The Color of Lightning

Although I didn't like the narrator at first, he did grow on me. I learned a lot reading this book and I was especially grateful for how the author helped me to understand the conflict between Native Americans and the settlers of the old west. Even though the story was told primarily from the point of view of one black family, I was equally able to see the situation from the Indian point of view. This is a great story and a great read.

This is not a typical tale of cowboys and Indians, but a well written look at at the period of the great American expansion into the west. When major social shifts occur, a period of of time between the ending of one era and the start of the next is created. These periods of tension and unrest often raise hard questions about the changes intended to solve problems. Jiles raises some questions about the goals of the Civil War and of the country’s western expansion.

Her characters are well developed. Britt, a legally free Black man whose wife Mary and children are taken during a Commanche and Kiowa Indian raid and an Agent of the Indian Affairs Agency, Samuel, from an old Quaker family “Back East.”

When free “Coloreds,” Indians who are required to live on reservations, Comancheros from New Mexico and south of the Rio Grande, and mixed race people from the interbreeding among captives and captors of all races are thrown together in a time of unrest, strong ethnic, religious and political emotions, Jiles gives us a bit of the history of North Texas.

Samuel devoutly defends and tries to live his Quaker faith in non-violence. He refuses to wear a weapon or to allow military guards to accompany him on his visits to the reservations where he tries to bargain with the leaders for the return of the women and children they have abducted. The Indian view is: We never asked for reservation. We reject your “civilization.” Blacks and Whites are legally equals, but that will take over a century to become a reality.

The refusal to return captured women and children had its inevitable consequences. The book makes one wonder if what we think is best for us, is not necessarily best for others? When is non-violence not the solution? Why do people not care about your “legal” equality? What happens when your ideas about civilization are not mine? When does might make right? It is easy to highly recommend this book. It is an interesting listen.

Read this twice through public libraries. Want to own my copy. Britt Johnson, the "colored" ex-slave was also mentioned in the gritty best seller, "Empire of the Summer Moon." In my humble opinion, this is Jiles best book. So many are uneducated about how blacks were involved in the settling of the West, because it is not taught in most schools in the United States. Hope you will be as delighted as I was.