Two Great Scouts: And Their Pawnee Battallion (Expanded, Annotated)


Book Description

Few Americans realize how many Native Americans served as scouts and guides for the U.S. Army during the Indian wars of the late 19th century. This is the true story of one battallion of Pawnees organized and led by the famous scouts, the North brothers. A scout's life was hard and often short but they were essential to army operations in the West, as few army officers had knowledge of the tribes or terrain. The North brothers knew the lay of the land and spoke Pawnee. George Bird Grinnell knew the Norths. He is one of our premier historians, anthropologists, and naturalists of the Old West. He accompanied General George Armstrong Custer on the 1874 Black Hills Expedition and has some interesting things to say about Custer in this book. Grinnell was also key to the protection of Yellowstone Park and the establishment of Glacier National Park. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the migration that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.




An Army Boy of the Sixties (Expanded, Annotated)


Book Description

The American Civil War was nearly over when Als Ostrander finally convinced his father to let him join the army at the age of 18. Though he didn't see action in that war, he had plenty of adventure during three years of service. He was selected to serve on the staff of General Philip St. George Cooke, who wrote the manual for the Civil War cavalry. With General Cooke, he went out west to the frontier, where he had occasions to meet General of the Army, Ulysses S. Grant, General William Tecumseh Sherman (with whom he shared a smoke), General George Thomas, and even famed scout, Jim Bridger. Throughout this wonderful memoir, Ostrander heaps unsparing, self-deprecating humor onto his young self as he tells of crossing territory full of hostile bands of Indians, climbing Scott's Bluff, and in general not knowing quite what soldiering was all about. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the westward movement that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.




Legend: Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard (Expanded, Annotated)


Book Description

That Frank Grouard was an important figure in the history of the Indian wars of the Great Plains is beyond any doubt. Nor can there be the slightest doubt of Grouard's position among his fellows, including General George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, and Chicago Times correspondent, John Finerty. Six feet tall and 200 pounds of muscle, Grouard (also spelled Gruard) was well acquainted with Indian life. He knew Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and most of the Native American leaders. Having been captured by the Sioux, he spent years with them learning their language and ways, becoming accepted as one of their own. Returning to white society, he put what he knew to use as one of the greatest army scouts of the Old West. In the Great Sioux War of 1876, he was a scout for General Crook's Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition that was supposed to unite with Custer's Seventh Cavalry to bring the Sioux and Cheyenne into reservations. Grouard fought with Crook at the Battle of the Rosebud just eight days before Custer was wiped out by the same Indians under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. By the time this book was written in 1894, Grouard was known all over the country. His exciting accounts of Indian life and the Indian Wars is a seminal contribution to our knowledge of the period. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the events that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.




MacKenzie's Last Fight with the Cheyennes (Expanded, Annotated)


Book Description

With the tension and excitement of a novelist, and the humor of a Mark Twain, soldier-scholar John G. Bourke wrote about one of the most important battles of the Great Sioux War, of which he was a participant. John Bourke’s contribution to the history of the so-called Indian Wars cannot be overestimated. It is not as a soldier that he is best remembered, but as an anthropologist, ethnologist, folklorist, scientist, and writer—amazing for a man who was in uniform from the ages of 16 to 50. Here he detailed Ranald MacKenzie's final fight with the Cheyenne under Dull Knife in the bitter cold of winter, 1876. These were some of the same warriors who had months earlier sent General George Armstrong Custer and five companies of 7th Cavalry troopers to an early grave at the Little Bighorn. Written as only Bourke could have done, this short account is a forgotten American classic. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.




War Party in Blue


Book Description

Between 1864 and 1877, during the height of the Plains Indian wars, Pawnee Indian scouts rendered invaluable service to the United States Army. They led missions deep into contested territory, tracked resisting bands, spearheaded attacks against enemy camps, and on more than one occasion saved American troops from disaster on the field of battle. In War Party in Blue, Mark van de Logt tells the story of the Pawnee scouts from their perspective, detailing the battles in which they served and recounting hitherto neglected episodes. Employing military records, archival sources, and contemporary interviews with current Pawnee tribal members—some of them descendants of the scouts—Van de Logt presents the Pawnee scouts as central players in some of the army's most notable campaigns. He argues that military service allowed the Pawnees to fight their tribal enemies with weapons furnished by the United States as well as to resist pressures from the federal government to assimilate them into white society. According to the author, it was the tribe's martial traditions, deeply embedded in their culture, that made them successful and allowed them to retain these time-honored traditions. The Pawnee style of warfare, based on stealth and surprise, was so effective that the scouts' commanding officers did little to discourage their methods. Although the scouts proudly wore the blue uniform of the U.S. Cavalry, they never ceased to be Pawnees. The Pawnee Battalion was truly a war party in blue.




Northwestern Fights and Fighters (Expanded, Annotated)


Book Description

One of the most important collections of first-hand accounts of the Indian wars of the west is contained in this volume. Not as famous as the Little Bighorn fight, the Nez Perce and Modoc Wars were prominent conflicts between whites and Native Americans that brought the period of Indian Wars to a close. Included in this book are accounts by Chief Joseph, Edward Godfrey, General O.O. Howard, and others who fought in what was then considered the northwest: Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. An account and analysis of the Custer fight is also in this book, as is a letter by Libby Custer to the New York Times protesting the depiction of her late husband. Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the conflicts that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.




The Fighting Cheyennes


Book Description

Grinnel lived among the Cheyenne in the latter part of the 19th century. He was a deeply sympathetic observer of Indian life & culture. In this volume Grinnell gathered both Cheyenne & White accounts of the many battles between the two. He carefully explored Cheyenne culture & the way the Cheyenne to the threats on an alien society.










Battlefields of Nebraska


Book Description

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press Today, the state of Nebraska is as peaceful a place as one is likely to find in America. But that wasn't always the case. Because of its geographic location near the center of the continent and astride the most convenient east-west routes, Nebraska has been the scene of some of the most significant clashes in western history.