Research Catalog

Title

Blue Water Creek and the first Sioux war, 1854-1856 / R. Eli Paul.

Author

Paul, R. Eli, 1954-

Publication

Norman : University Of Oklahoma Press, c2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 260 p. : ill., maps; 23 cm.

Summary

"In previous accounts, the U.S. Army's first clashes with the powerful Sioux tribe appear as a set of irrational events with a cast of improbable characters - a Mormon cow, a brash lieutenant, a drunken interpreter, an unfortunate Brule chief, and an incorrigible army commander. R. Eli Paul shows instead that the events that precipitated General William Harney's attack on Chief Little Thunder's Brule village foreshadowed the entire history of conflict between the United States and the Lakota people." "Brevet 2nd Lieutenant John Grattan set the stage when, in August 1854, his small command marched into a Brule camp near Fort Laramie to arrest a Lakota man. Grattan's rash decision to fire on the camp cost him, his interpreter, and twenty-nine soldiers their lives. A year later, sent to Nebraska Territory to avenge this loss, General Harney sighted a village on the banks of Blue Water Creek. His force attacked Little Thunder's village, killing dozens of men, women, and children and taking others captive on a battlefield that stretches across a buffalo ranch now owned by television mogul Ted Turner."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Campaigns and commanders ; v. 6

Uniform Title

Campaigns and commanders v. 6.

Subject

• Little Thunder, Chief
• Harney, William S. 1800-1889
• 1855
• Blue Water Creek, Battle of, Neb., 1855 > Personal narratives
• Dakota Indians > Wars > Sources
• Dakota Indians > Government relations

Genre/Form

• Personal narratives
• Sources
• Récits personnels.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-245) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Origins -- Reluctant executioner -- Overland -- Upriver -- Since killing the soldiers -- Blue Water Creek and the day of retribution -- Arms raised, palms forward, peace -- Memory and legacy.

ISBN

0806135905

LCCN

^^2004047884

OCLC

• 54826176
• SCSB-11225667

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library