The Color of Lightning

by Paulette Jiles

Because of the Warren Wagon Train Massacre, President Grant rescinded the Peace Policy and the Quakers were removed from their position on the board of the Indian Bureau. Thus the long Red River War began and was finished only when the buffalo were destroyed and Ranald MacKenzie ran Quanah Parker to earth in Palo Duro Canyon in 1874 and shot seven hundred of his horses. When Quanah Parker surrendered, there were at least two white warriors with his small band, who had fought alongside him for many years. And so it ended.

Except for three pieces of hard evidence, Britt’s history is entirely oral; stories of his courageous journey to retrieve his wife and children, his rescue of other captives, his freighting endeavor, and his companions remained in the memories of the people of north Texas long enough to be recorded and written down. He is invariably spoken of in terms of respect and admiration. One man described him as “a magnificent physical specimen,” and others told of his travels and his freighting business. The elements of legend have collected around his historical figure, and its image remains bright and untarnished. He left nothing that could be traced either in land or written material or heirlooms. Only his gravestone, on which is written, Britt Johnson, Dennis Cureton, Paint Crawford, Killed By Indians 1871. All he had was the story of his life, which was as good as any other man’s, and in the end it is all we have.

CAME UPON BRITT Johnson’s story while researching Enemy Women. An early draft of that book ended with the protagonist’s journey into north Texas immediately after the Civil War. Britt Johnson is mentioned in many histories of north Texas, and the accounts are often contradictory or confusing. They all come down to two or three oral histories taken down in the early 1900s, and three pieces of hard evidence; a census of 1860, an 1864 muster of a scouting company, and the diary of Samuel A. Kingman, who was present at the signing of the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 and whose diary mentions Britt Johnson in search of captives. The story of Britt’s journey to rescue his wife and children from captivity is beyond doubt, as are the brief accounts of his life afterward. Entering Britt’s name in a search engine will lead to several good Web sites.

The character of Samuel Hammond is in no way a portrait of the remarkable Lawrie Tatum but is an exploration of Tatum’s dilemma; a Quaker sent as agent to warlike tribes of the south plains. Colonel Grierson was a real person, the first commander of Fort Sill. With one exception, the names of the captives are genuine, including Elizabeth Fitzgerald, who led a charmed life, and all of those taken in the Elm Creek raid of 1864.

PAULETTE JILES is a poet and memoirist. She is the author of Cousins, a memoir, and the bestselling novels Enemy Women and Stormy Weather. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.