Working The Trapline — Fargo, Indigenous War Painting, The Horse Road

Caught smoke signals on couple of books that look truly magnificent:

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains practiced an archival art—narrating war exploits in large-scale paintings executed on animal hide robes, shirts, tipi covers, and tipi liners. Essentially autobiographical, the paintings were worn and lived in by the men whose war exploits they portrayed, and were made to be “read” by the public at large. Executed in a pictorial narrative style and documenting actual events, these paintings blend visual art and history.

Indigenous War Painting of the Plains is the first comprehensive look at this important North American art form, covering the full corpus of war paintings from fourteen tribes across the plains.

Two impediments have previously made such a book impractical: photography alone falls short of rendering war paintings for the printed page, and only about half of the surviving works have reliable documentation on their cultural origins. Arni Brownstone surmounts these difficulties by producing precise electronic redrawings and by using well-documented paintings to inform poorly documented examples, bolstered by a careful examination of collection histories. Featuring some 300 photographs and electronic redrawings, the book focuses on 83 paintings organized into four chapters covering the paintings of tribes associated with a specific geographical sphere of artistic influence. Four appendixes feature paintings combined with “translations” by Indigenous collaborators who had intimate knowledge of the depicted events.

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No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating the horse allowed early humans to settle the vast Eurasian steppe; later, their horses enabled new forms of warfare, encouraged long-distance trade routes, and ended up acquiring deep cultural and religious significance.

Over time, horses came to power mighty empires in Iran, Afghanistan, China, India, and, later, Russia. Genghis Khan and the 13th-century Mongols offer the most famous example, but from ancient Assyria and Persia, to the 17th-century Mughals, to the high noon of colonialism in the early 20th century, horse breeding was indispensable to conquest and statecraft.

Scholar of Asian history David Chaffetz tells the story of how the horse made rulers, raiders, and traders interchangeable, providing a novel explanation for the turbulent history of the “Silk Road,” which might be better called the Horse Road. Drawing on recent research in fields including genetics and forensic archeology, Chaffetz presents a lively history of the great horse empires that shaped civilization.

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The good people at Duncarron Fort in Scotland, which served as Fort Ticonderoga in the first part of S7 of Outlander, are offering an immersive Outlandish experience. Ah, for a magic carpet…

Join us for an immersive weekend dedicated to everything Outlander!

Experience thrilling live shows, ask your burning questions in a Q&A session with Jamie and Claire’s body doubles, witness powder musket demonstrations, delve into history talks, and even have the opportunity to try on the traditional Scottish great Plaid and Arisaid.

Watch Combat International in action and get an inside look at how stunts are performed, sign up for a warrior workshop or dance the night away to Gaelic live music and enjoy tasty local food and drink.

Don’t miss the chance to explore our market stalls, where you can purchase unique handcrafted items by local artisans.

For the little ones, there are engaging children’s activities too like crafts, archery & axe throwing.

Capture your favourite moments with photo ops alongside lifelike set pieces and feel the thrill of stepping into the world of Outlander as you walk through Fort Ticonderoga that transports you back in time.

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Fargo: Hell On Wheels, is reportedly in the last stages of production, and the creative team has announced a follow-on volume of the graphic novel to be published in 2025. The action is set in 1912, as Theodore Roosevelt tasks soldier of fortune Neal Fargo with stopping a mercenary army determined to sabotage the Panama Canal.

Neal Fargo was the 1970s creation of pulp writer Ben Haas, who wrote under the name John Benteen. Explicitly inspired by Lee Marvin’s character Henry Fardan in the Mexican Revolution Western The Professionals, Fargo has frequently been described as a 20th Century American Conan of Cimmeria riding with the Wild Bunch. And who doesn’t need some of that in their life?