The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846-1890

by Jerry Keenan

Overview

Expansion! The history of the United States might well be summed up in that single word. The Indian Wars of the American West were a continuation of the struggle that began with the arrival of the first Europeans, and escalated as they advanced across the Appalachians before American independence had been won.

This history of the Indian Wars of the Trans-Mississippi begins with the earliest clashes between Native Americans and Anglo-European settlers. The author provides a comprehensive narrative of the conflict in eight parts, covering eight geographical regions--the Pacific Northwest; California and Nevada; New Mexico, the Central Plains, the Southern Plains; Iowa, Minnesota and the Northern Plains; the Intermountain West, and the Desert Southwest--with an epilogue on Wounded Knee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476623108
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/27/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	504
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jerry Keenan has written for America’s Civil War, Wild West and Journal of the West. Retired from the publishing industry, he lives in Longmont, Colorado.
Jerry Keenan has written for America's Civil War, Wild West and Journal of the West. Retired from the publishing industry, he lives in Longmont, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface
Timeline
Introduction
I—The Pacific Northwest
Prologue: The Oregon Country
Death on the Rye Grass: The Whitman Massacre and the Cayuse War, 1847–1855
Isaac Stevens
“Nits make lice”: The Rogue River Wars, 1851–1857
The War of 1853
The War of 1855
The Yakima and Coastal Wars, 1856–1858
II—California and Nevada
Prologue: Bloody El Dorado
The Mariposa War, 1850–1851
The Mendocino War, 1859–1860
Nevada’s Paiute War, 1860
The Owens Valley War, 1862–1863
War with the Northern Paiutes: Indian Raids Along the Western Segment of the Overland Trail, 1864–1868
Chinese Massacre
Crook and the Paiutes
Hell with the Fires Gone Out: The Modoc War, 1872–1873
III—New Mexico
Prologue: Poco Tiempo
Navajo Wars
The Missouri Volunteers Arrive
The Ugliest Man in the Army
Sandoval
Colonel Edwin Vose Bull Sumner
Fort Defiance
Henry Dodge
Governor David Meriwether
Kit Caron Reports
Jornada del Muerto
Chandler-Eaton Expedition
Colonel Benjamin L.E. Bonneville
The Black Jim War
Colonel Edward R.S. Canby and Major Henry Hopkins Sibley
Manuel Chavez, Navajo Fighter
The Arrival of Colonel James Henry Carleton
Kit Carson’s Expedition to Canyon de Chelly
The Long Walk of the Navajo
IV—The Central Plains
Prologue: Pike’s Peak or Bust
The 1851 Horse Creek Treaty
Fort Laramie
1853 Overture
Grattan Massacre
“By God I’m for battle—no peace”
Blue Water Expedition
Bull Sumner Takes the Field
To Colorado
Governor John Evans
Colonel John Milton Chivington
The Hungate Massacre
The 3rd Colorado Volunteers
Sand Creek
The Tappan Commission Investigates
The War of 1865
Attack on Julesburg
Mud Springs and Rush Creek
The Connor Expedition
Colonel Thomas Moonlight
Colonel Nelson Cole, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker and Colonel James H. Kidd
The Platte Bridge Fight
Connor Attacks Black Bear’s Village
The Odyssey of Cole and Sawyer
Hancock Takes the Field
The Kidder Tragedy
Custer Is ­Court-Martialed
Philip H. Sheridan
The Battle of Beecher Island
The Battle of Summit Springs
V—The Southern Plains
Prologue: Llano Estacado
Conflict on the Southern Plains
The Texas Rangers
Captain Randolph B. Marcy
The Comanche: Lords of the Southern Plains
John Robert Baylor
The Battle of the Washita
Enter the Quakers
The Warren Wagon Train Raid
Quanah Parker
The Red River (Buffalo) War
Adobe Walls
Colonel Nelson Appleton Miles
The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon
The Mexican Border Crisis
VI—Iowa, Minnesota and the Northern Plains
Prologue: Little Crow to Sitting Bull
Conflict on the Northern Plains: War with the Arickaras
Spirit Lake, Iowa, 1857
Bloodbath in the Heartland: Minnesota, Summer 1862
Sunday, August 17, 1862
The Santees
Little Crow
The Uprising Begins
First Attack on New Ulm
Attack on Fort Ridgely
