A Woman of the People by Benjamin Capps (review)

Reviews 65 need today in this war-torn world of disunity a Great Vision like the one that came to Black Elk, speaking with its Great Voice: “Behold the circle of the nation’s hoop, for it is holy, being endless, and thus all powers shall be one power in the people without end.” F r a n k W a t e r s , Taos, New Mexico A Woman of the People. By Benjamin Capps. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1966. 242 pages, $4.95.) The Southwestern agricultural tribes have received far more treatment in quality fiction than have the nomadic and warlike Indians of the plains. One reason for this may be that such tribes as the Pueblos were able to carry on some semblance of their original culture during the present century, while others like the Sioux, Cheyennes, and Comanches had their way of life shattered by the 1880s. Also, the conflict between the army and the plains tribes has always been an easily exploitable commodity for the “action Western,” whereas the agricultural tribes were not particularly suitable fig­ ures for pulp and paperback treatments. Instead they became important material for serious literary artists who had extensive knowledge of their customs and characters. But a small body of fiction has attempted to portray the Plains Indians with understanding and artistic skill. Jack Schaefer’s The Canyon and Fred­ erick Manfred’s Conquering Horse are prime examples. Both novels, set in periods predating the conflict with the army and white intruders, develop revealing aspects of Cheyenne and Sioux life with freshness, interest, and a feeling for the Indians qualities as a human being. Benjamin Capps’ third novel — The Trail to Ogallala and Sam Chance preceded it — deals with the Comanches in the 1850’s and 1860’s on the Staked Plains. And though A Woman of the People is set against a back­ ground of encroachment by settlers, buffalo hunters, and the threat of soldiers, the author’s primary concern is with Comanche life in the final years of their freedom. At the center of the book is Helen, or Tehanita, the daughter of a massacred Texas settler. She is captured as a young girl, along with her small sister. Through Tehanita’s eyes and thoughts are conveyed a slow progression of changing attitude toward her captors and the eventual recog­ nition that the Comanches possess worthwhile values and human feelings. The younger sister, named Sunflower by the Indians, quickly adapts to her new life, and she is killed with her Comanche husband on a raid in Mexico. But Tehanita’s inner conflict involves a sense of loyalty to her white origins and her increased involvement in Comanche life. Though her desire to escape and the complications which prevent it seem too drawn out and 66 Western American Literature obvious, the portrayal of the captive girl’s shifting attitude toward Indian life is convincing and represents a fresh and effective use of the initiation theme which runs through much Western fiction. Ultimately the girl defines her allegiance by marrying an able but introverted young Comanche named Burning Hand, becoming a teller of tribal stories, and remaining with “the People” when Burning Hand is chosen as their leader and, under threat of annihilation by the soldiers, leads the Mutsani onto a reservation. Two aspects of A Woman of the People are especially interesting, since they indicate Mr. Capps’ break with Western formula and myth. First is the low-keyed approach evident throughout the novel. Day-to-day activities rather then exaggerated action dominate the book’s development — family relationships, customs, hunting, and the patterns of nomadic life. When action is violent, as in the descriptions of army attacks on the Indian camps, the scenes are skillfully handled and moving, as is the concluding chapter in which Tehanita returns to the whites . . . but as a Comanche woman head­ ing knowingly for an ironic reversal of the concept of captivity. The second aspect concerns the treatment of Indian character, and here Capps sides with those who feel the implacable, cruel savage is an inaccurate stereotype. His Comanches are capable of cruelty to the whites, Mexicans, and rival tribes — that human...