The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 101, July 1997 - April, 1998 Page: 194
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194 Southwestern Historical Quarterly October
Carbine & Lance was eventually published by the University of Oklahoma
Press.'6
Though his research would eventually take him on field trips through-
out the Southwest, and to the Huntington Memorial Library, Library of
Congress, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and National Archives, Nye began the
task within hours of getting the assignment by reading newspaper clippings
at the Lawton Chamber of Commerce.'7 He also asked M. Sgt. Morris
Swett, the librarian at the Field Artillery School, for assistance. Swett, a
friend of the old Indians, settlers, and officers, had assembled voluminous
notes on the history of the area and the post.'"
One of Nye's first contacts was eighty-eight-year-old retired Capt.
Robert G. Carter, recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and
author of On the Border with Mackenzie, or Winning West Texas from the
Comanches, an account of his military service on the Texas frontier with
the Fourth U.S. Cavalry. Carter offered to lend Nye photographs of
Indians and the old post.19 Nye also wrote retired Gen. Hugh L. Scott,
who, during the 189os at Fort Sill, had commanded the Seventh U.S.
Cavalry's Troop L, a company consisting mostly of Kiowas and a few
Apaches and Comanches. In scrawling, nearly indecipherable handwrit-
ing, Scott, fluent in both Comanche and sign language, provided Nye
with information on the post's history, as well as suggestions on research
and sources of information. Nye found Scott's published recollections,
Some Memories of a Soldier, especially helpful.'o
Many of the elderly Indians did not speak English. They understood
either their own native tongues or sign language, which was universally
used by the Plains Indians. Ralph Linton, a professor of anthropology at
Yale University who had served as director of the Santa Fe Laboratory of
Anthropology project during its field studies of the Comanches in 1933,
16 See note 4 above. It is unknown how the University of Oklahoma Press came to publish
Carbine & Lance. The press has not kept any significant records of the publishing history of
Carbine & Lance, nor does the Nye Collection contain any insights into the decision. Knowing
the publisher's emphasis on frontier and Indian history, however, the match between Nye and
the press was a logical one.
7 Crawford, "Writing Post History," Lawton (Okla.) Constituton, Jan. 8, 1958.
1' Nye, introduction to Carbine & Lance. Sensitive to the value of old records, Swett was
informed one day that old papers were being burned at the post dump. Apparently some official
spotted the boxes of yellow documents in the basement of headquarters and told a subordinate
to "get rid of this old junk." Swett found many priceless papers had already been destroyed but
he managed to save most of the thick leather-bound books of correspondence, orders and
reports from 1869 to the 189os. Ibid.
19 R. G. Carter to Nye, Oct. 29, 1933, Correspondence-Research File, Nye Collection.
Although Nye does not specify the subject matter, it is likely some of the photographs were by
William S. Soule, since it is known Carter had purchased his prints. See also Nye, foreword to
Plains Indian Rauters. When Nye was doing research in Washington in June 1935, he became per-
sonally acquainted with Carter. Nye Notebook 22, Nye Collection.
P0 Nye, introduction to Carbine & Lance. See also General Hugh L. Scott Letters File, Nye
Collection.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 101, July 1997 - April, 1998, periodical, 1998; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117155/m1/246/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.