Second Attack on New Ulm
The Battle of Birch Coulee
General John Pope Is Appointed Department Commander
Fort Abercrombie
The Battle of Wood Lake and the End of the Uprising
The Release of the Hostages
The Hanging of the Condemned Santees
The Death of Little Crow
The Dakota Campaigns of Sibley and Sully, Summer 1863–1864
The Battle of Big Mound
The Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake
The Battle of Whitestone Hill
The Minnesota Brigade
The Battle of Killdeer Mountain
The Teton Lakota: Lords of the Northern Plains
Gold and Fire: Red Cloud’s War, 1866–1868
The Bozeman Trail
Fort Phil Kearny: The Hated Post on the Piney
The Fetterman Disaster
The Amazing Ride of Portugee Phillips
The Hayfield and Wagon Box Fights, August 1867
The 1868 Laramie Treaty
Massacre on the Marias River, January 23, 1870
The Northern Pacific Railroad
Custer Meets the Sioux
Custer’s 1874 Black Hills Expedition
The Great Sioux War
Reynolds Attacks the Cheyenne on Powder River, March 17, 1876
The Battle of the Rosebud, June 17, 1876
The Little Bighorn: Custer’s Nadir, June 25, 1876
The “first scalp for Custer”
The Battle of Slim Buttes
Mackenzie’s Attack on Dull Knife’s Village
The Wolf Mountain Campaign
The End of the Great Sioux War
The Surrender and Death of Crazy Horse
The Flight of the Nez Perce
The Battle of White Bird Canyon
Joseph Surrenders
Flight of the Northern Cheyennes, 1878–1879
Sitting Bull Surrenders, 1881
VII—The Intermountain West
Prologue: The Ute Crisis
Mormon Troubles
Walkara’s War
Conflict in the Mountains
Connor Attacks Bear Hunter’s Village
Colorado Gold
The Blackhawk War
The Bannack Uprising, 1878
The Ute War and the Meeker Massacre, 1879
The Battle of Milk Creek, September 1879
The Sheepeater War, 1879
VIII—The Desert Southwest
Prologue: West of South and South of West
Outposts on the Colorado: Clashes with the Yumas and Mojaves, 1849–1858
Apacheria
The Apache versus the Spanish
The Apache versus Mexico
Mangas Coloradas
The Norte Americanos
John Russell Bartlett and the Mexican Boundary Survey
The Acoma Peace Agreement
The Butterfield Overland Mail Route
Michael Steck
War with the Americans: The Bascom Affair
Cochise Takes the Offensive
Colonel James Henry Carleton
The Battle of Apache Pass
The Death of Mangas Coloradas
The Rise of Cochise
The Camp Grant Massacre
Crook Arrives in Arizona
Thomas Jeffords
Howard Meets Cochise
Crook’s Grand Offensive
The Salt River Cave Fight
The Death of Cochise
John Clum
The Emergence of Victorio
The Rise of Geronimo
The Cibecue (Cibicue) Affair, August 1881
The Return of General Crook
Emmett Crawford and Charles Gatewood
The McComas Murders
Tom Horn
Crook Meets with Geronimo
Miles Replaces Crook
Miles Meets with Geronimo
Epilogue
Wounded Knee, South Dakota, December 1890
Notes
Recommended Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

recommend.... Civil War buffs will get a kick out of seeing the pre- and post-Civil War careers of some great Union and Confederate officers”—Civil War News; “the chronological timeline is very valuable and the book has a good index and a solid list of recommended readings. Full of interesting stories about individuals and events and the author’s candid commentary, the book is engaging and a useful reference source”—ARBA; “a comprehensive examination of the wars between European immigrants and indigenous peoples throughout the Western United States between 1846 and 1890”—ProtoView; “a comprehensive narrative...fill[s] a void by presenting a new inclusive study of the Western Indian Wars, one that enables readers to arrive at a fresh and more enlightened view of these terrible conflicts and emerge with a deeper understanding of how they developed and the lamentable consequences that resulted...tells what happened; what brought on the wars, and how they were prosecuted...Keenan has filled the need for an all-encompassing single volume history of the Western Indian wars...brings together the most recent works in the field, and from them distills a comprehensive, readable narrative, historically accurate, yet without the minutiae found in more detailed studies of individual campaigns and battles”—SirReadaLot.org.

From the Publisher