The Contested Plains


Book Description

Deftly retracing a pivotal chapter in one of America's most dramatic stories, Elliott West chronicles the struggles, triumphs and defeats of both Indians and whites as they pursued their clashing dreams of greatness in the heart of the continent.




The Settlement of America


Book Description

First Published in 2015. This encyclopaedic collection includes Volumes 1 (A-L) and 2 (M-Z) as well as essays on the settlement of America. It can be argued that the westward expansion occurred only one week after the English landfall at Jamestown, Virginia, on May 14, 1607. Beginning on May 21, Captain John Smith, one of the colonization company’s leaders, and twenty-one companions made their way northwest up the James River for some 50 or 60 miles (80 or 96 km).




Washita


Book Description

An evenhanded account of a tragic clash of cultures On November 27, 1868, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer attacked a Southern Cheyenne village along the Washita River in present-day western Oklahoma. The subsequent U.S. victory signaled the end of the Cheyennes’ traditional way of life and resulted in the death of Black Kettle, their most prominent peace chief. In this remarkably balanced history, Jerome A. Greene describes the causes, conduct, and consequences of the event even as he addresses the multiple controversies surrounding the conflict. As Greene explains, the engagement brought both praise and condemnation for Custer and carried long-range implications for his stunning defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn eight years later.




The Sacred Path of Tears


Book Description

The Sacred Path of Tears is a journal written by a young Cheyenne Indian woman, nicknamed Mokee, during the Indian Wars in Kansas in the late 1860s. After Mokee and her companion observe the Sand Creek Massacre, they warn the other Indian camps along the Smoky Hill River. They take cover in a barn near Salina, Kansas, where they are discovered by a widow and her two sons. Mokee’s companion leaves to join the fight against the white soldiers but hating war, Mokee, with her lighter coloring, gains a safe haven with the widow’s family. She finds a mentor in the well-educated widow and embraces the opportunity to read and write English. As her life unfolds, Mokee is torn between two worlds at war and the two men she loves, one a white settler and the other her companion, who has become a Cheyenne Dog Soldier. Though war is her constant shadow, Mokee tries to find the purpose for her life and a path of peace in her war-torn world. “M.B. Tosi mixes history and fiction with believable characters and the result is a fascinating, enjoyable, and inspiring story.” - Jim Langford, author of The Spirit of Notre Dame




The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics


Book Description

Additional edition statement from dust jacket.




The Moccasin Speaks


Book Description

"In 1874, a band of hostile Indians, mostly Southern Cheyennes led by Medicine Water, massacred John German, his wife, and three of their children. Four other daughters were taken captive, among them, twelve-year old Sophia. Dog Soldier Chief Grey Beard's refusal to release the young girl prolonged the Red River War and the return of the Cheyennes to the reservation. Now, in The Moccasin Speaks, Sophia German's great-granddaughter, Arlene Jauken, recreates the compelling story of hte captive German daughters' struggle for survival. Jauken bases her work not only on years of research but also on the poignant stories passed on by her great-grandmother. Jauken brings the story full circle, as she chronicles the 1990 reconciliation ceremony between descendants of her family and the Southern Cheyennes whose ancestors claimed the lives of her great-great-grandparents"--Back cover




The Mammoth Book of the West


Book Description

Revised and expanded edition of Jon E. Lewis's ever-popular account of the American West. The book is at once a history and a compendium of western lore. It tells what life on the frontier was really like and gives a human portrait of the tough and sometimes violent way of life experienced by the early pioneers. The gunfighters and the cowboys, women, Indians and others, all have their part to play - and as well as the historical accounts there are intriguing anecdotes of everyday life on the plains, from how Montana cowboys warmed up their horses' bits, to the words of the Navajo medicine chants.




The Lance and the Shield


Book Description

Examines the life and leadership of Sitting Bull and focuses on the Sioux ethnology of the Hunkpapas tribe.




Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody


Book Description

Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody were considered heroes and the greatest plainsmen of their time. They were larger than life, legendary characters. They knew where to locate water, good grass for livestock, sheltered campsites, and game for hunting. They knew how to survive the blistering heat and terrific thunderstorms of summer and the subzero blizzards of winter. They could avoid Indians or act as trackers following the trails of Indians as well as desperados. They were expert marksmen and did not back down from a fight. They rushed in where others held back. Hickok, a frontier wagon and stagecoach driver, became a Union spy during the Civil War, furthering his reputation after the war as a frontier Army scout, gunfighter, and lawman. Cody, who claimed to ride for the Pony Express, served in the Union Army, and became legendary as an expert buffalo hunter and Army scout. Hickok and Cody were good friends and experienced a series of adventures together. Hickok traveled to Deadwood, Dakota Territory, during the 1876 Black Hills goldrush where he was assassinated by Jack McCall. Cody continued scouting for the Army and after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, won a one-on-one duel with a Cheyenne warrior, Yellow Hair. Cody went on to become one of the most well-known showmen in the world with his Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody: Plainsmen, the fourth book in the Legendary West series, explores the lives of these two well-known characters.