Customer Reviews

Chronicle of the Indian Wars: From Colonial Times to Wounded Knee

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Alan Axelrod has used a broad brush approach to chronicle the Red-White conflicts of North America from earliest times through to 1890.

The album-style book, with boxed articles to complement the main story, gives the reader a good overview of the conflicts and personalities and this, plus a good chronology and bibliography, points the reader to a more detailed reading of specific eras. Because of Axelrod's book, together with a recent visit to South Dakota and New Mexico, my interest to read more on Native American history has been stimulated, particularly the warfare on the Plains, from the 1860s to 1890, during the period of the great Lakota chief Red Cloud, (plus Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull).

The colonial period, for which I have had an abiding passion is also well covered including King Philip's War (1675-6), a war that pro-rata of population was the most savage fought on American soil; plus the revolutionary struggles of the great Loyalist Indian, Joseph Brant.

I thought I had detected a minor error when the author had a sub-heading claiming King William's War (1689-97) started in 1688, which was a bit difficult as the Orangeman did not take the crown off James II until the end of that year and the war really commenced the following year. However, the author qualifies it in the text to say the early skirmishing was known as the Abnaki War with intensification taking place in North America after the European conflict commenced in 1689.
Also a book of 280 pages covering such a vast period can, by definition, only give an overview of the period.

Nevertheless Axelrod has produced an entertaining chronicle of periods of intensely interesting, if often forgotten, aspects of American history.