Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West

by Bill Yenne

" Splendid. . . .a book that has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."— Wall Street Journal "As complete and balanced an overview of nearly a century of fighting between the U.S. Army and dozens of Indian nations as there is." —Martin Naparsteck, Salt Lake Tribune "Excellent. . . . Indian Wars is an outstanding introduction to the 'longest campaign ever waged by any of the United States armed forces.' It also has the virtue of speaking eloquently to the past while offering valuable guidance for the future." —Military.com The Indian wars remain the most misunderstood campaign ever waged by the U. S. Army. From the first sustained skirmishes west of the Mississippi River in the 1850s to the sweeping clashes of hundreds of soldiers and warriors along the upper plains decades later, these wars consumed most of the active duty resources of the army for the greater part of the nineteenth century and resulted in the disruption of nearly all of the native cultures in the West. Yet the popular understanding of the Indian wars is marred by stereotypes and misinformation as well as a tendency to view these individual wars—the battles against the Sioux, the Cheyenne, the Nez Perce, the Apache, and other groups—as distinct incidents rather than parts of a single overarching campaign. Dispelling notions that American Indians were simply attempting to stop encroachment on their homelands or that they shared common views on how to approach the Europeans, Bill Yenne explains in Indian The Campaign for the American West , that these wars, fought for more than five decades across a landscape the size of continental Europe, were part of a general long-term strategy by the U. S. Army to control the West as well as extensions of conflicts among native peoples that predated European contact. Complete with a general history of Indian and European relations from the earliest encounters to the opening of the west, and featuring legendary figures from both sides, including Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, George Custer, Kit Carson, and George Crook, Indian Wars allows the reader to better understand the sequence of events that transformed the West and helped define the American temperament.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Native American History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Bill Yenne is the author of several novels and over three dozen books on historical topics. He has also been a contributor to encyclopedias of both world wars.

The New Yorker wrote of Sitting Bull, his biography of the great Lakota leader, that it "excels as a study in leadership." This book was named to the number 14 spot among Amazon's 100 Best Books of the Year.

Library Journal observed that "enthusiastic World War II readers will be drawn to" his dual biography, Aces High: The Heroic Story of the Two Top Scoring American Aces of World War II.

Recently, his book Convair Deltas was named as Book of the Month by Air Classics, while his book Tommy Gun was named Pick of the Month by Shooting Illustrated.

His book Guinness: The 250 Year Quest for the Perfect Pint was listed among the top business books of the year by Cond Nast Portfolio Magazine, which rated Yenne's tome as its TOP pick for "Cocktail Conversation."

Yenne's Rising Sons: The Japanese American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, was praised by Walter Boyne, former Director of the National Air & Space Museum, who called it "a fast moving... page turner," and the "best book yet written on the saga."

The Wall Street Journal wrote, when reviewing his Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West, that Yenne writes with "cinematic vividness," and says of his work that it "has the rare quality of being both an excellent reference work and a pleasure to read."

The author lives in San Francisco, California, and on the web at www.BillYenne.com

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Reviews

[Jim Dewar · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a concise narrative of this time period, the writing level is about mid-high school. An annoying aspect of the book is the author's constant reporting of Medals of Honor awarded to battle participants. At that time period, the qualifications to be awarded this honor were far different, and far less stringent than today. This will become apparent when you read some of the award descriptions.
He uses this sometimes as a part of the basic text and sometimes as footnotes. It is as if he is "padding" his narrative to make the book longer. He also refers to the award of the medal as "winning". It makes the event sound like a high school sporting event (rah, rah trooper). Overall, it's an OK book. But you'll be better off getting it from the library. It really isn't woth the cost to purchase.

[Thomas Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book offers an exhaustive but also rather cursory overview of all the minor actions and skirmishes between the US Army and the various tribes they faced. Unfortunately, instead of telling the story of our conflicts with the Indians in the 19th century, the book more or less devolves into repetitive action debriefs of commanding officer, tribe faced, and number killed. There is very little depth or detail about the fighters, their weapons, evolution of strategies or tactics, etc. and there are no primary source excerpts to give any insight into the individual participants. Many of the events mentioned are simply names and dates, with no other information. The book is written at a high school or college freshman level and has some editing oversights. In its effort to be comprehensive, it's instead pretty dry and uncompelling. Still, this book would provide a good resource for reference purposes.

[Pat King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very in-depth and revealing

[Zachary Wagoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Spaning the time of the first armed struggles with the native people, all the way up to the modern stand off at Wounded Knee in 1973. Lots of information that can spark interest. Case in point, after getting a glimpse of the Seminole Wars in this book, I purchased a book on the subject that would give me a more in depth look. However, Bill Yenne does seem to go overboard on giving us an account of every Medal of Honor earned during this conflict. Overall, this is a good book full of good information to help a hobbist or researcher a reference on this long, drawn out series of conflicts.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brass tacks summary of the many campaigns of the post Mexican War west by the US army. Interestingly enough the stated goal of examining preexisting Native American conflicts is more confined to the chapters taking place before these centerpieces and then that goal sadly seems to fall by the wayside. Still, you wont get more thorough a review of the campaigns and strategy of so much in one source on this topic-even if the increasingly awkward modern historical analogies keep getting thrown in randomly every once in a while.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a book I'd recommend. While there is basic information regarding dates of specific battles along with statistics on estimated numbers of dead and wounded on each side there is little in the way of background on the people involved. Endless names and descriptions of actions that resulted in awards of Congressional Medals of Honor do not by themselves tell the story of the Indian wars. There are many better accounts of this part of American history. I should have scanned the reviews before selecting this book.

[Marty · Rating 2 out of 5]

While a good reference for the various battles between the us army and American Indian tribes in the 1800's, it was a fairly boring read. Additionally the editing was atrocious.

[Alexandre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started pretty good and turned into mind numbing