The eighth installment in the White Squaw series sees deviant author E.J.
Hunter mix fact with fiction. This Rebecca Caldwell adventure being played out
amidst the backdrop of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, hence Horn of Plenty.
What else did you possibly think that title could be referring to? It is a
piece of American history that held a personal connection for Hunter, who
dedicates this White Squaw book to the ancestors of his that fought in this
battle and 'happened to be on the winning side. Hoka hey!'. This revelation
about Hunter's ancestry does tend to put a spin on how you view the White Squaw
series, and explains the series' extensive knowledge of Native American
culture.
Horn of Plenty finds Oglala chief Iron Calf in ailing health and therefore
sending out a brave called Swift Bear to find his estranged daughter Sinaskawin
-that's Rebecca Caldwell to you buddy- in order to reunite father and daughter
before Iron Calf goes off to meet the Great Spirit. For Rebecca though, it’s
business as usual as she and her faithful companion Brett Baylor aka Lone Wolf
pursue her Uncle Ezekiel and his boss Roger Styles. Ezekiel (sometimes spelt
Ezekial in the other books) isn't half the man he used to be. A bullet from
Rebecca having immobilized his arm in a previous White Squaw installment. Uncle
Ezekiel is also having to readjust to living as a man without stones, having
had his balls cut off by Rebecca in the fifth book 'Buckskin Bombshell'. At the
risk of sounding bloodthirsty myself, I fail to understand why Rebecca didn't
take off the dick at the same time, thus putting an end to all the raping
Ezekiel gets up too. After all Rebecca is acutely aware that being without
stones doesn't mean a man can't function sexually. This we know, since she
relates to Lone Wolf an eye watering anecdote about a young brave who was
thrown from his horse at which point "a sharp pointed branch on a
sagebrush ripped off his testicles". Still every cloud it seems has a
silver lining, since the boy then found himself being used for sex by all the
female members of his tribe, safe in the knowledge that he was incapable of
getting them pregnant.
Hunter manages to restrain himself for about ten pages before reminding his
readership of what a sick individual he was. An assault on a homestead by
Ezekiel's men quickly takes out family patriarch Josh Talmadge and his young
son Jimmy. Less fortunate is Josh's wife Dorrie, who is taken in the bedroom,
gang raped and has her throat slit. The main focus of abuse though is the
virgin daughter of the family, Luanna, who is raped by Petey Willis, one of the
youngest of Ezekiel's men. A spectacle that gives Ezekiel his first successful
hard on in months. Hunter is creepily keen to emphasize Petey's youth, as if he
wished the character were actually younger than he made him. Petey is described
as looking 'closer to twelve than the sixteen years he owned to'. Petey's only
regret about raping Luanna is that he doesn't have more to offer the young lady
'Petey found himself wishing he had about nine inches instead of the paltry
five he possessed'. Hunter being the consistent sicko, has Luanna eventually
enjoy the experience ("Please" Luanna moaned, as she burned with the
shame at the words she had to say "Please, please") and becoming a
happy, sexual receptacle for the men who just wiped out her entire family.
Hunter follows that with another shocking scene -which seems to be catering to
the raw poultry brigade- involving Timmy Phillips, a young boy tasked by his
mother with overseeing the family's cattle (Timmy's father having been killed
by the Sioux). For his troubles Timmy ends up being set upon by brutes in KKK
style hoods who steal the animals and for extra kicks- as well as the fact that
E.J. Hunter likes to write about things like this- strip Timmy naked and hang
him upside down from a tree. Leaving Timmy to fret that he'll probably be
beaten by his mother when she finds him like this. His mother having previously
whipped him after catching Timmy skinny dipping in the creek with another young
boy.
Maybe sensing that his audience needed a respite from the usual revenge plot,
Horn of Plenty finds Rebecca distracted by both the plight of her father and
the plight of Timmy's mother. A widow raising three small children, Grace
Phillips is attempting to keep the family farm afloat despite opposition from a
crooked bank manager and the hooded goons who put her son in bondage. This
series' attitude towards women is utterly schizophrenic. Hunter appears to
genuinely respect and admire tough, strong willed women like Grace Phillips and
Rebecca herself, who defy the chauvinistic attitudes of their time. Horn of
Plenty being yet another White Squaw book where Rebecca ruffles the feathers of
stuffy old farts with her unladylike language and proud admission that she cut
her Uncle's balls off. When it comes to younger females though, Hunter reverts
to this drooling sex freak who gets a charge out of making them the subject of
demeaning dirty talk. What with Luanna referred to as "steady pussy for
the boys" who "could suck a pecker pretty good".
