Customer Reviews

Red Twilight : The Last Free Days of the Ute Indians

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This book is unique - it tells the story of the removal of the Ute Indians from a sympathetic viewpoint, and by one who was there. Val FitzPatrick was a settler in northwest Colorado when the Utes were displaced into Utah and forced from their ancestral homelands. The real story is different from what white history records.

Well written, great reading, and fascinating first-hand stories. If you like reading about the West and its history or American Indians, you can't go wrong here. The author was there and is a great writer. He personally knew the Utes. Winner of an award from the Utah Humanities Council and used in their diversity program. I also highly recommend FitzPatrick's other book, "The Arbuckle Cafe: Classic Cowboy Stories."

Red Twilight: The Last Free Days Of The Ute Indians is a remarkable eye-witness testament to the plight of the Ute Indians. Val FitzPatrick was born January 4, 1886 and lived to the age of 102. All his life was spent in northwestern Colorado and gave him an intimate knowledge of the Northern Utes (especially the Whiteriver band) after their encounter with the white man's culture. FitzPatrick provides the modern reader with a window into a yesteryear of the western frontier during the time of white settlers displacing the Utes from the homelands. This is an account more accurate and compelling that those of the newspaper journalists of the day were able to print. Very highly recommended for personal and academic Native American studies collections, Red Twilight is enhanced with a rare oral history by one of the Ute warriors who fought in the Battle of Milk Creek; excerpts from the diary of early cowboy Wils Rankin (nephew of Joe Rankin, scout of the ill-fated Major Thornburg); and a special section describing life on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in the 1950s and 60s.

"Red Twilight: The Last Free Days Of The Ute Indians" is a remarkable eye-witness testament to the plight of the Ute Indians. Val FitzPatrick was born January 4, 1886 and lived to the age of 102. All his life was spent in northwestern Colorado and gave him an intimate knowledge of the Northern Utes (especially the Whiteriver band) after their encounter with the white man's culture. FitzPatrick provides the modern reader with a window into a yesteryear of the western frontier during the time of white settlers displacing the Utes from the homelands. This is an account more accurate and compelling than those of the newspaper journalists of the day were able to print. Very highly recommended for personal and academic Native American studies collections, Red Twilight is enhanced with a rare oral history by one of the Ute warriors who fought in the Battle of Milk Creek; excerpts from the diary of early cowboy Wils Rankin (nephew of Joe Rankin, scout of the ill-fated Major Thornburg); and a special section describing life on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in the 1950s and 60s.

Too bad it is not fiction, this is a sad account of the fate of the Ute Indians, written by a true American Hero, Dalton Carr, may you Rest in Peace my friend!

Here is how the dispossession of the Utes really happened. Should be required reading in history classes. Fascinating account. Highly recommend!!