This newest volume in Oxford's acclaimed Pivotal Moments series offers an unforgettable portrait of the Nez Perce War of 1877, the last great Indian conflict in American history. It was, as Elliott West shows, a tale of courage and ingenuity, of desperate struggle and shattered hope, of short-sighted government action and a doomed flight to freedom.
To tell the story, West begins with the early history of the Nez Perce and their years of friendly relations with white settlers. In an initial treaty, the Nez Perce were promised a large part of their ancestral homeland, but the discovery of gold led to a stampede of settlement within the Nez Perce land. Numerous injustices at the hands of the US government combined with the settlers' invasion to provoke this most accomodating of tribes to war. West offers a riveting account of what came next: the harrowing flight of 800 Nez Perce, including many women, children and elderly, across 1500 miles of mountainous and difficult terrain. He gives a full reckoning of the campaigns and battles—and the unexpected turns, brilliant stratagems, and grand heroism that occurred along the way. And he brings to life the complex characters from both sides of the conflict, including cavalrymen, officers, politicians, and—at the center of it all—the Nez Perce themselves (the Nimiipuu, "true people"). The book sheds light on the war's legacy, including the near sainthood that was bestowed upon Chief Joseph, whose speech of surrender, "I will fight no more forever," became as celebrated as the Gettysburg Address.
Based on a rich cache of historical documents, from government and military records to contemporary interviews and newspaper reports, The Last Indian War offers a searing portrait of a moment when the American identity—who was and who was not a citizen—was being forged.
ISBN-13: 9780199769186
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 05-27-2011
Pages: 432
Product Dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Series: Pivotal Moments in American History
Elliott West is Professor of American History at the University of Arkansas.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations and Maps
Editor's Note
Preface
Timeline
Part I
1. Real People
2. Marks of Friendship
3. The Place of Butterflies
4. "God Named This Land to Us"
5. Gold, Prophecy, and the Steal Treaty
6. "Conquering by Kindness"
Part II.
7. "It Will Have to Be War!"
8. Maneuvering and Scrapping
9. Ways of Life, Ways of War
10. Leaving Home
11. Big Hole
12. Toward Buffalo Country
13. War in Wonderland
14. "The Best Skirmishers in the World"
15. Toward the Medicine Line
Part III.
16. Under the Bear's Paw
17. Going to Hell
18. Eeikish Pah and Return
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources
Notes
Index
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