Buckskin Brigades
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![](#/media/File:"Buckskin_Brigades",_by_L._Ron_Hubbard.jpg) First book edition | |
| Author | L. Ron Hubbard |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Piegan Blackfeet |
| Genre | Western novel |
| Publisher | Macaulay |
Publication date | July 30, 1937 |
| Publication place |  United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 312 pp |
| ISBN | 0-88404-280-4 |
| OCLC | 18163497 |
Buckskin Brigades is a Western novel written by L. Ron Hubbard, first published July 30, 1937.[1] The work was Hubbard's first hard-covered book, and his first published novel.[2][3][4] The next year he became a contributor to Astounding Science Fiction.[4] Winfred Blevins wrote the introduction to the book.[5] Some sources state that as a young man, Hubbard became a blood brother to the Piegan Blackfeet Native American tribe while living in Montana,[3][6] though this claim is disputed.[7] Hubbard incorporates historical background from the Blackfeet tribe into the book.[3]
The book was re-released by Bridge Publications, Inc. in a 1987 edition.[8] The book was published in an audiobook format by Bridge Publications and read by actor Bruce Boxleitner,[9] who was hired by Church of Spiritual Technology subsidiary Author Services Inc. to read Hubbard's books on tape.[10]
The book references a journal entry from Meriwether Lewis during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.[11] In a July 27, 1806 entry, Lewis describes how he had killed a Blackfeet Native American chief during the expedition, and in another entry in the journal he mentions a white man living with the Blackfeet tribe.[11] Part of Hubbard's story is based on this white man, referred to in the book by his Native American name, "Yellow Hair".[11]
After the death of the Native American chief, Yellow Hair attempts to protect his adopted people from fur traders.[11] Yellow Hair is sent to join the fur traders and learn how their future operations will affect his people.[5] The white fur traders are portrayed as evil savages.[5]
Sales controversy
The book was discussed along with other works by Hubbard in an investigation into "skewed sales", in a 1990 article in the Los Angeles Times.[8] Bookstore managers told reporters that after the 1987 re-release of Buckskin Brigades by Bridge Publications, the book "just sat there".[8] Sheldon McArthur, former manager of B. Dalton Booksellers on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times: "Then, in one week, it was gone... We started getting calls asking, 'You got Buckskin Brigades?' I said, 'Sure, we got them.' You got a hundred of them?'".[8]
McArthur stated "Whenever the sales seem to slacken and a (Hubbard) book goes off the bestsellers list, give it a week and we'll get these people coming in buying 50 to 100 to 200 copies at a crack - cash only."[8] Gary Hamel, a former manager of B. Dalton Booksellers at Santa Monica Place, said "Ten people would come in at a time and buy quantities of them, and they would pay cash."[8] Company officials from Bridge Publications, Inc. "refused to be interviewed about any facet of the firm's operations" for the Los Angeles Times article.[8]
