Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | 973.83 WES | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Oakdale Library | 973.83 WES | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 973.83 WES | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | 973.83 WES | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
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 Based on a rich cache of historical documents, from government and military records to contemporary interviews and newspaper reports, The Last Indian War offers a searing portrait of a moment when the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.
Author Notes
Elliott West is Professor of American History at the University of Arkansas.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A distinguished scholar of American history makes a significant contribution to Oxford's excellent series Pivotal Moments in American History in this definitive analysis of the United States' 1877 war with the Nez Perce. West (The Contested Plains) integrates a broad spectrum of sources to depict the fate of a people whose history of friendship with the U.S. dated to 1805. The Nez Perce were caught up in the questions posed by the Civil War and the period of expansion that followed: "who would be the Americans and what obligations would bind them together?" Such questions influenced Idaho and Oregon, where the Nez Perce lived, as much as Massachusetts and Virginia. The 1877 war, the Nez Perce's epic journey to reach the Canadian border, American conquest and Indian exile is the heart of the book, and West tells it brilliantly. No less compelling is his account of the Nez Perce taking up farming and making and selling Indian trinkets, developing their image as "beloved losers" and negotiating their return home-on white terms, but with honor and integrity upheld. 40 b&w illus., maps. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The so-called Nez Perce War of 1877 was one of the most unlikely, heroic, and tragic episodes in the history of the American West. Since encountering and helping to sustain the Lewis and Clark expedition, the several bands of the Nez Perce had maintained harmonious relations with the U.S. government. Then, after the government insisted that all of the bands relocate to a reservation well removed from their homeland, a band led by Chief Joseph resisted, leading the army on a 1,500-mile chase that ended just short of the Canadian border, capturing, in the process, the attention, even sympathy, of the general public. West, a professor of American history at the University of Arkansas, has written a detailed and often moving chronicle of the conflict. He lays the groundwork with an excellent analysis of Nez Perce culture on the eve of their flight. He also asserts provocatively that the effort to relocate the Nez Perce was part of the larger, post-Civil War federal strategy to overcome sectional and ethnic divisions. The highlight of the narrative is the flight of the approximately 800 Nez Perce, including the iconic figures Joseph and Looking Glass, as they strive to battle and break free of their pursuers. This is a superb reexamination of a sad but memorable story.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2009 Booklist
Choice Review
Chief Joseph and "I will fight no more forever" are familiar to many. West (Univ. of Arkansas) interprets the saga of the Nez Perce, including Chief Joseph, and deftly places it within the context of US history. His historian's eye provides more than a narrative of US exploitation. West perceives a "Greater Reconstruction" era that extends from about 1845 to 1877 as framing both the Civil War and westward expansion. Each was crucial in forming the US. Three issues challenged the country: size, the relationship of the central government to the states, and the nature of citizenship. The Nez Perce were ground up as the US groped toward decisions on these issues. Excellent writing illuminates the book's three parts: the Nez Perce and the "Greater Reconstruction," the war with the US, and the Indians' postwar exile and eventual return to near their homeland. Readers will appreciate West's eloquent description of traditional Nez Perce governance and his well-documented, well-articulated observations and conclusions. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. G. Gagnon University of North Dakota
Kirkus Review
A successful effort to understand both sides of the struggle between a stubbornly unassimilated Pacific Northwest tribe and the white world that steadily encroached on its turf. When Lewis and Clark encountered them in present-day Idaho in 1805, the Nez Perce found white men no mystery, writes West (American History/Univ. of Arkansas; The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado, 1998, etc.). The tribe already yearned for firearms and other attractive but scarce manufactured goods. For decades, they happily traded with trappers and travelers and welcomed missionaries. In the first of many misunderstandings, these religious proselytizers assumed the Nez Perce would discard their culture and become Christian farmers, while the tribe hoped missionaries would increase their worldly well-being. Since they considered themselves good people, the Nez Perce were puzzled efforts to persuade them they were miserable sinners. After 1840, they prospered trading with wagon trains heading for rich Oregon farmland. Most Nez Perce land was infertile, so another decade passed before settlers began moving in. Then followed years of intimidation and worthless treaties that steadily shrank the tribe's territory. Ordered to a reservation outside their lands in 1877, many members refused and took their families, horses and cattle on a legendary 1,500-mile flight toward Canada. The author writes a gripping, nearly day-by-day account of that epic journey, during which hundreds died while outnumbered warriors repeatedly defeated the surprisingly incompetent U.S. Army. Ironically, their flight and bitter surrender produced a wave of admiration across America for the Nez Perce. Their purported leader, Chief Joseph, became a national hero, but no one wanted to give back their land, so the tribe returned to its reservation. Histories of American Indians rarely end happily. Skilled storytelling drives an astute examination of a sad, complicated episode. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
West (American history, Univ. of Arkansas; The Contested Plains) uses the story of the Nez Perce War of 1877 and its origins and aftermath to illuminate the era of expansion and consolidation between 1845 and 1877 that forged the American identity, a period he calls the "Greater Reconstruction." Throughout his narrative, which begins with the early history of the Nez Perce and concludes with the death of Chief Joseph in 1904, he focuses on three underlying issues, seeing the Nez Perce from the perspective of the American West: whether a large and diverse republic could stay together, what the extent and limits of centralized authority were, and what were the nature and demands of citizenship. This framework allows the author to tie the specifics of his richly detailed narrative to the much larger national story and to present his characters in all their complexity. Based on extensive research in archival papers, government reports, and contemporary sources, this well-written book is an excellent place to start in understanding the Nez Perce War and is highly recommended for all libraries.-Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| List of Illustrations and Maps | p. xi |
| Editor's Note | p. xv |
| Preface | p. xvii |
| Timeline | p. xxvii |
| Part I | |
| Chapter 1 Real People | p. 3 |
| Chapter 2 Marks of Friendship | p. 20 |
| Chapter 3 The Place of the Butterflies | p. 35 |
| Chapter 4 "God Named This Land to Us" | p. 52 |
| Chapter 5 Gold, Prophecy, and the Steal Treaty | p. 75 |
| Chapter 6 "Conquering by Kindness" | p. 98 |
| Part II | |
| Chapter 7 "It Will Have to Be War!" | p. 123 |
| Chapter 8 Maneuvering and Scrapping | p. 137 |
| Chapter 9 Ways of Life, Ways of War | p. 152 |
| Chapter 10 Leaving Home | p. 169 |
| Chapter 11 Big Hole | p. 186 |
| Chapter 12 Toward Buffalo Country | p. 201 |
| Chapter 13 War in Wonderland | p. 214 |
| Chapter 14 "The Best Skirmishers in the World" | p. 230 |
| Chapter 15 Toward the Medicine Line | p. 243 |
| Part III | |
| Chapter 16 Under the Bear's Paw | p. 267 |
| Chapter 17 Going to Hell | p. 283 |
| Chapter 18 Eeikish Pah and Return | p. 301 |
| Epilogue | p. 315 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 322 |
| A Note on Sources | p. 325 |
| Notes | p. 329 |
| Index | p. 381 |
