Customer Reviews

Fort Laramie and the Sioux

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I thought I had exhausted finding fresh, literary works on the subject of plains Indian/military history, but this book is a gem. It is sprinkled with wonderful, relevant tidbits to events whose humanity is gone in other efforts. I've read about 400 books on the subject, and this is in the top 5

This book tells the story of the Indian wars around Fort Laramie, Wyoming. This story encompasses clashes along the Oregon Trail, through central Wyoming, around Julesberg, Colorado, and up toward the Black Hills. These are the famous campaigns on the northern Plains.

Remi Nadeau is not a professional historian and has written this book based largely on secondary sources. As a result, you won't find new material but you'll find an effective retelling of this story.

Nadeau's interests lie on the US side of the Indian wars but he freely admits the duplicity and injustices that the Americans inflicted on the Natives. He writes well, and he sees Fort Laramie in a broad context. Sadly, the National Park Service does not see the site so broadly, preferring to focus on restored buildings and period furnishings purchased on the market. As a result, this book would supplement nicely any visit to Fort Laramie National Historic Site, providing a much richer context than the NPS provides.