Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Working The Trapline — Dark Winds Blow

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The Glen Coe Massacre doco got me thinking about George RR Martin, who based his infamous Red Wedding in part on the violation of hospitality in the dastardly incident of 1692.

Martin, who lives in New Mexico, is a producer on the Navajo Noir series Dark Winds. Although it’s not the “Winds” his fans are waiting (endlessly) for, Martin offered an update on Season 2.

…Well, big news, we wrapped filming on the second season of DARK WINDS a few days ago, with several days of shooting in Monument Valley.   This is the Navajo detective series we’re doing for AMC, based on the fantastic Joe Leaphorn/ Jim Chee novels of the late great Tony Hillerman.   The first season was largely based on LISTENING WOMEN, with some of PEOPLE OF DARKNESS folded in.   The new season completes the PEOPLE OF DARKNESS storyline.   We got some great reviews for season one — and I really hope we get some Emmy attention too, though the show ran last June, and people do forget — and they tell me season two is even better.   If you missed season one, you can still catch it streaming on AMC+.  Post production is just starting on season two, no release date yet, but I’m thinking summer, maybe spring.

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Art by John Buxton

The esteemed frontier novelist Michael Zimmer scouted up this piece of frontier lore. Foot care is mundane, but critical.

The hunters, including my father when in Kentucky, would wear moccasins of deer skins, stuffed well with deer’s hair to answer the place of stockings. These were very warm. Deerskin leggings were fastened at the top to a body belt on which the scabbard would also be attached. The leggings were then tied around below the knee. In the evening if the leggings and moccasins were wet, they were all dried and rubbed soft. The moccasins were taken off for the night, as they preserved far longer; the perspiration of the feet eventually destroyed the moccasin.
Hunters kept their feet to the fire at night, which would render the moccasin unnecessary. They never wore them nights unless apprehensive of danger, in which case they would then often tie them to their guns, ready to be snatched up at a moment. This lying with their feet to the fire is what the old hunters attributed their uniform good health to. The only other garment made of deer skins was the outer garment or hunting shirt. My father, Daniel Boone, always despised the raccoon fur caps and did not wear one himself, as he always had a hat.
Source information: My Father, Daniel Boone – The Draper Interviews with Nathan Boone – by author Neal O. Hammon
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Had a strange and epic dream my first night in San Antonio last week. I dreamed I was The Apache Kid and I was on the run in the mountains, sliding down a steep wash. Very vivid. No idea what prompted it; I haven’t been reading about the Apache…

Art by Bob Boze Bell.

 

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In the run-up to the release of John Sayles’ Jamie MacGillvray: The Renegade’s Journey, we join the estimable historian and archaeologist Neil Oliver on his return to the battlefield at Culloden.

In addition to his history podcasts, Oliver has been taking broadsword cuts at the Empire of Nothing and it’s “cold hand of control.” His work is worth exploring.

Comments

  1. Brian H. says

    I’ve been looking at outdoor quality moccasins recently. I like the look of what Anxynt is doing but the older I get the more my feet prefer Frankenstein-esq boots which of course are a curse when you’re trying to move in quietly in the woods.

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  2. Matthew says

    You mention moccasins. I recently reread a Jon Sable, Freelance graphic novel where Sable bones up on his wilderness skills by being trained by a Native American hunter who mentions that moccasins are very good for stealth. It’s interesting storyline that involve Sable rescuing a woman from Neo-nazis a sort of rescue the captive story that appears across the frontier. It also features Mike Grell drawing a lot of beautiful wilderness scenes. Grell probably could have been a “serious” artist of the wild.

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  4. Mike says

    Mayhap the shade of The Kid is calling out for his story to be told. I can think of a certain podcast that provides fertile ground for that sort of thing…

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  6. lane batot says

    Yeah, yer Apache Kid dream was interesting……A connection to his spirit? Perhaps YOU were the Apache Kid in a former life? You should try to remember details of that dream–I had a dream many years ago, where I was an Indian(a Cheyenne stealing horses from the Crows–a VERY VIVID dream!), which was so vivid I remembered it well. Years after the dream, I was traveling through Wyoming(a loooong story as to why), and stopped at a place that was EXACTLY like the one in my dream! Made the hair stand up on my neck….

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      • lane batot says

        Yeah, I’m not sure perzackly WHAT to make of that dream–a glimpse into a former life? A warning for the future using my interest in Indian characters in a symbolic message(as I was in a situation at the time–WHY I was traipsing across bum-fook nowhere Wyoming–of a sort of pursuit–looking over my shoulder back towards the East…..), or maybe just Aliens messin’ with me? I have no idea. But an eerie experience, for sure…..

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