184 biography Vol. 11,No. 2 Joseph C. Porter, Paper Medicine Man: John Gregory Bourke and His American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986. 362 pp. $29.95. John Gregory Bourke is known to generations of readers as the author of the adventure -epic On the Border with Crook, recognition that would satisfy most persons of creative bent. But not Bourke, who composed this study of a colorful frontier commander after a productive career in several non-literary fields. However, the book's popularity has had the effect of deflecting attention from Bourke's many other achievements, described collectively as works of "a life of incident." Now his comprehensive life history as revealed in Paper Medicine Man, which acknowledges Bourke's role as a popular author, is placed in the balanced context of his many other accomplishments . Through the skilled characterization oÃ- Paper Medicine Man, he surfaces as a keenly sensitive, curious, versatile man who won distinction first as a professional soldier, then as an internationally recognized ethnologist/folklorist, a frontier critic, a popularizer of late nineteenth-century revolutionary scientific doctrine, a champion of the scorned Native American, and a persuasive advocate of federal Indian policy reform. A success in each venture, he preferred to be known as a soldier-scientist. Bourke, son of Irish immigrant parents who settled in Philadelphia, began his army career at the age of sixteen, enlisting in a Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry unit for Civil War service against the Confederacy, campaigning with distinction in major engagements across the South including Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta. At the close of the war he was nominated for appointment to West Point Academy. Bourke matriculated there, graduated in 1869, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Third United States cavalry. The author has cogently recreated the physical attributes and persona of this man so that the reader has the sense of knowing him—strong physically, of remarkable stamina , restless, assertive, a leader of men, perceptive, clever as a story teller and eloquent as a public speaker; it was reported that "with his charm 'he could talk the birds out of the trees'." Several officers rated him the "best story teller in the army," and these same men praised Bourke as the "bravest of the brave" in combat. Quite early in his years of active duty Bourke formed the habit of keeping detailed diaries and recording observations of frontier life. Apaches noted that he seemed always "writing, writing, writing," and named him "Paper Medicine Man." The Bourke biography plots Paper Medicine Man's military service from a beginning in New Mexico Territory during 1871 to its conclusion in Southwest Texas late in the century and details his participation in those major post-bellum incidents occurring in Western America. This fortuitous exposure to repeated grand happenings is explained largely by his assignment to the staff of General George Crook, whom the Secretary of War consistently called upon for the major frontier campaigns. Crook promptly realized the value of this young lieutenant to his command and for years held Bourke in continuous service as his aide. From an early assignment in New Mexico and Arizona territories searching for Western Apache raiders, the author reports that Bourke moved to the northern Plains to perform escort duty for the geological expedition surveying the Black Hills in 1875, a prelude to the gold rush in this hallowed Indian domain the following year. During 1876 Bourke rode with Crook's cavalry and infantry forces against the Sioux, Cheyennes , and Arapahoes in the Powder River campaign. Following combat duty in the northern Rockies and Plains, Bourke is reported to REVIEWS 185 have spent much time in the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho lodges where he interviewed Crazy Horse, Little Big Man, and other Native American leaders. He collected tribal stories including one from Cheyenne and Arapaho spokesmen claiming they were the first of the northern tribes to obtain horses, receiving them from Comanches who stole the animals from New Mexico ranchers. At about this time Bourke began submitting his notes and artifact collections to the National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. This included nearly 2,000 Plains tribes pictographs. Bourke's varied assignments as Crook's aide...
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