Perilous Pursuit: The Us Cavalry and the Northern Cheyennes [Hardcover]

Stan Edward Hoig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

Popularised by Mari Sandoz's "Cheyenne Autumn", the Northern Cheyennes' 1878 escape from their Indian Territory Reservation to their native homeland beyond the Platte River has become a subject of renewed academic interest. But unlike other books written about the exodus of the Northern Cheyennes, Stan Hoig's "Perilous Pursuit" provides a full account of not only the determined flight of the Northern Cheyennes, but also of the beleaguered US cavalry ordered to pursue them.In a well-paced dramatic narrative, Hoig tells the story of betrayed people, incompetent military leadership, a penurious Congress, a hard-pressed Indian Bureau, the suffering troops saddled with the task of stopping a foe far more prepared to fight than they, and an American nation almost totally insensitive to the welfare of its native people. By fully utilising the previously neglected Cheyenne/Arapahoe Agency papers, the officer reports, and court-martial testimonies of the Fourth Cavalry officers and enlisted men, Hoig explains how and why this journey damaged so many lives, both white and native.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a superb telling of this eventful, regrettable saga... Drawing on a rich and diverse array of original sources, Hoig follows the Cheyenne over an eventful two-year period... Abundant, clear photographs and effective maps dot Hoig's text, and his prose is splendid. " -- South Dakota History, Spring 2003

"Hoig's handling of this tragic story is at once compelling, objective, and comprehensive, treating not only the Indians' exodus from Indian Territory, but its prelude and aftermath, properly and thoroughly. Of particular note are the finely rendered maps of the Indians' routes and battle actions that are critical to the accompanying narrative." -- Kansas History

About the Author

Stan Hoig is professor emeritus of journalism at University of Central Oklahoma. He is the author of a number of books and articles on the American West, including "The Kiowas and the Legend of Kicking Bird."(UPC)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Colorado (May 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870816608
• ISBN-13: 978-0870816604
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,268,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A straightforward history of a tragic campaign, October 23, 2002

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Perilous Pursuit: The Us Cavalry and the Northern Cheyennes (Hardcover)

Stan Hoig's new book "Perilous Pursuit" is highly sympathetic to the Northern Cheyennes who, mistreated and betrayed by the US Government, were exiled from their Northern Plains homeland to the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma). After a year of misery, a few hundred of the Cheyennes fled from their new reservation and headed north towards their old home. Immediately, the US Army was ordered to find them and force their return. Despite Hoig's sympathy for the fleeing Indians, he does not make the easy mistake of depicting the pursuing cavalry as villains. Instead, they are viewed as ordinary soldiers doing a difficult, dangerous job as best they can. Hoig does not hesitate to point out where individual soldiers stepped over the lines of acceptable conduct to murder indiscriminately, but he also does not draw back from recounting the murders and rapes carried out by young Cheyenne warriors during their exodus across Kansas. Plainly, virtue was not universally on one side.

My major criticism of "Perilous Pursuit" is the lack of adequate maps to clearly depict the movements of Cheyennes and Army units. What maps exist are somewhat generalized, lacking in details.

On the whole, however, I would recommend Hoig's book for anyone wishing to read a balanced account of a tragic event.