Blood Meridian

Glanton’s gang of scalp hunters travels into the mountains. As the men travel, one of the Native American guides is killed by a grizzly bear, though Glanton manages to shoot the animal. The three remaining Native American guides chase after the bear. They spend three days trying to track the animal before they give up and return to Glanton’s gang, which descends from the mountain and makes camp in ruins from a seemingly old and forgotten culture. In the evening, Holden makes detailed notes on everything which he finds. He sketches and describes everything he finds then throws these objects into the fire so that he can “expunge them from the memory of man” (100-01). The men discuss the idea of note-taking to capture the essence of a person, as they do not want to be removed from memory like the sketches.

Around the fire, Holden talks about a Native American man who feared that people could harm him by defacing his picture. Holden defends the man and discusses the people who have inhabited these lands for so long. Holden tells a story about a white harness maker who tried to disguise himself as a Native American to beg for money.