The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 114

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

grass (plate 17), or the sheer beauty of wild plums in a thicket (plate 76),
then somehow his arrogant eye has romanticized Texas in pretty pictures,
has made it New England. No matter that he has, in the way that serious
artists always must, focused on a scene only after the most serious examina-
tion of what is there, when it can be translated through the most appropri-
ate light, how it can be confined without losing a sense of place. Those
who complain of this less than haphazard method must think that truth in
any art form is achieved on the spur of the moment rather than by pains-
taking care. Erwin Evans Smith, the great photographer of the western
rangelands in the early 19oos, often waited a whole month or even a whole
season to get the picture that would most faithfully represent the scene he
knew represented the truth, and the result was that illusion of spontaneity
which we call art.
Look again at the bluestem grass at sunrise (plate 45), and you will know
that it is indeed an authentic Texas landscape, and at the same time a
work of art. To say that Bones's photographs of the hill country are un-
commonly beautiful is not to say that they are unfaithful to their common-
place subjects. If one has not risen early or stayed late in the hill country
(as this reviewer has done during his stint at Paisano Ranch), then one
has denied himself the opportunity to see what is there, what Jim Bones
has seen so accurately.
University of Texas at Austin ELDON S. BRANDA
Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds: The Confrontation of Indians,
Spanish, and French in the Southwest, 1540-i795. By Elizabeth A.
H. John (College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1975. Pp. v+805.
Illustrations, bibliography, index. $18.50.)
The image of the plains Indian most often presented in literature is the
fierce, mounted warrior encountered by wagon trains bound for Oregon
or California. Seldom considered is the fact that this native was vastly dif-
ferent from the one first encountered by Europeans. His culture, his cap-
abilities for warfare, and the manner in which he regarded intruders on
his realm already had been altered by centuries of European contact.
Elizabeth John focuses on this confrontation that occurred in the cen-
turies preceeding ideals of Manifest Destiny. The subject is a difficult one,
fraught with challenges and sundry pitfalls. John has handled it with skill.
Despite the subtitle, the major portion of the book is devoted to the
Spanish, rather than the French, confrontation with the natives, because
Spain's activity in the Southwest was more prevalent. Yet the significant

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