My Sixty Years on the Plains: Trapping, Trading, and Indian Fighting

by William Thomas Hamilton

We had an abundance of reading matter with us; old mountain men were all great readers. It was always amusing to me to hear people from the East speak of old mountaineers as semi-barbarians, when as a general rule they were the peers of the Easterners in general knowledge.

Give me the man who has been raised among the grand things of nature! He cultivates truth, independence, and self-reliance. He has lofty thoughts and generous impulses. He is true to his friends and true to the flag of his country.

Many people even to this day believe the Comanches to be a tribe distinct from others. It is not so, for they belong to the Shoshone family, as do also the Utahs, Pah Utes, and Water-rickers, who principally lived on the Great American Desert or its border.

I did not know this until this book and find that fascinating!