To Die in Dinetah: The Dark Legacy of Kit Carson [Paperback]

John A. Truett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1994

Early in the Civil War, young Terry O'Neill becomes obsessed with the idea of fighting in the Indian wars and volunteers for assignment at Fort Stanton in rugged New Mexico. He joins the famous Colonel Kit Carson, campaigning against the Apaches and Navajos in the deadly snowstorms of Canyon de Chelly, only to find himself a part of the Navajos' torturous 'Long Walk' to imprisonment at Fort Sumner. Struggling to understand the enigmatic Kit Carson while facing death, suffering and the love of a beautiful Navajo girl, Terry O'Neill's cavalier outlook matures in this tender story of real people and actual events during a tragic period of the Old West.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John A. Truett grew up in Artesia, New Mexico, leaving after high school to serve with the U.S. Air Force in Japan and the Philippines during World War II. After the war, he received his B.B.A. from Woodbury University in Los Angeles and worked in the motion picture industry for 18 years where he was script supervisor on public service films and assisted in writing scripts and film editing. He later was editor of three different industry newsletters at various manufacturing companies in Los Angeles. Since making his home in Roswell, New Mexico, he has dedicated himself to writing western fiction based on historical events in the American Southwest. Mr. Truett is also the author of Clay Allison: Legend of Cimarron and Monument in the Storm, both from Sunstone Press.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sunstone Press; 1st edition (November 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865342253
• ISBN-13: 978-0865342255
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,153,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Reading, Great History!, September 5, 2011

By 

Simbajak - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: To Die in Dinetah: The Dark Legacy of Kit Carson (Paperback)

I am fascianted with the history of the Civil War in the west, and especially interested in Kit Carson. One of America's most fascinating individuals if you ask me. Kit Carson was also quite possibly the first rancher and cowboy in the new American West.

This book really does a good job telling a story, with accurate historical facts, while at the same time being a good novel where the characters come to life and fascinate the reader.

This is a great book that offers an accurate history that our school books did not. Read it!

Other books I liked that offer a great read of American West history and Kit Carson:

A Man Named Job and the Navahos


Blood and Thunder

5.0 out of 5 stars TO DIE IN DINETAH, June 19, 2010

By 

Luther D. Butler Sr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Die in Dinetah: The Dark Legacy of Kit Carson (Paperback)

Since I wrote a novel, A Man Named Job and The Navahos, about these same people during the same period of time as To Die in Dinetah, I am finding this novel by John A. Truett very exciting, informative, and very readable. Both Truett and I approach the Navajo tribulation of the Long Walk from different angles, it is as if Truett fills in the blanks about this time of horror. My novel gets inside the Navajo people while Truett not only gets inside the people but tells about the government's dealings that brought about the suffering of some very fine native people. Stupendous reading. Thanks