Ghost Riders: Travels with American Nomads

deserts on their horses, to raid or conquer or exact tribute. The prophet Jeremiah was probably thinking of the Scythians, the first recorded nomadic warriors in history, and by any civilised standard they were a fearsome and barbaric

(who thought white notions of romantic love were amusingly silly).

Shoshoni in-laws,

Gathering. It’s not my scene but I’ve got to hand it to them. They have succeeded in creating a functioning anarchist utopia.

Geographical curiosity and his abiding love for wilderness travel seem to have been the main reasons for these journeys, but he usually managed to find some practical, economic rationale: a railroad survey, a party of miners that wanted to be guided to some remote mountain range, a potential livestock market that called for investigation. In 1858 h

Is there a nesting instinct in women? A natural female affinity for hearth and home? Absolutely not. Looking back over human history, it is clear that these are social constructs, peculiar to sedentary

‘Basically, rendezvous these days is an excuse to get dressed up, go on a camping trip and have a big swap meet.’ This was the judgement of Lance Grabowski, delivered from his tent on the far fringe of traders’ row. His tone was jaded and sardonic: rendezvous was dumbing down and there was nothing you could do about

‘to seek a final refuge against society in the broad and tenantless plains of the west’.

In New Mexico and California there were Mexican women, but on the whole they lacked the endurance, skills and experience to make good trail wives.