Customer Reviews

Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West

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I grew up in Montana just thirty miles from the Little Bighorn battlefield, so I thought I had a reasonable sense of what the Indian Wars entailed. After reading Yenne's book I realize how shockingly little I knew -- and how factually and conceptually wrong was so much of what I thought.

By approaching the story of western expansion in the even-handed manner accepted as the standard for the great histories of other large conflicts, Yenne does two remarkable things. First, he paints an epic picture of heroics and tragedies (on both the Native American and the European American sides) that are doubly amazing for having taken place such a short time ago and on the very lands that surround us. (This is not reading about Flander's Fields or the steppes of Kursk; this is right next door.)

Second, by focusing on the facts of what happened and not presenting a particular political agenda, Yenne provides us with the framework for making our own informed decisions about who was "good" and who was "bad". I suspect this was a difficult edge to skate, but he does remarkably well. Given this framework, I don't think I'll ever look at any history of our land the same way.

For a one volume primer this book cannot be beat. Yenne does an excellent job explaining what occurred over the time period involved from the perspective of the combatants rather than current political correctness. The Indian Wars remain the most misunderstood campaigns ever waged by the United States Army. There is much misinformation. Likewise we have a tendency to view these wars as separate incidents rather than as part and parcel to a single campaign stretching over decades. Yenne patiently explains that the whites were initially seen as just another tribe by the Indians albeit a potentially powerful tribe. Further, he goes into the motivating factors for the manifest destiny of the American pioneers that occurred; these wars fought over some five decades across a landscape as expansive as Europe were part of a long-term American strategy to control the West as well as extensions of conflicts between the Indian peoples that pre-dated contact with the whites.

The author evaluates with equipoise both the leaders of the various military units and of the tribes. Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, Geronimo, George Armstrong Custer, George Crook, and Nelson Appleton Miles all receive apropos attention. Of particular interest to our membership is his meticulous attention to detail in his footnotes to each and every Medal of Honor recipient during these hot and cold conflicts. Yenne has examined the documents supporting these awards and details each. I found at least two of our membership's ancestors mentioned when they received their Medals of Honor explaining why they received this highest and most coveted of American decorations. This in itself is a noteworthy item that values this work.

This book places the people and the battles within the context of the overall history of the nineteenth century and the Indian Wars in the West so that their place in American history will be better understood and their names not forgotten. Of special interest for our readers will be his attention to the myriad small campaigns, wars, and incidents, e.g., the Yakima War, Red River War, Red Cloud's War, Rogue River War, Paiute War, Modoc War, Coeur d'Alene War, etc. Additionally, his detailed maps are of great service to understanding the larger picture of the Indian Wars in the West. This work shows all of the major battles and many of the minor ones with their locations and dates on his maps. Many of the campaigns are shown trailed out. The maps also localize all of the Indian reservations. His appendices show the evolution of the Oklahoma Indian Territory, the Bureau Heads during the Western Indian War period (Heads of the Indian Affairs Office, Commissioners of Indian Affairs), the Commanding Generals of the U.S. Army during this period, and the Post-Civil War [sic] U.S. Army Organizations for 1868, 1875, 1884, and 1891.

In short, I strongly recommend this brief history. It is pithy, detailed, fair-minded, revealing, and places all within the larger picture of American history.

Although, glorified by Hollywood and the subject of countless books; the author, Bill Yenne, notes "The Indian Wars in the West were the longest and most misunderstood campaigns ever waged by the U.S. Army." He further states "The time period is generally from the California gold Rush of 1849 through 1890.... " Amazingly, except during the Civil War, the Indian Wars consumed most of the active personnel of the army for most of the nineteenth century.

Many readers erroneously think of Indians as a monolithic culture of savages. The author states that tribes were culturally and politically astute and engaged in warfare with competing tribes. Thus when Europeans first arrived in North America, the Indians treated them as another tribe, often forming alliances with them or attacking them. As the United States began its westward migrations, following the 1812 War, in 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act calling for the relocation of all Indians living east of the Mississippi River thereby setting the stage for future Indian conflicts.

