War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War (review)

412Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary derlands history, and business history. Well researched and written in clear, jargon -free prose, Conflict and Commerce on tL· Rio Grande: Laredo, 1755—1955 should finds its way into the hands of historians of this region. University ofTexas at ElPasoDaniel Melendrez War ofa Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and tL· U.S.-Mexican War. By Brian DeLay. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008. Pp. 496. Illustrations, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 97803001 19329, $35.00 cloth.) This remarkable work fills an important gap in American historiography. DeLay cogendy argues that the numerous raids launched by Comanches, Kiowas, Lipans, and other (often Texas- or U.S.-based) independent Indians in the 1830s and 1840s paved the way for the American invasion and occupation ofmuch of northern Mexico during the war of 1846-48, contributing decisively to die Mexican defeat. DeLay differentiates a succession of stages in Comanche raiding diat he persuasively relates to important changes in political and economic conjunctures in the Comancheria. Comanche campaigns south ofthe Rio Grande became gradually larger in scale over time as Comanches built an increasingly wider network of Indian and non-Indian allies and trading partners, and gained new markets for their plunder. By the eve ofthe invasion, Indian incursions had become pervasive across northern Mexico, literally ravaging the land and its people, and creating a landscape of "man-made deserts." Belligerent U.S. officials and newspapers utilized dispatches on the havoc caused by the raids to construct a discourse of Mexican economic underdevelopment and military inability and Anglo-American racial superiority. Such rhetoric became the cornerstone ofa carefully orchestrated propaganda that served to legitimize U.S. encroachment. The abandonment of setdements and the loss of population damaged the economy of northern Mexico and rendered the region easy prey to the intruding army. The inability of the central government to recognize the raids as a threat to the stability of the Mexican state, the lack of coordination at the different levels ofadministration, and the overall inadequacy of the authorities' reaction contributed to widen the divides that separated Mexican factions, fed the separatist sentiments ofsome northerners, and turned northern Mexico into a breeding ground for disappointed collaborationists hopeful that the invading army would put an end to the endemic violence once and for all. Indians continued to loot northern Mexico throughout the conflict, instilling fear in the locals and undermining their morale. While DeLay's story is compelling, a few of his arguments may be open to debate, including, for example, his statement that Comanche "divisional councils served a kind of policing function, putting checks on the activities of individual leaders" (46). Perhaps the author, following his sources, infers more political intent in Indian actions than there actually was. The book raises significant questions . What was the relative importance of droughts, epidemics, internal political turmoil, and (real or imagined) American/Texan incursions in the economic and 2010Book Reviews413 population trends of specific areas of northern Mexico between 1830 and 1846? How long did the settlements that George Ruxton and others reported deserted due to Indian depredations remain abandoned? Did Texans and others oppose Article 1 1 of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo merely because they "appreciated how difficult it would be to prevent Indian raids into Mexico" (295), or did they harbor commercial and political interests in the continuation of those raids? This brilliant work will certainly please the scholarly reader. DeLay's smooth narrative and transparent style make it also accessible to the educated non-specialist . The book is richly annotated with references to a wide array of English- and Spanish-language primary and secondary sources, including Mexican official documents , newspapers, and archival sources hitherto untapped by American scholars . DeLay's discussion benefits from the abundant quantitative data that he has compiled and presents in a magnificent appendix. The book includes informative maps, a good selection of images, and a carefully crafted index. All in all, DeLay's superb scholarship has culminated in a nuanced yet lucid narrative that will doubtless become a required reference for U.S., Mexico, Native American, and Borderlands scholars for a long time. Texas Stale University-San MarcosJoaquín Rivaya-Martínez Texas Confederate, Reconstruction Governor...