John R. Cook (1) (1844–1917)

This memoir details the life of John Cook from his time as a young soldier in the Union Army through his adventures in the west as a buffalo hunter. The details of his life and the opening of the west are enlightening. However, a modern reader might be shocked by the casual, thoughtless racism and the senseless slaughter of the animals. The more I think about this book the more disturbed I am. The Texas legislature delayed protections for the buffalo because the best way to get rid of the show more Indians was to exterminate the animals. Cook and others like him thought they were good people doing the right thing. He told how captured mustangs were managed by slashing their front knees so the fluid ran out and they were too lame to run away. He spoke of the taking of scalps by Indians and whites and the mutual slaughter. He said he couldn’t write about everything he lived through because it was too shocking. It leaves one wondering what horrors occurred that we will never know of. Not recommended for sensitive readers but vastly informative about early western life. show less