WHITE POISON
A Tale of the Gold Rush
by Michael Harris
A historical novel that explores a tumultuous period in the American West.
When readers first meet Alexander Wells, the year is 1911. Wells is 76 years old and has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He lives in Yreka, California, in relative calm despite a personal history marked by upheaval. He is, after all, one of the last of the “36 men who rode with Ben Wright on his punitive expedition into Modoc country in 1852.” But before the events of 1852 are explained, Harris’ story flashes back to 1908. Alexander visits a dying Shasta Native American named Tyee Bob. The encounter is not a pleasant one. Bob’s upset about a supposed event in 1851 in which American forces poisoned some 3,000 Shastas. This event causes Alexander to reflect on how he’s attempted to make “amends to the Indians in the small ways a small-town lawyer can” over the past 40 years. Back in August 1852, he was 17 and headed to Oregon as part of a wagon train from St. Louis with his family. All his parents wanted was “a piece of ground they could call their own and a chance to stand upright upon it.” They were in sight of Mount Shasta when Modoc Native Americans attacked their group. Both of Alexander’s parents were killed. By November 1852, he found himself with a contingent of Rangers on the Lost River. Ben Wright, a man who “don’t know the meanin’ of fear,” was in charge. Alexander engaged in some brutal activity, even killing Modoc children. The horrific assault signals the beginning of his turbulent journey in this age of the Gold Rush.
Later chapters shift to events like the McCloud lumber strike of 1909 in California. Whether the battles involve Native American tribes or immigrant workers, readers will soon realize that these are extraordinary times. This notion is advanced by real sources cited in the book, such as Life Amongst the Modocs (1873) by Joaquin Miller and the autobiography of U.S. Gen. George Crook (1828-1890), discovered years after his death and finally published in 1946. The former explains the excitement of panning for gold: “There lay the mines open to all who would work; no capital but a pick and pan required. The most manly and independent life on earth.” In contrast, Alexander’s narration can be less engaging. For instance, in one scene he relays a story from his life to his daughter. Alexander then tells readers her reaction: “In the wavering light of the fire, I see that her face is rapt with expectation.” Such mundane details tend to slow the narrative down. Nevertheless, Alexander makes his own fine points in this absorbing novel. He remarks how “time never passes at the proper rate, I think—it is always too slow or too fast.” He spotlights real-life, largely forgotten figures from American history like “Fearless Freddie Funston,” a general who fought in the Philippines “and later refused to apologize for his high-handed methods.” In Nevada in 1908, Funston put down a strike “so aggressively that even Roosevelt had to rein him in.” All in all, Harris’ book adroitly reveals aspects of America’s past that will stick with readers well after Alexander’s life story ends.An engrossing but uneven tale about violent times in the West.