Voices of the American West

by Jensen, Richard E.

• ISBN13: 9780803239678
• ISBN10: 080323967X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

In this second volume of interviews conducted by Nebraska judge Eli S. Ricker, he focuses on white eyewitnesses and participants in the occupying and settling of the American West in the nineteenth century.In the first decade of the twentieth century, as the Old West became increasingly distant and romanticized in popular consciousness, Eli S. Ricker (1842-1926) began interviewing those who had experienced it firsthand, hoping to write a multivolume series about its last days, centering on the conflicts between Natives and outsiders. For years Ricker traveled across the northern Plains, gathering information on and off reservations, in winter and in summer. Judge Ricker never wrote his book, but his interviews are priceless sources of information about that time and place, and they offer more balanced perspectives on events than were accepted at the time.Richard E. Jensen brings together all of Ricker's interviews with those men and women who came to the American West from elsewhere-settlers, homesteaders, and veterans. These interviews shed light on such key events as the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Little Bighorn battle, Beecher Island, Lightning Creek, the Mormon cow incident, and the Washita massacre. Also of interest are glimpses of everyday life at different agencies, including Pine Ridge, Yellow Medicine, and Fort Sill School, brief though revealing memoirs, and snapshots of cattle drives, conflicts with Natives, and the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.Richard E. Jensen is a senior research anthropologist at the Nebraska State Historical Society. He is the editor of Charles Allen's From Fort Laramie to Wounded Knee: In the West That Was and Rolf Johnson's Happy As a Big Sunflower: Adventures in the West, 1876-1880, both available in Bison Books editions.

Author Biography

Richard E. Jensen retired as a senior research anthropologist at the Nebraska State Historical Society. He is the editor of Charles Allen’s From Fort Laramie to Wounded Knee: In the West That Was and Rolf Johnson’s

