Distinctly Montana Magazine

W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M 43 D E PA R T M E N T L I T E R A R Y L O D E by DIANE SMITH Garcia's memoir became an instant classic and is still in print. Garcia saw nothing romantic about the Indian, who one day was robbing and stealing whatever he could find and the next was "fighting for his life and liberty and a square deal, which he knew from past experience he would not get from a white man." is ironic tone weaves throughout Garcia's narrative, which probably helped enhance its reputation for so many years. In the first edition of the book, Stein included portraits of Gar- cia and his Nez Perce and Pend d'Oreille wives—In-who-lise, who was killed in June 1880; Squis-squis, who died after being thrown from a horse near Big Timber in September 1882; and Mal-lit-tay- lay, "whom he brought to Fish Creek when he settled there" and who died two years later. Another of the book's photographs shows Garcia with his fourth wife, Barbara Voll Garcia, whom Garcia married in 1899 as he settled in as a Montana rancher and guide and "tried again to be a white man." L.V. McWhorter's papers at the Washington State University archives include a sizable collection of letters to and from Garcia as well as a number of Garcia's handwritten and typed manu- scripts. For 15 years, through the depth of the Great Depression, McWhorter and Garcia maintained a lively if not always cordial correspondence about the Nez Perce, the writing of history, and the challenges associated with publication and being a writer. Interestingly, it appears to have been a chance meeting that brought Andrew Garcia and L.V. McWhorter together. In 1928, McWhorter passed through Missoula, Montana, on his return from the Big Hole battlefield. To better understand the Big Hole battle- field and what had transpired there, McWhorter traveled with Chief Black Eagle and Peo Peo olek, both of whom had participated in the battle as young men, and interpreter Sam Lott (Chief Many Wounds). Lott had been a teenager sent to an Indian boarding school in 1877 but had interviewed many of the battle's survivors. MT Historical Society narrates a story www.distinctlymontana.com/history183 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL [Excerpted from the article by Diane Smith, entitled "Tough Trip to Publication: Tough Trip rough Paradise and the Beautiful Wives of Andrew Garcia," published in Montana e Magazine of Western History, (Winter 2008)] O N JANUARY 3, 1943, MONTANA RANCHER AND OUTFITTER ANDREW GARCIA DIED IN HIS LOG HOME NEAR FISH CREEK, LEAVING BEHIND HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF HANDWRITTEN AND TYPED MANUSCRIPT PAGES STASHED IN DYNAMITE BOXES. roughout his later life, Garcia had intended to publish his memoir, but it took the efforts of Bennett H. Stein to finally edit a book from these manuscripts. Tough Trip through Paradise, 1878–1879 (published in 1967). Tough Trip Through Paradise, 1878-79 Andrew Garcia standing with horse, holding rifle and wearing buckskin jacket. COURTESY OF MONTANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY RESEARCH CENTER

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