Several things stand out about his [Andrew Bernstein's] essay.

First, it's obvious he's getting all of this from Hollywood, not history. Real cowboys were (and still are, in some places) working class people, ranchhands, laborers who did not get paid well and did not do glamorous work. He's fallen for the whole John Wayne myth. And John Wayne in real life was a draft dodger who never fought a real fight in his life outside of a barroom. Wayne even got his butt kicked by John Ford on their first movie together. Ford was himself a Marine Corps combat vet and disgusted by Wayne's skipping out of World War Two using Hollywood connections.

As an aside, "John Wayne" is an insulting nickname in the military. "Hey John Wayne" is what a drill sergeant will say to mock the wannabe Rambos in basic training.

Second, if he thinks cowboys spent a lot of time fighting "warlike Indians", again, that's Hollywood and not history. Most cowboys didn't even carry guns. They were in far more danger from white cattle rustlers anyway.

And many cowboys *were* and *are* Indians. And Mexicans. And blacks. Up to one half of all cowboys were not white. That's another part of what's so phony about John Wayne (who, incidentally, referred to himself as a white supremacist).

My mentor, Peter Iverson, wrote about Indian cowboys in his book When Indians Became Cowboys. Rodeos have long been very popular in Indian Country, and being a cowboy was a way to continue or adapt traditional lifestyles.

Finally, I'm truly appalled he would hold up the Texas Rangers as a model of behavior. The Rangers had one of the most brutal histories of any law enforcement agency in the nation, which is saying quite a lot.

It's every bit as bad as saying slave-catching patrols should be held up as role models.

Americo Paredes was the first historian to debunk the Ranger myth way back in the mid 1950s in his classic book With His Pistol In His Hand. Basically the Ranger Myth states:

1) White Texans are the greatest example of white Anglo Saxon manhood.

2) Rangers are the greatest example of white Texans.

3) Mexicans are the lowest example of mongrel races, because they are descended from Mexico's Indians and Spaniards, the lowest kinds of Indians and Europeans.

4) One Ranger can beat ten inferior Mexicans easily.

As you can see, the myth is racist to the core, through and through.

Paredes turned the myth on its head in his book and showed that:

1) Rangers were as cowardly as they were brutal in their approach to law enforcement. Far from being heroic, they would execute or ambush on the spot any Mexicans that were handy when a crime was committed.

2) Far from acting alone as "rugged individualists" or being revered, other law enforcement and the military complained they were always having to clean up their messes after the fact. Frequently the National Guard had to be called in to quell riots after the Rangers executed innocents.

By 1900, even most Anglos were fed up with the Rangers and wanted them disbanded. Then two episodes insured their survival.

A ranchhand named Gregorio Cortes was falsely accused of murdering a deputy. The Rangers launched a manhunt and were able to use the episode to gather support.

Cortes was finally freed after several trials and more than a decade in prison.

@1915, there was a plot for an uprising in San Diego Texas by Mexican anarchists. The Rangers and National Guard suppressed it very brutally, killing up to 5,000 people in two counties. James Sandos in his book Rebellion in the Borderlands called it "ethnic cleansing" of the counties' Mexicans.

The Rangers were criticized from the very beginning of their existence as racist paramilitary thugs and not heroes in any sense. Mexican children even had a nursery rhyme, still being sung as late the 1950s:

Rinche is slang for ranger. Pinche is the f-word. Roughly, the rhyme translates as "Ranger will f--- you up, f--- the ranger". That should tell you just how badly they were and are hated by the Mexican community.