A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West.

History

McDermott, John D.

Americas

The University of Nebraska Press

From 1860 to 1890 the United States military engaged in war after war with the indigenous peoples of the West. Although numerous treaties recognized the rights of individual tribes, the U.S. government often did nothing to stop settlers from expanding into Indian territory. Some Indians fled, and others attempted to coexist with the newcomers, but many fought against the loss of homelands and traditional ways of life. Superior numbers, organization, and technology benefited the United States, yet Indian resistance was often skillful, heroic, and tenacious. 
This informative work serves as a guide to the battlefields and fits the episodes into the larger historical drama. John D. McDermott, who has spent a lifetime researching the events, discusses the equipment, organization, and lifeways of the combatants. He explains circumstances underlying the encounters and analyzes the significance of events. This detailed guide also leads students, tourists, and history buffs to monuments, parks, museums, and other sources of information about the wars.

A Guide to the Indian Wars of the West (Bison Book)

Bison Books

The year 1865 was bloody on the Plains as various Indian tribes, including the Southern Cheyenne and the Southern Sioux, joined with their northern relatives to wage war on the white man. They sought revenge for the 1864 massacre at Sand Creek, when John Chivington and his Colorado volunteers nearly wiped out a village of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. The violence in eastern Colorado spread westward to Fort Laramie and Fort Caspar in southeastern and central Wyoming, and then moved north to the lands along the Wyoming-Montana border.

Circle of Fire: The Indian War of 1865

Stackpole Books

Circle of Fire: The Indian War of 1865 (Stackpole Classics)

On a cold December day in 1866, Captain William J. Fetterman disobeyed orders and spurred his men across Lodge Trail Ridge in pursuit of a group of retreating Lakota Sioux, Arapahos, and Cheyennes. He saw a perfect opportunity to punish the tribes for harassing travelers on the Bozeman Trail and attacking wood trains sent out from nearby Fort Phil Kearny. In a sudden turn of events, his command was, within moments, annihilated. John D. McDermott’s masterful retelling of the Fetterman Disaster is just one episode of Red Cloud’s War, the most comprehensive history of the Bozeman Trail yet written.
In vivid detail, McDermott recounts how the discovery of gold in Montana in 1863 led to the opening of the 250-mile route from Fort Laramie to the goldfields near Virginia City, and the fortification of this route with three military posts. The road crossed the Powder River Basin, the last, best hunting grounds of the Northern Plains tribes. Oglala chief Red Cloud and his allies mounted a campaign of armed resistance against the army and Montana-bound settlers. Among a host of small but bloody clashes were such major battles as the Fetterman Disaster, the Wagon Box Fight, and the Hayfield Fight, all of them famous in the annals of the Indian Wars.
McDermott’s spellbinding narrative offers a cautionary tale of hubris and mis-calculation. The United States Army suffered one setback after another; what reputation for effectiveness it had gained during the Civil War dissipated in the skirmishing in faraway Big Horn country.
In a thoughtful conclusion, McDermott reflects on the tribes’ victories and the consequences of the Treaty of 1868. By successfully defending their hunting grounds, the Northern Plains tribes delayed an ultimate reckoning that would come a decade later on the Little Bighorn, on the Red Forks of the Powder River, at Slim Buttes, at Wolf Mountain, and in a dozen other places where warrior and trooper met in the final clashes on the western plains.
The leather-bound collector's edition is limited to fifty-five numbered and signed copies in a handsome slipcase, of which fifty are offered for sale.

Red Cloud's War: The Bozeman Trail, 1866-1868 (2 Volume Set) (Volume 30)

The Arthur H. Clark Company

The definitive history of the Bozeman Trail On a cold December day in 1866, Captain William J. Fetterman disobeyed orders and spurred his men across Lodge Trail Ridge in pursuit of a group of retreating Lakota Sioux, Arapahos, and Cheyennes. He saw a perfect opportunity to punish the tribes for harassing travelers on the Bozeman Trail and attacking wood trains sent out from nearby Fort Phil Kearny. In a sudden turn of events, his command was, within moments, annihilated. John D. McDermott’s masterful retelling of the Fetterman Disaster is just one episode of Red Cloud’s War, the most comprehensive history of the Bozeman Trail yet written. In vivid detail, McDermott recounts how the discovery of gold in Montana in 1863 led to the opening of the 250-mile route from Fort Laramie to the goldfields near Virginia City, and the fortification of this route with three military posts. The road crossed the Powder River Basin, the last, best hunting grounds of the Northern Plains tribes. Oglala chief Red Cloud and his allies mounted a campaign of armed resistance against the army and Montana-bound settlers. Among a host of small but bloody clashes were such major battles as the Fetterman Disaster, the Wagon Box Fight, and the Hayfield Fight, all of them famous in the annals of the Indian Wars. McDermott’s spellbinding narrative offers a cautionary tale of hubris and mis-calculation. The United States Army suffered one setback after another; what reputation for effectiveness it had gained during the Civil War dissipated in the skirmishing in faraway Big Horn country. In a thoughtful conclusion, McDermott reflects on the tribes’ victories and the consequences of the Treaty of 1868. By successfully defending their hunting grounds, the Northern Plains tribes delayed an ultimate reckoning that would come a decade later on the Little Bighorn, on the Red Forks of the Powder River, at Slim Buttes, at Wolf Mountain, and in a dozen other places where warrior and trooper met in the final clashes on the western plains. The leather-bound collector's edition is limited to fifty-five numbered and signed copies in a handsome slipcase, of which fifty are offered for sale.

Red Cloud's War: The Bozeman Trail, 1866–1868 (Volume 30) (Frontier Military Series)

Forlorn Hope: The Battle of White Bird Canyon and the Beginning of the Nez Perce War

Idaho State Historical Society

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