1963, 216 pages in the 25th printing in the 1976 Batam edition
This coming of age tale of tribalism and transcendence begins in early 20th Century Utah. The book is ordered into four portions:
1. Bessie
2. The school
3. The arena
4. The Mountains
The first portion of the book is the tale of Bessie, a Ute woman whose husband has killed an Apache, by the name of Frank No Dear, in a fight and is sought by the authorities, foremost among them the dark cloud of her people’s betrayal, the Indian agency man, Blue Elk.
For a brief time Besie, her husband, and their boy live a life in the old way in nearby mountains. Tragedy strikes when her husband George Black Bull is killed in a snow slide. By the time Bessie dies of pneumonia under the care of her young son, a slow ancient pace has been set, which renders the boy’s eventually emergence into the White Man’s world that much more stirring.
The subsequent three-part story of Tom Black Bull tells the personal tale of self discovery and tribal rebirth as effectively as the story of Bessie told the tale of cultural extinction and spiritual betrayal that is the story of globalism. Throughout, basic elements of life are used to thread both action and dialogue, lending a dreamy quality to the story.
When the Legends Die is an important meditation on self-discovery for young men who have come to realize that they have nothing connecting them to the world but their dollar value.
Thank, you Ishmael, for this book.
