Original Pen & Ink rendering. Frontiersman Andrew Garcia was the actual inspiration for the movie “Little Big Man”, starring Dustin Hoffman. Andrew Garcia was one of the first American pioneers of Hispanic descent to write his own story. His book, “Tough Trip Through Paradise” comprised of several thousand pages of manuscript, which was edited by Bennett H. Stein into a much more concise 460-page book, first printed by the Rock Foundation in 1967. Garcia worked for the Army as a packer, teamster, and herder from early 1876 on into 1878, and as a civilian employee with the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, arrived at the Little Big Horn the day after Custer and his immediate command were annihilated, observing their bodies lying on the battlefield. He then became a back-country merchant in Montana Territory in 1878, marrying a Nez Perce woman, In-who-lise, who had been wounded during the Battle of Big Hole in August 1877.

Back to Faces West Gallery