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Introduction	xi
Map: The West of Eli S. Ricker	xiv
Wounded Knee	1	(62)
Wounded Knee	1	(9)
Peter McFarland
Wounded Knee	10	(6)
Charles W. Allen
Wounded Knee	16	(5)
Meded Swigert
Wounded Knee	21	(1)
Guy Vaughn
Wounded Knee	22	(1)
Francis M.J. Craft
Wounded Knee	23	(1)
John W. Butler
Wounded Knee	24	(3)
James R. Walker
Biography, Wounded Knee	27	(11)
George E. Bartlett
Wounded Knee	38	(2)
George A. Stannard
Wounded Knee	40	(3)
Joseph Kocer
Wounded Knee	43	(1)
W. F. Clark
Wounded Knee	44	(1)
E. C. Swigert
Wounded Knee	45	(3)
W. A. Birdsall
Wounded Knee	48	(2)
Cornelius A. Craven
Wounded Knee	50	(1)
James White
Wounded Knee	51	(1)
John H. Dixon
Wounded Knee	52	(1)
T. L. Williams
Wounded Knee	53	(2)
W. A. Ballou
Wounded Knee	55	(1)
Elbert Mead
Wounded Knee	55	(8)
Eli S. Ricker
Agents and Agencies	63	(52)
Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge agents	63	(4)
Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Keith
Pine Ridge agents, Ghost Dance, Sioux Customs	67	(7)
Robert O. Pugh
Pine Ridge agents	74	(1)
H. A. Mossman
Pine Ridge missions	75	(1)
A. F. Johnson
Sioux missions	76	(2)
William J. Cleveland
Sioux customs, Indian-white relations	78	(3)
Edmund Thickstun
Pine Ridge reservation	81	(1)
John R. Brennan
Biography, Frank Grouard, Pine Ridge Reservation, Pine Ridge agents	82	(6)
George Stover
Sioux reservation boundaries	88	(1)
John B. Sanborn
Yellow Medicine Agency	89	(4)
Ollufine Nelson
American Horse, Yellow Medicine Agency	93	(7)
Peter B. Nelson
Fort Sill Indian School, Geronimo	100	(15)
Mabel M. Dawson
Little Bighorn	115	(35)
Little Bighorn	115	(8)
A. F. Ward
Little Bighorn, Yellow Horse's account	123	(4)
Charles Clifford
Little Bighorn, Lieutenant Harrington's death, Gall	127	(11)
Edward H. Allison
Little Bighorn	138	(3)
Edward S. Godfrey
Little Bighorn, Frank Grouard, Lame Deer fight, Crow agencies, Jim Bridger	141	(7)
F. E. Server
Little Bighorn	148	(1)
Walter Q. Tucker
Little Bighorn	148	(2)
Archie Smith
Beecher Island	150	(15)
Beecher Island fight	150	(3)
Allison J. Pliley
Beecher Island fight	153	(3)
John J. Donovan
Beecher Island fight	156	(9)
Beecher Island Veterans
Lightning Creek Incident	165	(9)
Lightning Creek incident	165	(4)
Eli S. Ricker
Lightning Creek incident	169	(1)
Hugh Houghton
Lightning Creek incident	170	(2)
Roy Lemons
Lightning Creek incident	172	(2)
Isaac Robbins
Biographical Sketches	174	(16)
Connor, Bissonette, Little Big Man, Crook, Sechler, Salaway, Little Bat, Pine Ridge Agency, Fort Mitchell, Red Cloud	174	(5)
W. R. Jones
Fort Casper, the Bakers, Bridger, Yellow Medicine Agency, Pine Ridge agents, Beckwourth	179	(4)
L. B. Lessert
Scouts and interpreters, agents, Indian leaders, 1868 Fort Laramie treaty	183	(4)
Alexander Baxter
Wild Bill Hickok	187	(1)
Harry Dean
William F. Drannan	188	(1)
John W. Brafford
Bridger and Vasquez	188	(2)
Marion Spencer
The Old West	190	(185)
American Fur Company, Ash Hollow fight, Fort Casper, Fort Laramie, Kelly, Larimer, and Wakefield, scouts, traders, officers, and agents	190	(20)
Magloire Mousseau
Galvanized Yankess, treaties and reservations, the Richards, Frank Grouard, Bridger, Little Bat, Pine Ridge agents, Red Cloud	210	(14)
George W. Colhoff
Cheyenne outbreak, Sidney-Deadwood stagecoach robberies, Apache Kid	224	(31)
Carter P. Johnson
Biography, the Richards, Bozeman Trail forts, Rosebud fight, Slim Buttes fight, Crazy Horse, Sibley Scout	255	(27)
Baptiste Pourier
Flagpole at Red Cloud Agency, Slim Buttes fight, Wounded Knee	282	(8)
Richard C. Stirk
Washita fight, Flagpole at Red Cloud Agency, Wounded Knee	290	(3)
Ben Tibbitts
Cheyenne outbreak	293	(4)
Heber M. Creel
Mackenzie-Dull Knife fight	297	(3)
William L. Judkins
Sibley Scout, Cheyenne outbreak	300	(1)
David Y. Mears
Cheyenne outbreak	301	(1)
Jacob A. Augur
Eleventh Ohio Cavalry, Platte Bridge fight, Rush Creek fight, Horse Creek fight, Custer's dead, Spotted Tail, Crazy Horse	302	(8)
A. G. Shaw
American Fur Company, Father DeSmet, Horse Creek treaty, Red Cloud	310	(7)
Peter Abraham Deon
The Richards, Kelly, Larimer, and Wakefield, scouts, traders and officers, Wounded Knee	317	(6)
John Russell
Biography, Wounded Knee, officers and Indians	323	(4)
Augustus W. Corliss
Powder River campaign, Platte Bridge fight, Wounded Knee	327	(6)
John C. Whalen
Rawhide Creek legend, Masonry and Indians, Sand Creek	333	(5)
John W. Irion
Sand Creek	338	(1)
A. W. Means
Scouts and officers	338	(2)
John M. Comegys
Crook's 1876 campaign	340	(1)
William H. Taylor
Grattan fight	341	(1)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Robertson
Prairie Dog Creek fight	342	(3)
Allison J. Pliley
U.P. Railroad construction	345	(1)
William Holdaway
Custer	346	(1)
John Burdick
Telegraph at Fort Robinson	347	(1)
William A. Coffield
William F. Cody, The Texas Trail	347	(13)
James H. Cook
Warbonnet fight, Slim Buttes fight	360	(1)
Donald Brown
Camp Lyon, Paiutes	361	(3)
Winfield S. Ake
Washita fight	364	(4)
Josephus Bingaman
Whitestone Hill fight, Badlands campaign	368	(3)
George A. Leclere
Red Cloud	371	(1)
Mr. and Mrs. John Farnham
Treaties with the Sissetons, Wahpetons, Medewakantons, and Wapecootahs	371	(4)
Charles J. Brown
Appendix A: Forts	375	(4)
Notes	379	(54)
Bibliography	433	(12)
Index	445