The American WestRenowned storyteller Dee Brown, author of the bestselling Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, recreates the struggles of Native Americans, settlers, and ranchers in this stunning volume that illuminates the history of the old West that’s filled with maps and vintage photographs. Beginning with the demise of the Native Americans of the Plains, Brown depicts the onrush of the burgeoning cattle trade and the waves of immigrants who ultimately “settled” the land. In the retelling of this oft-told saga, Brown has demonstrated once again his abilities as a master storyteller and an entertaining popular historian. By turns heroic, tragic, and even humorous, The American West brings to life American tragedy and triumph in the years from 1840 to the turn of the century, and a roster of characters both great and small: Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Dull Knife, Crazy Horse, Captain Jack, John H. Tunstall, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, Wild Bill Hickok, Charles Goodnight, Oliver Loving, Buffalo Bill, and many others. The American West is about cattle and the railroads; it is about settlers who came to claim a land not originally their own and how they slowly imposed law and order on these wild and untamed places; and it is about the wanton destruction of the Native American way of life. This is epic history at its best and popular history at its most readable. This new work is culled from Dee Brown’s highly acclaimed writings, which instantly established him as one of America’s foremost Western authorities. Fully revised, rewritten, and edited into one seamless account of America’s most famous frontier, this epic narrative, along with the introduction and a chronological table of events, etches an unforgettable and poignant portrait. The American West is at once a tribute to the West and a majestic new peak for a writer whose long and successful career has been synonymous with excellence in frontier history. |
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... Sitting Bull 15. The Warriors Come In 42 59 78 100 110 124 8. Treaties and the Thieves ' Road 132 140 163 176 189 198 215 229 16. Dull Knife Marches Home 240 17. Captain Jack and the Modocs 247 18. Joseph of the Nez Percés 255 19. The ...
... Sitting Bull 15. The Warriors Come In 42 59 78 100 110 124 8. Treaties and the Thieves ' Road 132 140 163 176 189 198 215 229 16. Dull Knife Marches Home 240 17. Captain Jack and the Modocs 247 18. Joseph of the Nez Percés 255 19. The ...
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Contents
13 | |
27 | |
42 | |
59 | |
Red Cloud of the Sioux | 78 |
Black Kettle of the Cheyennes | 100 |
Kiowa and Comanche | 110 |
The Conquest of Cochise | 124 |
The Vision of Sitting Bull | 215 |
The Warriors Come | 229 |
Free Grass in the Northwest | 310 |
Big Blizzards and Little Wars | 330 |
Jollification | 347 |
The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee | 364 |
Wild West Shows and Rodeos | 377 |
Law Order and Politics | 390 |
The Big Rolling Land | 140 |
The Story of a Western Town | 163 |
The Finer Things in Life | 176 |
The Myth and Its Makers | 189 |
RipRoaring Trail Towns | 198 |
A SELECTED CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN THE WEST | 411 |
INDEX | 445 |
Treaties and the Thieves Road | 451 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abilene American Apaches army attack band became began Big Foot brand Buffalo Bill camp Captain cattle cattlemen cavalry Charles Goodnight Cheyenne chief Cody Colonel Colorado cowboys Crazy Horse Creek Crook Custer Dakota Dodge City fight fire Fort Phil Kearny frontier Geronimo ghost dance Goodnight guns herd Historical Quarterly homesteaders Horn hundred hunting Indians Jerry Simpson John Kansas killed Kiowas land Laramie later Little Longhorns Marquis Mexico miles Missouri Modocs Montana mountains moved Nebraska Nez Percés night Oregon Pacific peace pioneer plains Platte ponies prairie raid railroad ranch ranchers range Red Cloud reservation riders riding rifle River rode rodeo Roosevelt roping roundup saloon scouts settlers Shoshones shot Sioux Sitting Bull soldiers soon stagecoach steer Story Territory Texans Texas thousand Tom Horn trail driving trail towns train tribes troops Union valley wagon warriors Western Wild West Show wounded Wovoka Wyatt Earp Wyoming
Popular passages
Page 189 - I can walk like an ox, run like a fox, swim like an eel, yell like an Indian, fight like a devil, spout like an earthquake, make love like a mad bull, and swallow a nigger whole without choking if you butter his head and pin his ears back.
Page 74 - Hard rain & wind Storm Beeves ran & had to be on Horse back all night Awful night, wet all night clear bright morning. Men still lost quit the Beeves & go to Hunting Men is the word — 4 PM Found our men with Indian guide & 195 Beeves 14 miles from camp, allmost starved not having had a bite to eat for 60 hours got to camp about 12 M Tired.
Page 199 - A more odd, not to say comical, sight is not often seen than the dancing cowboy. With the front of his sombrero lifted at an angle of fully forty-five degrees, his huge spurs jingling at every step or motion, his revolvers flapping up and down like a retreating sheep's tail, his eyes lit up with excitement, liquor, and lust, he plunges in and 'hoes it down...
Page 112 - I do not want them. I was born upon the prairie, where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures and everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls.
Page 280 - Miss Frankie Bell, who wears the belt for superiority in point of muscular ability, heaped epithets upon the unoffending head of Mr. Earp to such an extent as to provoke a slap from the ex-officer, besides creating a disturbance of the quiet and dignity of the city, for which she received a night's lodging in the dog house and a reception at the police court next morning, the expense of which was about $20.00.
Page 365 - When the sun died, I went up to heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal, or lie. He gave me this dance to give to my people.
Page 203 - We, the undersigned, members of the Farmers' Protective Association, and officers and citizens of Dickinson County, Kansas, most respectfully request all who have contemplated driving Texas cattle to Abilene the coming season to seek some other point for shipment, as the inhabitants of Dickinson will no longer submit to the evils of the trade. The big boom collapsed immediately.
Page 280 - ... the belt for superiority in point of muscular ability, heaped epithets upon the unoffending head of Mr. Earp to such an extent as to provoke a slap from the ex-officer, besides creating a disturbance of the quiet and dignity of the city, for which she received a night's lodging in the dog house and a reception at the police court next morning, the expense of which was about $20. Wyatt Earp was assessed the lowest limit of the law, one dollar.