist come these eight insightful essays evolved from his most recent travels. While a man might travel for sheer pleasure & experience, implicit in each experience is the potential for being physically & intellectually challenged. The focus of these essays is threefold: animal, people, & place. What impact does each have upon the other? Landscape as a catalyst stretches the body, stirs the feelings, & taps the wellsprings of memory. What meaning does each experience take on when weighed against one's personal concerns? One must learn to place particulars in a context that illuminates not only their features, but also the ways in which they may be linked. These essays allow Beasley to take companions with him on each journey. They give glimpses of what it may have been like to be there, share feelings that may have been felt at the time, impart wisdoms that may have been gleaned from the local customs. But finally, one learns that there can be no absolute answers: only stories of what happened, & what it was like to be there; only first-hand accounts delivered with clarity & affection.

Eyes Open in the Dark: 8 Essays

Science & Math

Earth Sciences

BkMk Press

Kangchenjunga Guardian of the Eastern Himalaya

Travel

Pictorial

Pilgrims Publishing

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Books by Beasley Jr., Conger