The South Plains, 1873 Bison herds are dwindling on the Kansas prairie. Logan Fletcher, a young faith healer from Kentucky, labors as a skinner on a buffalo hunting crew, waiting for the taming of the plains and the chance to spread the Word to the coming immigrants. On the reservation near Fort Sill, the U.S. Government withholds food in retaliation for Comanche and Kiowa depredation in Texas. Cuts Something, an aging Comanche war chief, returns to his old home on the Pease River to revive his Badger Medicine. His quest is rewarded, and he leads his demoralized band back to the bison-rich Texas Panhandle. Logan’s crew abandons the Kansas bone field and heads into the Panhandle, where the brutal plains life erodes his idealism and raises questions he is ill prepared to answer. The inevitable confrontation of two men―each from an arrogant, expansionist culture―draws in an assortment of characters cast of the harsh land itself and just as gripping: Bob Durham, the former slave, whose skill as a plainsman saves Logan’s crew time and again; Ezra Higginbotham, the hunter whose determination to exploit the last of the southern bison herd imperils everyone around him; Elizabeth Keltner, the young woman who survives cholera and capture by Kiowas, then gives Logan reason to live; Abraham, the giant Tonkawa scout who eats the flesh of his enemies and endures unspeakable torture to lead the army to Cuts Something’s band. The final clash tests the depths of Cuts Something’s resolve and compels Logan to confront the racism, brutality, and moral paradox of the American frontier in all its complexities.

The Callings

Literature & Fiction

Henry Chappell

United States

Texas Tech University Press

"Isaac's choices are stark, and the moral dilemmas he faces as he matures form the basis of this richly detailed, emotionally engaging slice of Texas frontier life. Chappell's novel reads the way a John Ford western unfolds on the screen: good folks, hard choices, humor, tragedy, and heartbreaking humanity played out against the backdrop of the great American West. A wonderful book for readers who like westerns that leave formula in the dust."―Booklist starred review "[This book] does what art demands: It makes us both think and feel."―Texas Parks &amp; Wildlife "A Texas writer to watch. The author has created strong characters and a vivid sense of place in a tale that is punctuated with bloody fighting and awkward courtships on a tough, unforgiving frontier."―Dallas Morning News. In Blood Kin, Isaac Webb, a young Texas ranger, struggles for decency amid the violence of the Texas Revolution and the early days of the Republic. Still in his teens when he joins the legendary ranger captain Noah Smithwick, Isaac discovers in himself extraordinary mettle in battle and a fierce yearning for young war widow Catherine Druin. But victory over Mexico does not bring the new Republic nor Isaac the peace and stability he fought for. Escalating Indian depredations forestall Isaac’s hopes to work the farmland he’s cleared near Bastrop and to marry Catherine. Pressed into accompanying Smithwick as Sam Houston’s peace emissary to the Comanches, Isaac befriends Looks Far, a young warrior at whose side he fends off Waco attacks and with whom he learns to grieve. As the Texans’ hunger for land and the Comanches’ penchant for raiding imperil Isaac’s friendship and thwart peace negotiations, Isaac returns to Bastrop prepared for the worst. When his future with Catherine is confounded by her father’s blind hatred of the Comanches and his own commitment to the indomitable Inez, a Lipan captive, Isaac must confront a brutal dilemma and a painful secret. So achingly honest and culturally sensitive is Chappell in his telling of this epic story that every image, every characterization rings true. It is hard to believe that he did not live it himself.

Blood Kin

Literary

The thin morning fog, hanging over the sage and bluestem, obscures the trucks and trailers around the pens at Peek Trap. The sun, edging above the horizon, draws the eye from modernity toward something more durable. A whinny in the distance sharpens your focus on a band of shadow cast by a low bluff. The first few horses run into the new light, and the rest of the remuda emerges, strung out along the base of the bluff, nine dozen geldings running parallel to the horizon a quarter mile out. Now you hear churning hooves and the shouts and whistles of cowboys as the lead horse turns toward the pens. Dust mixes with the dissipating fog as the sun clears the horizon. In the pen, cowboys form a semicircle to hold the remuda just inside the east gate. Breath and pipe smoke hover about their heads in the November air. The shifting column of horses, strung out a hundred yards or more, begins to pour through the gate. The blockers stand calmly, hands clasped behind their backs as horses bunch, balk, snort, and pace before them. Another day begins. A day that has endured over a century in character. Welcome to the Waggoner Ranch.

Under One Fence-The Waggoner Ranch Legacy

Wyman Meinzer

Badlands Design & Production

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Books by Henry Chappell