Shoshone Mike (Western Literature) - Softcover

Bergon, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874172446 ISBN 13: 9780874172447

Publisher: Univ of Nevada Pr, 1994

Synopsis

In 1911 a posse chased an itinerant Shoshone family across 200 hundred miles of Nevada desert and slaughtered them. Shoshone Mike re-creates this final chapter in the Old West through the eyes of an anachronistic sheriff.

About this title

From Library Journal

Shoshone Mike was the patriarch of an Indian family that fled the reservation after being involved in the death of a white rustler. They feared retaliation, and so when four stockmen chanced upon their hiding place they shot them. For this they were hunted down and virtually exterminated in one of the West's final Indian fights. The 1911 incident is the focus of this first novel. In it Bergon examines again whether civilized man is really any less savage than so-called primitive man. Unfortunately, he continually underscores his theme rather than allowing it to develop unobtrusively from his story. Although the characters are based on actual people, most of them are one dimensional. Well intentioned, well researched, and at times well written, this fails to develop into a satisfying whole. Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib . , Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Four stockmen have been murdered, by whom no one knows, though the trivial fact of ignorance doesn't deter the murderous posse from absolute certainty that those "Injuns," the Shoshones, have committed the crime. Reminding us of a dark aspect of our past, Bergon "employs a spare and simple narrative voice to build an enormously affecting tale," observed PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ of Nevada Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0874172446
• ISBN 13: 9780874172447
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304