Post 7 - Ned Christie

After reading both Conley’s novel and essay “Cherokee Outlaws” one of the subjects of interest that stood out to me was how Conley researched Christie’s life of crime and he didn’t find one crime held in the records on him other than the Dan Maples incident and resisting arrest (CT 63). He did however find information on doubts as to if Christie really murdered deputy Maples and this I believe was his inspiration for the creation of his historical novel.

Here are two photos of Christie that I copied from http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/outlaw/christie.html. I was interested in seeing what he actually looked like from Conley’s descriptions. The second of the two is a postmortem. He was showcased basically while dead, holding his handmade gun. This is interesting because his hair is cut short as the novel also recreates. It’s kind of weird to see a dead body posed so lifelike but that’s what they use to do to prove people’s deaths. The postmortem photo reminds me of the movie with Tom Hanks “Road to Perdition” (2002). It’s a strange action to us now to photograph the dead, but it was a very effective way to satisfy people’s questioning if someone were still on the run or not.

Overall, the novel is a quick read and an eight year old could read it, but I think that Conley wanted to do this so that children, who are interested in such outlaws with historical and political relevance like Jesse James, and also people with lower reading skills could enjoy and learn. I could be wrong but compared to his essays, the reading level of such a novel seems very simple and deliberate. The novel is an interesting read but perhaps a more comprehensive book on all the outlaws in the area would have sufficed.

The description of Ned Christie’s life in “Cherokee Thoughts” was basically all we or anyone really needed to know and learn about Christie. There wasn’t anything new presented in the novel except a longer rendition of the shooting back and forth between Christie and the Posses (and the part in the cave was interesting because it showed Cherokee perseverance and survival). I wished that the other woman who came with us on the tour with Councilman Baker, not Lauren, the other woman, would have talked a bit about her experience and opinions on Christie. I learned how she obsesses over Christie in her daily life. She even pointed out to us, if some of you heard her, a store that Christie had robbed. Perhaps an expert like her and a tour of the Christie legacy around the area would be neat for next year.

The most clear topic I got out of this novel was how Native outlaws compliment the historical and political significance we are learning about between the two factions (Watie and Ross), pro-Allotment vs. No-Allotment. We can definitely see which end Conley sides with just based on his interest and what he says about Christie and other outlaws. What is most interesting is how Conley’s research, even on other outlaws, just never added up to how bad these white men made them out to be. The white men turned them into outlaws, when in essence they were just trying to protect their families and their land, like any decent human being would do in times of instability.