Although its the eight book, Horn of Plenty manages a few series' firsts. We
get our first significant black character in the form of Marcus Roundtree, who
is very much of the Turk Turpin school of black sexual brutality, telling
Rebecca "I's gonna break yo'ah head- right after I split yo'ah crotch wits
dis donkey-sized tallywhacker o'mine".
Hunter also stumbles onto a new sexual fetish for the series, Maiesiophilia,
when Rebecca flashes back to being made love to by her husband, Four Horns,
while she was carrying their child. "There is not much time left...you and
I cannot lay together in the last months. It is not good for the child"
Four Horns tells the sex mad Rebecca. Such tender moments are rare for this
series, with this scene carrying extra poignancy, given that we know that both
Four Horns and the child will die soon after.
It is always easy to tell when a big sex scene is about to go down in a White
Squaw book, as Lone Wolf will find a reason to ride on ahead, leaving Rebecca
and her love interest to get down to business, preferably by an outdoor fire.
Lone Wolf's Native American abilities seemingly including a sixth sense of when
three's company. Rebecca's main beau for this book is Swift Bear, who it turns
out has loved Rebecca since she was enslaved by his tribe when he was just
thirteen. Swift Bear felt a kinship with Rebecca, relating to her struggles to
learn Sioux customs, on account of Swift Bear having been whisked away from his
people by Jesuit priests and forced to learn the ways of the white man. It's
his distinctly Native American chat up lines that get him into Rebecca's pants
though. "You are m-more beautiful than the Ptesanwin. You are a gift from
the Great Spirit" smooth talk that he sure didn't pick up from the
Jesuits.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn is perhaps the weakest aspect to Horn of
Plenty. As historic accuracy dictates that fictional characters can't play
significant roles in real life events. This means that Rebecca, Roger Styles,
Ezekiel et al have to be kept at arm's length from a major set piece in the
book. There is little love loss for General George Armstrong Custer within
these pages, with Hunter portraying him as a genocidal racist. When Custer is
asked if the killing of Native American women bothers him, Custer cold
bloodedly replies "nits make lice". As with the inclusion of Oscar
Wilde in the 18th White Squaw book, Hunter's motivation for working a real life
figure into the White Squaw world appears to be to give Custer a piece of his
mind, with Rebecca Caldwell acting as his mouthpiece. The Custer subplot also
allows Hunter to work in a reoccurring theme in the series. The white
authorities' reluctance to act against white men who commit crimes against
Indians. A constant source of frustration to Rebecca.
Hunter respectfully chooses to mostly have the Battle of the Little Bighorn
play out off-page, with what little that is depicted being dealt with in a
tasteful, non-explicit fashion, an uncharacteristic move for him. Indeed, the
inclusion of a real life battle appears to bring out a more introspective, soul
searching side to the White Squaw series than we have seen before. Being
reunited with her father and his people, gives Rebecca a sense of belonging and
pride in the Native American side of her identity. This however is immediately
robbed from her by the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Observing the deaths of
both whites and Indians, sickens the mixed race Rebecca 'Soldier or Sioux: at
their savage worst she saw little to chose between them. Would she ever fit
into either world'. In that sense, Horn of Plenty is the reverse of Soldier
Blue, this being about a Native American woman lamenting the mass slaughter of
whites and the moral stain on her culture that it will leave. Rebecca's fear
that the victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn will only increase the
whites' fear and hatred of Indians is immediately realized when she and Brett-
the heroes of the series- ride into a small town only to be met with threats
and racial abuse. One wonders if Hunter, who like many Men's Adventures authors
is rumoured to have served in Vietnam, personally related to the experience of
expecting a hero's welcome only to be faced with contempt and hostility. Horn
of Plenty ends with Rebecca seething at the way the White press martyrs Custer
while demonizing the Sioux. Rebecca vows to rehabilitate the image of the Sioux
as violent savages, while at the same time renewing her vow to hunt down,
castrate and kill the white men who wronged her. What can I say, Miss Rebecca
continues to be a woman of fascinating contradictions.
For a series driven by extreme gore and perverted sex, Horn of Plenty then ends
up unexpectedly delivering food for thought o'plenty... as well as the
inescapable sense that Custer sure had allot to answer for.
