Plain Enemies: Best True Stories of the Frontier WestDistributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Caxton Press The years 1830-1870 were years of expansion west as the U.S. government encouraged patriots to civilize its great untamed wilderness. But the West was already occupied-by Native peoples. The conflicts that ensued are legendary, but many stories are yet to be told. Veteran author Bob Scott brings many of these more obscure stories to light. |
Contents
| iii | |
| 5 | |
| 37 | |
The World Aflame | 61 |
The Battle of Beecher Island | 81 |
Incredible Survival | 125 |
The Fetterman Massacre | 149 |
The Battle of Adobe Walls | 175 |
Custer Enters the War Washita | 191 |
Disaster at Powder River | 233 |
Little Big Horn | 249 |
Bibliography | 285 |
Index | 289 |
Common terms and phrases
Adobe Walls ammunition apparently Arikaree River army army's arrows battle battlefield Beecher Island began Black Kettle body braves buffalo camp canyon Captain captured casualties Charles Bent Cheyenne warriors civilians Colonel command Crazy Horse Custer dead death defenders desperate diers Dog Soldiers earlier enemy eventually Fetterman fight fled Fort Kearney Fort Ridgely Fort Wallace frontier George Custer girls gunfire Hancock hundred Indian attack Julesburg Kansas killed later Lieutenant Little Big Horn Little Crow Major Forsythe Major Reno Meeker miles military Minnesota minutes morning nearby Nebraska night ordered patrol Paul Wellman peace Prairie quickly raced raid Red Cloud rescue reservation ride ridge rifle riors River rode Roman Nose Sand Creek Massacre scalped scouts Segwick sent Sheridan shooting shot Sibley Sioux and Cheyenne Sioux warriors Sitting Bull Smoky Hill Southern Cheyennes stagecoach surrendered tepees trail tribe troops Utes valley wagon train white man's wounded
Popular passages
Page 36 - They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.
Page 124 - A smothered passion for revenge agitates these Indians, perpetually fomented by the failure of food, the encircling encroachments of the white population, and the exasperating sense of decay and impending extinction with which they are surrounded.
Page 120 - When the foe charged on the breastworks With the madness of despair, And the bravest souls were tested, The little Jew was there. When the weary dozed on duty, Or the wounded needed care, When another shot was called for, The little Jew was there.
Page 36 - A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo, and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry has the white man become a child that he should recklessly kill and not eat?
Page 232 - The way, and the only way to check and to stop this evil, is for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land as it was at first, and should be yet ; for it never was divided, but belongs to all for the use of each. That no part has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers ; those who want all, and will not do with less.
Page 232 - The only way to stop this evil is for all the red men to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land? as it was at first, and should be now — for it never was divided, but belongs to all. No tribe has a right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers, who demand all, and will take no less.
Page 36 - Such has been their fate heretofore, and if it is to be averted, and, it is, it can only be done by a general removal beyond our boundary, and by the reorganization of their political system upon principles adapted to the new relations in which they will be placed. The experiment which has been recently made, has so far proved successful. The emigrants generally are represented to be prosperous and contented, the country suitable to their wants and habits, and the essential articles of subsistence...
Page 120 - Man & Killt all the Horses We was without Grubb & Water all Day dug Holes in the sand whith our Hands Friday, September 18, 1868. in the night I dug my hole deeper cut of meat oof of the Horses & hung it up on Bushes, Indians made a charge on us at Day brake, but retreatet Kept Shooting nearly all day they Put up a White Flag, left us at 9 o clock in the evning Raind all night Saturday 19 the Indians came back again Kept sharp shooting all day 2 Boys startet for Fort Wallace Raind all night. Sunday...