The author does an excellent job of briefly narrating the numerous battles with the U.S. Army of the Cheyenne, Apache, Soux, Navajo and other groups which were parts of an overall campaign. The Indian Wars were fought on a vast landscape the size of continental Europe that was, for much of the nineteenth century, an open trackless wilderness....
Battles were fought on the Plains, the Southwest, with fewer battles in the California Theater and the Pacific Northwest. The text gives a brief/interesting account of Custer's Battle of the Little Bighorn where Custer's failures lead to disaster.

The passage of the Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres of undeveloped land in the West to families who lived on it for five years which further acerbated relations with the Indians. Then in 1868 the federal government adopted the policy of setting aside reservations of land as permanent homelands for members of specific tribes. Much conflict occurred over placing and keeping Indians on reservations. The conflict narratives conclude with brief accounts of Wounded Knee I in December 1890 and Wounded Knee II in February 1973.

The text includes such legendary figures as Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, George Custer, Kit Carson, Nelson Miles and George Crook. Interestingly Geronimo was never captured but surrendered. In 1905 at the age of seventy-five he was invited to ride in President Theodore Roosevelt's inaugural parade. While Crazy Horse's "....tactical skill and his leadership qualities are even now the subject of discussion for cadets in training at West Point."

The tactics employed by the opposing sides were dramatically different. Initially the U.S. Army tactics were geared to protecting trails and roads then with the advent of Indian Reservations, the Army's strategy changed to large task forces to place Indians on reservations and returning them if they escaped. "The basic Indian tactics centered on small groups of mounted warriors operating as raiding parties....the U.S, Army found them a formidable opponent." The text further notes "The U.S. Army's key advantage in terms of concentrated manpower and firepower began to change the balance when there was a shift from tactical to strategic warfare." The author concludes this excellent work with the statement "In the half century of conflicts, there were numerous turning points in which battles might have turned differently. What would not have changed, however, is the tenacity and bravery exhibited by the warriors on both sides."

For the interested reader of American and/or American Western history, this is a must read.

Bill Yenne's "Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West" is a solid historical survey of the military struggle for conquest of the American frontier. Although, as the book's subtitle suggests, the primary focus is on the West, the volume actually reaches all the way back to the Indian wars of Seventeenth century New England. While Yenne devots considerable space to the well-known wars against the Northern Plains Indians and the Apaches and the Nez Perce, he does not neglect the numerous forgotten conflicts with the natives of virtually every region. In its basic nature, "Indian Wars" is a fairly brief survey of events (Yenne generally tries to pin down casualty figures and what soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor for their actions, but for the most part details of the battles are passed over with little mention; for this reason, "Indian Wars" might be profitably read in parallel with Gregory Michno's "Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes, 1850-1890" that provides the missing combat details but lacks Yenne's background context).

This book has a good grasp of all the Indian Wars in the west but I was a little disappointed in a number of areas. The book starts out with a quick review of the eastern conflicts and then gets into the west in about 30 pages. Although the author covers large battles to small skirmishes and does a decent job on commander bios, there are some notable events that are lacking considering the book covers engagements large and small. Missing is any reference to the annihilation of young Lt. Kidder's 10 man platoon during the 1867 Kansas campaign during his failed attempt to locate Custer and the seventh. There is a factual error regarding Major Elliot's missing platoon that was decimated at Washita. The bodies were found a week or more after the battle, they were not found during Custer's tactical retreat after the battle as stated by the author. In reference to the Little Big Horn, Reno led a panicked rout resulting in a loss of 1/3 of his command, not an organized fall back that the author implies. On the Apache front that is covered very well, missing in detail is the service of Lt. Charles Gatewood whose contacts with the Apache were immensely successful and legendary and unfortunately over shadowed by General Mile's ego, he is barely mentioned in the book and he does not even make the index. The book also lacks foot notes, which I think is critical in any serious history particularly if one wants to pursue more detail on a comment or determine where the evidence of a particular view came from. There is also too much minutia about every single Medal of Honor winner, particularly since they were given out gratuitously during that time period. The book is very ambitious, covers a lot of military confrontations, details linguistic differences between tribes and the author does a very good cover of the Apache wars and he discusses Wounded Knee pretty objectively. The book does have a fine good collection of photographs. However, the book is disjointed and without footnotes, Utley's book is superior.

