The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History [Paperback]

Kass Fleisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

Explores how a pivotal event in American history-the massacre of over 300 Shoshone men, women, and children in 1863-has been constructed, contested, negotiated, and forgotten.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

At dawn on January 29, 1863, Union-affiliated troops under the command of Col. Patrick Connor were brought by Mormon guides to the banks of the Bear River, where, with the tacit approval of Abraham Lincoln, they attacked and slaughtered nearly three hundred Northwestern Shoshoni men, women, and children. Evidence suggests that, in the hours after the attack, the troops raped the surviving women-an act still denied by some historians and Shoshoni elders. In exploring why a seminal act of genocide is still virtually unknown to the U.S. public, Kass Fleisher chronicles the massacre itself, and investigates the National Park Service's proposal to create a National Historic Site to commemorate the massacre-but not the rape. When she finds herself arguing with a Shoshoni woman elder about whether the rape actually occurred, Fleisher is forced to confront her own role as a maker of this conflicted history, and to examine the legacy of white women "busybodies." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Kass Fleisher is Assistant Professor of English at Illinois State University. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791460649
• ISBN-13: 978-0791460641
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,285,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History, December 21, 2006

By 

Jackie Schoon - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (Paperback)

As a student persuing a Ph.D in American Indian History, I was not impressed with this book. Fleisher goes into long detail about her own experiences while writing her book, and what little "history" she does relate is easily found on the internet. The sources she uses are secondary and tertiary sources at best. If you want to learn about the Shoshoni and the Bear River massacre, I suggest one of Brigham D. Madsen's books; The Shoshoni Frontier and the Bear River Massacre, or Encounter with the Northwestern Shoshoni at Bear River in 1863: Battle or Massacre.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Drivel..., January 27, 2007

By 

Jake Hobsen - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (Paperback)

Serious students of the Bear River Massacre would find their time better spent reading some of the better researched and sourced materials available elsewhere. The banter surrounding the modern-day controversy is barely entertaining and hardly reaches the level of local Preston and Sho-Ban reservation gossip. It is evident that the author had little of substance to write, therefore a poorly-researched diatribe against mormons and a sad attempt to validate the battlefield rape tale, was her only way to get this trash published. Even the Southwest Shoshoni deny the rape accounts, yet this author so desparately wants it to be true that she goes to great lengths to substantiate this fairy tale with leading questions and wild fantasies-- obviously intended to titiliate the weak-minded. This is indeed a good first-hand look at what white-apologist, feminine revisionist history looks like. This book does nothing for history or for native americans. Sexist and bigoted baloney.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not so good, May 12, 2010

By 

L. Grout (Caldwell, ID) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History (Paperback)

As an individual who has an MA in military history and has written articles on the Bear River Massacre I think this work had very little historical value. It was written by an English teacher and not a historian, it has very little historical value for real historical scholars. The book is primarily about the author and not the massacre, being written in first person. Further, it was written in non scholarly MLA type format rather than any scholarly hostorical format. If you want to actually read about the subject matter, read Dr. Madsen's works, he is the subject matter expert.