Texas Secessionists Standoff: The 1997 Republic of Texas "War" by Donna Marie Miller (review)

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• Texas Secessionists Standoff: The 1997 Republic of Texas "War" by Donna Marie Miller
• Darren L. Ivey

Texas Secessionists Standoff: The 1997 Republic of Texas "War." By Donna Marie Miller. ( College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2023. Pp. 336. Photographs, bibliography, index.)

For more than fifty years, sustained political violence has been plaguing American society. Throughout this time period, disaffected groups, who range the ideological spectrum, have attacked property and people, even to the point of murder, to further their radical goals. Austin-based freelance journalist Donna Marie Miller's well-researched Texas Secessionists Standoff chronicles one episode in this tragic historical trend. The book examines the Republic of Texas (ROT) secessionist militia and its taking of hostages in the Davis Mountain Resort (DMR) near Fort Davis in April 1997. Miller has organized her twenty-five chapters into three parts: Before the ROT War, The ROT War, and After the ROT War.

Part I lays the foundation for the events that occurred in the Davis Mountains. Much of this portion relies on interviews Miller conducted with participants between 2017 and 2019. Richard McLaren, the self-appointed "ambassador" of the ROT, was convinced that Texas had been illegally annexed in 1845 and disputed the legitimacy of the state government. To further his ambitions, McLaren exploited the legal system to prosecute a "paper war" and challenge land titles in the DMR. He also began abusing adverse possession laws and filing liens against banks, churches, businesses, politicians, and even neighbors.

Even as she ably weaves various threads together to explain subsequent events, Miller focuses much of the first part on telling the story of Jo Anne Canady Turner, a wife, mother, and businesswoman who was floundering financially and anxious to escape the threat of foreclosure. Her desperation led to the fateful decision to aid the ROT in their endeavors. Although she was not in the Davis Mountains during the standoff, Turner is central to Miller's narrative.

Part II chronicles the seven-day confrontation in the DMR where several members of the ROT held Joe and Margaret Ann Rowe captive in their own home. Three hundred law enforcement officers responded, and Texas Ranger Captain Barry Caver served as the on-scene commander. He, Rangers David Duncan and Joe Malone, and FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner (who wrote the book's foreword) were instrumental in saving the Rowes. As this incident followed other altercations with extremists at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, both of which ended badly, Caver and his colleagues were especially eager to resolve the crisis without bloodshed. Ultimately, the ROT members were all peacefully taken into custody, except for one who chose to violently resist and was shot to death by law enforcement.

Part III conveys the aftermath in which McLaren and other ROT members stood trial in state and federal courts. Turner and her family [End Page 364] faced their own heartbreaking challenges, and Miller devotes a generous amount of space to bringing their story full circle. She concludes the book with a touching epilogue on how Turner found peace with God and herself. As mentioned, interviews with those involved are the core of this work, and Miller combines insider knowledge with archival research to present a compelling tale of fanaticism, deception, fear, and duty.

Darren L. Ivey Barton Community College, Great Bend, Kansas Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association ...