Indian Wars by Bill Yenne is a perhaps the best book available on the subject. It is both an interesting and highly informative read. More importantly, anyone who has an interest in this subject, and therefore this book, will find that it is filled with great stories, interesting personalities and is a comprehensive overview of a very important era in American history. One will also be pleased to know that the book lacks any bias or "political correctness," in that it sticks to the facts and does not attempt to paint a certain picture to benefit a political point of view. It is history, plain and simple.That may bother some, but for this reader I was not left wondering how the facts were being set forth to make a political point. I have already purchased three copies of the book for gifts and in each case I have received rave reviews. I highly recommend this book!

Based on other Amazon reviews of this book, I was very anxious to read it. I've recently read a few other books on the Indian wars, so I wanted a good book that gave a general history of the entire spectrum of wars. This book seemed like it fit the bill.

I will concede that Yenne does as promised in covering just about everything; every major battle and campaign is covered. As a primer, it seems to cover everything that it should.

However, there were a few problems with the book. Firstly, Yenne starts out discussing the linguistic relations between various tribes, which is so muddled it only creates confusion. This should have been relegated to an appendix in chart form for those who might take interest in this. This seems like too in-depth for a primer.

Secondly, early on Yenne points out that the Medal of Honor was handed out with little discretion during this time, to the point that it wasn't quite as meaningful as it is today. However, he then goes on to mention every single Medal of Honor awarded in various battles, including the soldiers' names, either in the narrative or in obtrusive footnotes. This seemed completely irrelevant to the focus of the book and entirely out of place. His focus and dedication to this minor theme is awkward and weirdly obsessive.

Thirdly, this book is just a bit too bare-bones. It's great to have a just-the-facts account of the Indian Wars, but it leaves a lot to be desired. There is no real thesis and no topical organization; there is no discussion of over-arching themes or any structure to the narrative, other than stating the facts. As a result, the narrative is very disjointed and jumps from one event to another, preventing any relevant facts from sinking in.

I very much applaud Yenne for his effort in researching and writing this kind of primer, but I'm sorely disappointed with the result. I will concede that I did learn some things from this book. But I can't help but think that there are other books that convey those lessons in better form, and so I can't really recommend this book.

This is a pretty good book. For those of us who grew up in the midwest or west, we've seen most of the real estate involved and that adds to the interest. The book was edited by spell check so beware, but that's not too distracting.

This is a must read if you have an interest in the plight of the Indians in North America. It discusses the treaties made and treaties broken and the unjust treatment of the North American Indians. These noble people recognized that the U.S. policy was one of extinction in order to develop the Western frontier. Many of the tribes and battles I had never heard of before. A lot of research went into presenting this history of Native Americans. They certainly deserved more than what they received from a greedy and insensitive U.S. Government.

High-quality histories like Indian Wars are marked by a wide field of view and dispassionate inclusion of details. Many items can make cartoon-simple summaries difficult, as real life is usually somewhat messy, but careful historians like Bill Yenne avoid both eye-glazing listings and tendentious story lines.

Mr. Yenne has placed his research before some of the most gimlet-eyed military historians -- his many colorful and detailed books on aircraft and military organizations come to mind -- and has rarely drawn criticism from his peers.

Happily, Indian Wars avoids the common dullness of many histories. It calls to mind the brilliant PBS series Connections (based on the James Burke book series, available at Amazon) that was able to stimulate me to further research some thirty years ago by demonstrating that disparate events may well have logical, even unsettling, explanations beyond what I was taught to parrot back in my callow youth. But actual truth is worth finding, isn't it?

Bill Yenne's catalog, hopefully, is not yet completed. I look forward to his next effort.