Willie Boy & The Last Western Manhunt

by Clifford E. Trafzer, Thomas Sibbett (Foreword), Jason Momoa (Foreword)

The saga of Willie Boy has survived over one hundred years and the captivating story remains alive today. American Indians throughout Southern California, the American Southwest, and Great Basin remember the story well. Willie Boy’s pursuit of redemption, his attempt to become culturally whole again, reflects a tragic journey that still resonates today, over a hundred years on from the deaths of William Mike and Carlota. In his journey to survive, Willie Boy challenged numerous lawmen eager to capture or kill him, prompting the posse, press, and citizens to demonize Willie Boy.

262 pages, Hardcover

Published September 27, 2021

About the author

Cliffor Trafzer is Director of American Indian Studies at University of California, Riverside. Raised in Arizona, Clifford Trafzer was born to parents of Wyandot Indian and German-English blood. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in history at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where he also worked as an archivist for Special Collections. He earned a Ph.D. in American History in 1973 with a specialty in American Indian History and the same year became a museum curator for the Arizona Historical Society. Before joining the faculty of the University of California, Riverside in 1991, Trafzer taught at Diné College (Navajo Community College), Washington State University and San Diego State University. Trafzer's research focuses on Native American history and culture. His Kit Carson Campaign: The Last Great Navajo War and Yuma: Frontier Crossing of the Far Southwest were published in 1981. His co-authored work, Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest appeared in 1986, winning a Washington Governor\\\'s Award that year. In 1994 he won the Penn Oakland Award for Earth Song, Sky Spirit. His works include Grandmother, Grandfather, and Old Wolf: Tamánwit Ku Súdat and Traditional Native American Stories From the Columbia Plateau, Death Stalks the Yakama: A Social-Cultural History of Death on the Yakama Indian Reservation, 1888-1964, and Exterminate Them!

Reviews

[Brad B · Rating 3 out of 5]

After watching the 1969 film Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, I wanted to read about the actual events. Willie Boy & The Last Western Manhunt is fascinating tale that attempts to correct the biased and unformed claims made by white settlers at the time. The author provides reasonable context and evidence to support the perspectives of the Chemehuevi people. (For example, it makes no sense that the posse claimed to have found Willie Boy's body without providing evidence; posses of the time period were not shy about photographing corpses, and a photographer was with the posse at the time.) So it seems entirely plausible that Willie Boy might have survived the manhunt. Unfortunately, I feel the book could have used much stronger editing. The text is so repetitive that many passages feel like filler to increase the page count.

[Christian Miller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had planned to write out the issues I had with this book but as I began to think of all them, it become quickly apparent that this review would be way too long. So I’ll keep it short. Much of this book comes off as baseless propaganda with glaring issues throughout. If it wasn’t assigned reading for a history course, I wouldn’t have kept reading past page 20.

[Kay Ehret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very plausible. It relates the story of Willie Boy and uses a lot of interviews with the descendants of the Native American family of Willie Boy. I really enjoyed it, but I did notice quite a bit of redundancy.