| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xxxi, 412 pages : illustrations, maps : 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [379]-389) and index. |
| Contents |
The Indians and the land -- Defeat and duplicity -- Black Hills fever -- The road to war -- The army takes the field -- Collision course -- "The soldiers are right here!" -- The Indians consolidate -- Blundering along the Yellowstone -- The march of the Dakota column -- Crook tries again -- The march to the Rosebud -- Crook defeated -- The "unknown quantity" -- Terry changes plans -- The trail to disaster -- The Little Bighorn -- Catastrophe on the ridges -- Valley of the dead -- "So different from the outcome we had hoped for" -- "Congress is...willing to give us all we want" -- "First scalp for Custer" -- The long, terrible summer -- Bloody retribution at Slim Buttes -- Showdown at the agencies -- "The beginning of the end" -- The noose tightens -- The end for the Cheyennes -- Opportunity lost -- Wolf Mountain: Crazy Horse defeated -- Surrender -- Aftermath. |
| Summary |
It was 1876, The Black Hills, which overlap the boundary between South Dakota and Wyoming, had become the last important battleground of a tragic war against the Indians. The Indians were to be trapped in a three-pronged attack by General Crook, General Terry, and Colonel Custer, but the rugged country - where the temperature could often dip thirty to forty degrees in just a few hours - thwarted almost every foray. By the time the campaign had ended, the army had suffered several major reversals: Custer and his troops were massacred at the Little Bighorn and General George Crook met with near-disaster at the Rosebud; the brilliant Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse was dead; Sitting Bull and his band had been driven to Canada; and the military power of the Sioux and the Northern Cheyennes was broken. The government achieved its aims, but the casualties both sides had suffered made these wars the most unnecessary ever fought between the federal government and the Indians. |
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Much of the dramatic narrative is based on first-hand accounts of the participants, diaries and letters of American soldiers, and the oral histories of many of the Indians who fought them. |
| Subject |
Black Hills War, 1876-1877.
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Dakota Indians -- Government relations.
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Dakota Indians -- Land tenure.
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Black Hills (S.D. and Wyo.) -- History -- 19th century.
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| Other Form: |
Online version: Robinson, Charles M., 1949- Good year to die. 1st ed. New York : Random House, c1995 (OCoLC)624433814 |
| ISBN |
0679430253 hardcover : cover |
|
9780679430254 hardcover : cover |
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