L'Amour employs many of the same techniques in Jubal Sackett that he used in Hondo (1953) at the beginning of his career. Jubal Sackett begins exactly like Hondo with a single man being tracked by a group of Indians. Again L'Amour portrays an independent man falling in love with a resourceful woman who is already desired by a fierce, hotheaded Indian (Kapata in Jubal Sackett, Silva in Hondo). In both novels, too, the Indian chief is portrayed as a wise, understanding man who struggles to keep the hothead under control and to protect the woman (Ni'kwana in Jubal Sackett, Vittoro in Hondo). Both novels are also filled with violent action with a least one confrontation between men or man and nature per chapter.

In the case of Jubal Sackett, however, L'Amour decides that what worked well once in a novel will work even better if used twice. Itchakomi is...