Book Review: The True West

The True West: Real Stories about Black Cowboys, women sharpshooters, Native American Rodeo Stars, Pioneering Vaqueros, and the Unsung Explorers , Builders, and Heroes who Shaped the American West by Mifflin Lowe, illustrated by Wiliam Luong, Bushel and Peck Books, 2020. 

This book is primarily brief biographies of western characters, including minority groups and women.  Some of the stories I was familiar with; but most I was not.  It includes the stories of Bill Pickett, Annie Oakley, Nat Love, Patricia and Martin De León, Bass Reeves, Mamie Hafley and many more.  It talks of women sharpshooters, women wagon and stage drivers, Native Americans and African Americans in rodeo, and persons important important in the westward movement.  It also has general stories such as talks of the Mexican vaqueros, Buffalo Soldiers, Chinese rail workers, western clothing, wagon trains and Jews in the west.  The book provided me some very good material regarding people I did not know about.

African American Cowboy Biography: Nat Love

 Nat Love not only had a distinctive name, his nickname was Deadwood Dick, but also a distinctive look with long hair, a hat pulled back and a white neckerchief.  He was born in Tennessee.  He won a raffle and used the prize money to travel west.  He first worked o a ranch in Texas and learned to shoot, rope and wrestle cattle.  He would later win a competition in Deadwood, South Dakota.  He won the shooting, roping, bronco riding, bridling and almost every prize.  He lived in Arizona and was contemporary with Pat Garret, Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid.  He married andf decided to settle down and from there lived in Los Angeles and worked for the train company.  He wrote his own autobiography.

Information from the book, The True West by Mifflin Lowe.