Comanche Dawn

Blakely (Too Long at the Dance) turns, in this vastly researched new western, to a pivotal time in Native American history, when the advent of the horse completely transformed the life of the Comanche people in the space of one generation. When Born-on-the-Day-of-the-Shadow-Dog (named for the appearance of the strange creature that wandered through his village) entered the world in 1687, the Comanche were still part of the Shoshone people. Shadow is imbued with the spirit of the mysteriously beautiful animal that came with the ""Metal Men"" (the Europeans); he becomes the best rider among his people, earning a new name, Horseback. Masters of the horse, the Comanche separate from the Shoshone, migrating South from Wyoming in pursuit of the buffalo, and a new tribe is born (the ""dawn"" of the title). Blakely tells the story from the point of view of his Native American protagonists, depicting fierce intra- and intertribal conflict as the natives struggle to accommodate the presence of Spanish and French foreigners and missionaries in a land that was once theirs. The book reads briskly despite its length and is leavened with much Comanche lore; a glossary of Comanche/Shoshone words is included. (Oct.)