The Great Sioux War 1876-77

by Paul L. Hedren (Editor)

It was the greatest of all Indian wars and it involved far more than the annihilation of George Armstrong Custer's command on a summer's day in 1876. The Great Sioux War of 1876-77 was a confrontation of two flowering cultures. It involved not one, but more than a dozen battles, played out over the vast landscape of the northern plains. The stakes were high - gold in the Black Hills, rights to the great Yellowstone Basin, and two ways of life. For the Sioux and Cheyenne peoples it was, as Black Elk later put it, all our own country, and they defended it fiercely against the army columns of Gibbon, Crook, Terry, Miles and Custer and against the railroads, town builders, cattlemen, and gold seekers.

Genres: History

330 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1991

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

[Todd Price]

For anyone seeking a comprehensive history of the Lakota Sioux conflict against the United States Army in 1876-1877…this is not it. The editor, Paul Hedren has actually organized a collection of numerous scholarly articles, mostly published in the periodical “Montana, The Magazine of Western History” over the mid to late 20th Century.

The content is highly varied. Some articles focus on specific individuals, while others emphasize particular perspectives(medicine, transportation, politics, etc.) That approach makes this interesting, but it lacks the cohesion of a typical military history account. Obviously, the Battle of the Little Bighorn(Custer’s Last Stand) is the pivotal event of the entire war. Outside of Little Bighorn and the Battle of the Rosebud of a week before, both in June 1876, this war lacked large scale military engagements. The characters are there, to be sure: George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Philip Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Ulysses Grant. But, they rarely take center stage in the action, apart from Custer, and to a lesser extent Crazy Horse.

True “history buffs” would enjoy this. However, the average reader seeking to learn more about this particular conflict would likely find it unsatisfactory. For more details accounts of the Battle of Little Bighorn, I would recommend “The Last Stand” by Nathaniel Philbrick or “A Terrible Glory” by James Donovan.

[Shawn]

I read this book when it first came out in 1991. I was still in college and I instantly became interested in the Sioux Indian Wars. It fascinated me that so much occurred outside of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee. I recently had the opportunity to meet Paul Hedren and heard him speak about his work. He is a first rate scholar and an engaging speaker and all around terrific guy who knows his stuff! I cannot wait to read more of his books!

[David Elkin]

An uneven treatment of the war. Articles from the Montana Magazine from the 1970's on. I found a couple of articles OUTSTANDING but others not so much. You have to be a history buff of that era to enjoy. I fall into that category and I am glad I bought it used. You should pick and choose the articles that grab your attention.