Traveler's Guide to the Great Sioux War: The Battlefields, Forts, And Related Sites Of America'S Greatest Indian War

by Paul L. Hedren

Waged over the glitter of Black Hills gold, the Sioux War of 1876-77 transformed the entire northern plains from Indian and buffalo country to the domain of miners, cattlemen, and other Euro-American settlers. Keyed to official highway maps, this richly illustrated guide leads the traveler to virtually every principal landmark associated with the war, from Fort Phil Kearny where the Sioux besieged soldiers sent to guard the Bozeman Trail in the 1860s to Fort Buford, the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.

Genres: Military History, History, War

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

A native Minnesotan, Paul Hedren retired from the National Park Service in 2007 after nearly thirty-seven years as a park historian and superintendent at such storied places as Fort Laramie National Historic Site, Wyoming, the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah, and the Niobrara National Scenic River in Nebraska.

Paul is also a lifelong writer and the author of scores of scholarly and popular articles plus eleven books, with stories largely focusing on the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and particularly that conflict’s subtleties and consequences. Paul’s won numerous writing awards including a Spur from the Western Writers of America, the Vivian Paladin Award from the Montana Historical Society, and the Herbert Schell Award from the South Dakota State Historical Society. In 2011 his book After Custer: Loss and Transformation in Sioux Country won a prestigious Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, and also the Sills Book Prize from the Custer Battlefield Historical & Museum Association.

Reviews

[Feiraco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is simply a good travel book on the Sioux War of 1876-1877 with an excellent wrap-up of the events and good guidance on how to visit the places. I myself have already read many books on this history and keep my own list of interesting places, and therefore didn’t find many new aspects in Hedren’s book. But for someone with just basic knowledge, or no knowledge of the events at all, this book is excellent material. It will tell you in 120 short pages what happened, where it happened, and what can be found there now. More than 50 places are listed, but I do think that some of them are doubtful to be mentioned in this guide. That’s especially the case if nothing really happened back then and there’s not much to see these days. For example, a minor battle on a big empty space with no markers will ask a lot of your imagination. But, of course, some of the most notorious places are covered like the Little Bighorn battlefield. So, if you plan to visit the Great Plains and are looking for some help, this is your book!