Indian Wars

I would recommend this book for anyone who is not a "buff" in the area of Native American history. It provides a good historical foundation in a rather sweeping treatment of the topic. I personally used this book as a spring board to jump into a fascinating historical treatment of Crazy Horse, as re-told by Sandoz in "Crazy Horse - Strange Man of the Oglalas". Had I not read Indian Wars first, I would not have enjoyed the latter nearly so much. Indian Wars is definitely a good place to start building your knowledge of American Indian wars and skirmishes.

This is a straight forward narrative history of the Indian Wars on the North American continent from the time English colonists arrived in the New World until the final confrontation between the US Government and the Sioux at Wounded Knee in 1890. As can be seen throughout the book the conflicts were almost inevitable. The perspective presented by the authors is that, "...both Indians and whites were products of their time and place, responding to the values, attitudes, and beliefs of their time and place, not ours....If war resulted, it was the collision of two ways of life, not the malevolent determination of one to overcome and victimize the other." (p. vi) As the authors point out, in the end the European strategy the Indians couldn't overcome, and one the Europeans couldn't control, was the overwhelming movement of Europeans and Americans onto and throughout the continent. It was the sheer number of Europeans and Americans along with their villages, towns, mines, and farms that overwhelmed any Indian resistance and way of life. What makes the book interesting is that it is a military history focused on the Indian Wars throughout the English history of North America; it therefore provides continuity throughout the centuries without being overshadowed by more conventional conflicts. Of interest in the early period is the impact of European wars on the relationships between whites and Indians in the east as the French and English allied with Indian tribes against their enemies. Lest anyone think the Europeans "used" the tribes in these wars it must be remembered that the tribes also used the Europeans to further their interests, in the end not caring about war or peace between the European rivals. Unfortunately the book is not as comprehensive as it could be since its focus is on the English/American wars with the Indians. It doesn't address relationships between the Indians and the French, nor, more significantly, does it cover the wars between the Spanish and the Indians -- wars which were fought just as relentlessly and left an even more negative relationship between Mexicans and Indians.

An excellent compendium of the relationships and interactions between discordant stone age peoples and numerous technologically superior counterparts. This book is written primarily from a Unites States Vs Native American perspective. However, it acknowledges US, British, French, Spanish, and Mexican interactions, all of which treated the American Indian in much the same way: Make them dependent on foreign technology, guns, powder, fabric, iron, food, transportation, etc., and use that dependence against them. All European influences exploited inter tribal differences, hatreds and animosities, fighting the American theater of European wars with Indians against Indians. All introduced diseases and some utilized germ warfare in defeating their Native American enemies. From the outset in 1492 the result was a foregone conclusion: Native Americans would be annihilated.This is the story of how it happened.

This is the book you want if you want a highly informative history of Indian Conflicts starting from Jamestown all the way to Wounded Knee. I virtually felt embarrassment reading about the early trends of the colonists to take advantage of Indians through the kidnapping and killing of chiefs to exploitation of their land and the constant pressure to move them west. From Bacon's (Bacon's Rebellion) attack of any Indians peaceful or otherwise in the 1600's to every conflict in the northeast to the west including King Phillip's War, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Mangas Colorado, Cochis, Commanche's, the Murdoc war. Includes the causes of war, the problem with reservations, Indian agents and the Armies strategies and commanders. A concise and thorough book that is your gateway for more detailed reading on the Indians of North America and their conflicts with manifest destiny.