Customer Reviews

Yellow Wolf: His Own Story

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a child growing up on the Camas Prairie. I was told by my Great Grandma. How her mother as a child & her parents had gone to the Fort at Mount Idaho to seek refuge from the NezPerce in 1877. Years later I was working in a small bar in the town of Whitebird, Idaho (Where the first battle occured.) One day a friend brought me this book and told me that he thought that I might be interested in reading it. That was almost 12 years ago, and I think I've read "Yellow Wolf" at least once a year sense then. Me,my husband and my 2 daughters (19 & 11) have traveled almost all of the NezPerce Trail. This book brings you into the lives of the non-treaty NezPerce on their flight for freedom. They were not a hostile people, but were forced from their homes & their way of life. You feel their pain and suffering from the begining to the end of this book. I feel it is a must read for all poeple. Another good book by L.V. McWhorter "Hear Me My Chiefs!" NezPerce legand & history

Go back in time and live, travel and fight with the Nez Perce as they seek to return to their own lands. Feel their utter despair as gradually they are chased down by the US Army murdered, and finally with so few left, forced to live the lives of captives on a reservation. This book brings home the enormity of the crime committed by the US Government of the day, not only against the Nez Perce but all of the Native Americans, it should be compulsive reading for all US schoolchildren. It is without doubt one of the most absorbing books I have read on the subject of Native Americans. Dont take my word for it, read it yourself, you will not regret it.

Amazing account of the Non-Treaty Nez Perce flight to Canada. It took around 24 YEARS to complete. Should be required reading in High School. It reads like a novel and is filled with history.

I'm a history student who has researched the Nez Perce history for several classes. I first read this book long before college and it sparked a life long interest in the Nez Perce history and the Nez Perce War of 1877. I live in Montana so my "backyard" is where most of this history took place. Yellow Wolf is, in my mind, the MOST credible book on the war I have read. Reading Yellow Wolf and then the book by Gen O.O. Howard it is simple to see the half truths and blatant lies the Government published in its efforts to remove the Nez Perces from their land. McWhorter took Yellow Wolf to several sites where Yellow Wolf pointed out things such as rifle pits in the distance that, until McWhorter was right next to them, were invisible to the eye. An excellent book that I have used time and again in giving lectures and writing papers. A must have for anyone researching the Nez Perce Tribal history.

As I read the book with the warying accounts of each battle, I was amazed at the similiarities of another not too distant war. (Vietnam) Each dispatch sent to the higher authorities was distorted and slanted much as the body count pressed on the public thirty years ago. The Indians had no idea what they were up against. This was a time when Manifest Destiny was more than a subject discussed in inner circles, it was a reality. No one bothered to explain to the Native Americans that the true meaning was subjugation and anilation. All Americans should read this book for no other reason than to gain a historical perpespective on the foundation of their country.

If it wasn't for Mcworter's unwillingness to manipulate "anthropology" like the "father of Anthropology," Franz Boaz, we would never have such an honest and compelling narrative of an Aboriginal American's point of view. From Boaz's approach, Yellow Wolf's childhood is equally important. To McWorter, an amateur anthropologist, Yellow Wolf's story IS the important statement. If you are interested in the Aboriginals' story, this is worth your read.

Throughout the history of the "Dreamer Religion" Nez Perce's trials and tribulations with the white man, truthfulness was their bond. Yellow Wolf tells his story factually and simply. The resourcefulness and unmatched bravery of Yellow Wolf and his comrades is truly amazing. A recommended read.

This and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee should be required reading in all secondary schools in the U.S. The record needs to be set straight.