Never-before published census taken in 1881

After Sitting Bull's surrender at Fort Buford in what is now North Dakota in 1881, the United States Army transported the chief and his followers down the Missouri River to Fort Randall, roughly seventy miles west of Yankton. The famed Hunkpapa leader remained there for twenty-two months as a prisoner of war.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn was the decisive engagement of the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877. In its second edition this biographical dictionary of all known participants--the 7th Cavalry, civilians and Indians--provides a brief description of the battle, as well as information on the various tribes, their customs and methods of fighting. Seven appendices cover the units soldiers were assigned to, uniforms and equipment of the cavalry, controversial listings of scouts and the number of Indians in the encampments, the location of camps on the way to the Big Horn and more. Updated biographies are provided for many European soldiers, along with an additional 5,060 names of Indians who were or could have been in the battle.

The great Native American warriors and their resistance to the U.S. government in the war against the Plains Indians is a well-known chapter in the story of the American West. In the aftermath of the great resistance, as the Indian nations recovered from war, many figures loomed heroic, yet their stories are mostly unknown. This long-overdue biography of Dewey Beard (ca. 1862–1955), a Lakota who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn and survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, chronicles a remarkable life that can be traced through major historical events from the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century. Beard was not only a witness to two major battles against the Lakota; he also traveled with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West show, worked as a Hollywood Indian, and witnessed the grand transformation of the Black Hills into a tourism mecca. Beard spent most of his later life fighting to reclaim his homeland and acting as “old Dewey Beard,” a living relic of the “old West” for the tourists. With a keen eye for detail and a true storyteller’s talent, Philip Burnham presents the man behind the legend of Dewey Beard and shows how the life of the last survivor of Little Bighorn provides a glimpse into the survival of Indigenous America.

Drawing on more than 22 years' research, this book presents an exhaustive chronology of the Great Sioux Campaign in three parts: the U.S. Seventh Cavalry's communications, decisions and movements October 15, 1875-June 21, 1876, are traced day-by-day; the three-day prelude to the Battle of Little Bighorn hour-by-hour; and the battle itself minute-by-minute. The separate actions of the several military commands and the Indians involved are narrated in coherent sequence. Archival intelligence summaries offer the reader fresh perspective on the events leading to the decisive Indian victory known as Custer's Last Stand.

¾–Josephine Waggonerês writings offer a unique perspective on the Lakota. Witness will become a widely referenced primary source. Emily Levine has meticulously examined all known collections of Waggonerês manuscripts, sometimes comparing handwritten drafts with multiple typed copies to preserve information in full. Levineês extensive notes are well chosen and informative. Witness will interest both specialist and popular audiences.”ãRaymond DeMallie, Chancellorsê Professor of Anthropology and American Indian Studies at Indiana University¾ During the 1920s and 1930s, Josephine Waggoner (1871_1943), a Lakota woman who had been educated at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, grew increasingly concerned that the history and culture of her people were being lost as elders died without passing along their knowledge. A skilled writer, Waggoner set out to record the lifeways of her people and correct much of the misinformation about them spread by white writers, journalists, and scholars of the day. To accomplish this task, she traveled to several Lakota and Dakota reservations to interview chiefs, elders, traditional tribal historians, and other tribal members, including women.¾¾ Published for the first time and augmented by extensive annotations, Witness offers a rare participantês perspective on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Lakota and Dakota life. The first of Waggonerês two manuscripts presented here includes extraordinary firsthand and as-told-to historical stories by tribal members, such as accounts of life in the Powder River camps and at the agencies in the 1870s, the experiences of a mixed-blood HÏ?kpap?a girl at the first off-reservation boarding school, and descriptions of traditional beliefs. The second manuscript consists of Waggonerês sixty biographies of Lakota and Dakota chiefs and headmen based on eyewitness accounts and interviews with the men themselves. Together these singular manuscripts provide new and extensive information on the history, culture, and experiences of the Lakota and Dakota peoples.

The battle that unfolded at the Little Big Horn River on June 25, 1876, marked a watershed in the history of the Plains Indians. While a stunning victory for the Sioux and Cheyenne peoples, it initiated a new and vigorous effort by the U.S. government to rid the west of marauding tribes and to realize the ideal of "Manifest Destiny." While thousands of books and articles have covered different aspects of the battle, few if any have analyzed the tactics and chronology to arrive at a satisfactory explanation of what befell George Armstrong Custer and the 209 men who died alongside him. This volume seeks to explain the circumstances culminating in the near-destruction of the 7th Cavalry Regiment by a close examination of timing, setting every event to a specific moment based on accounts of the battle's participants.

“Gripping. . . . transforms Sitting Bull, the abstract, romanticized icon and symbol, into a flesh-and-blood person with a down-to-earth story.” —The New York Times Book Review Winner, Spur Award for Best Western Nonfiction Historical Book A New York Times Notable Book Reviled by the United States government as a troublemaker and a coward, revered by his people as a great warrior chief, Sitting Bull has long been one of the most fascinating and misunderstood figures in American history. Distinguished historian Robert M. Utley has forged a compelling portrait of Sitting Bull, presenting the Lakota perspective for the first time and rendering the most unbiased, historically accurate, and vivid portrait of the man to date. The Sitting Bull who emerges in this fast-paced narrative is a complex, towering figure: a great warrior whose skill and bravery in battle were unparalleled; the spiritual leader of his people; a dignified but ultimately tragically stubborn defender of the traditional ways against the steadfast and unwelcome encroachment of the white man. “A definitive biography of this Native American warrior and tribe leader.” —Publishers Weekly “Compelling reading.” —The Washington Post Book World Originally published as The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull

The Standing Rock Reservation is home to 8,250 Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people of the Oceti Sakowin Nation. It is located in south-central North Dakota and in north-central South Dakota. The reservation is the sixth largest in the United States, with a land area of 3,571 square miles. It comprises all of Sioux County, North Dakota, Corson County, South Dakota, and small tracts of northern Dewey and Ziebach Counties in South Dakota. The tribe has a very rich culture and history, both of which are showcased in this series of photographs of the Standing Rock Reservation and its people.

Includes reports on population, housing, agriculture, education, language, employment, crime, manufacturing, commerce, geography, territories and possessions, vital statistics and life tables.