A history of the Bozeman Trail, which led to the goldfields of Montana, begins with the creation of the Trail in 1862 and follows the events of 1863 through 1868, during which it was followed by prospectors seeking their fortunes, as well as the gamblers, highwaymen, "professional women", and merchants who sought to capitalize on the miner's needs and vices; facing hostile Indians, hard climates, and wilderness solitude along the way.
Even among iconic frontiersmen like John C. Frémont, Kit Carson, and Jedediah Smith, Jim Bridger stands out. A mountain man of the American West, straddling the fur trade era and the age of exploration, he lived the life legends are made of. His adventures are fit for remaking into the tall tales Bridger himself liked to tell. Here, in a biography that finally gives this outsize character his due, Jerry Enzler takes this frontiersman’s full measure for the first time—and tells a story that would do Jim Bridger proud. Born in 1804 and orphaned at thirteen, Bridger made his first western foray in 1822, traveling up the Missouri River with Mike Fink and a hundred enterprising young men to trap beaver. At twenty he “discovered” the Great Salt Lake. At twenty-one he was the first to paddle the Bighorn River’s Bad Pass. At twenty-two he explored the wonders of Yellowstone. In the following years, he led trapping brigades into Blackfeet territory; guided expeditions of Smithsonian scientists, topographical engineers, and army leaders; and, though he could neither read nor write, mapped the tribal boundaries for the Great Indian Treaty of 1851. Enzler charts Bridger’s path from the fort he built on the Oregon Trail to the route he blazed for Montana gold miners to avert war with Red Cloud and his Lakota coalition. Along the way he married into the Flathead, Ute, and Shoshone tribes and produced seven children. Tapping sources uncovered in the six decades since the last documented Bridger biography, Enzler’s book fully conveys the drama and details of the larger-than-life history of the “King of the Mountain Men.” This is the definitive story of an extraordinary life.
On a cold December day in 1866, Captain William J. Fetterman disobeyed orders and spurred his men across Lodge Trail Ridge in pursuit of a group of retreating Lakota Sioux, Arapahos, and Cheyennes. He saw a perfect opportunity to punish the tribes for harassing travelers on the Bozeman Trail and attacking wood trains sent out from nearby Fort Phil Kearny. In a sudden turn of events, his command was, within moments, annihilated. John D. McDermott's masterful retelling of the Fetterman Disaster is just one episode of Red Cloud's War, the most comprehensive history of the Bozeman Trail yet written. In vivid detail, McDermott recounts how the discovery of gold in Montana in 1863 led to the opening of the 250-mile route from Fort Laramie to the goldfields near Virginia City, and the fortification of this route with three military posts. The road crossed the Powder River Basin, the last, best hunting grounds of the Northern Plains tribes. Oglala chief Red Cloud and his allies mounted a campaign of armed resistance against the army and Montana-bound settlers. Among a host of small but bloody clashes were such major battles as the Fetterman Disaster, the Wagon Box Fight, and the Hayfield Fight, all of them famous in the annals of the Indian Wars. McDermott's spellbinding narrative offers a cautionary tale of hubris and mis-calculation. The United States Army suffered one setback after another; what reputation for effectiveness it had gained during the Civil War dissipated in the skirmishing in faraway Big Horn country. In a thoughtful conclusion, McDermott reflects on the tribes' victories and the consequences of the Treaty of 1868. By successfully defending their hunting grounds, the Northern Plains tribes delayed an ultimate reckoning that would come a decade later on the Little Bighorn, on the Red Forks of the Powder River, at Slim Buttes, at Wolf Mountain, and in a dozen other places where warrior and trooper met in the final clashes on the western plains. The leather-bound collector's edition is limited to fifty-five numbered and signed copies in a handsome slipcase, of which fifty are offered for sale.
Fincelius G. Burnett was born in Missouri in 1844, and had a long, thrilling career on the upper Plains and northern Rockies, initially battling Indians and later befriending them. His days as an army sutler at Forts Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith on the "Bloody Bozeman" Trail coincided with the infamous Fetterman Massacre. He later formed a lasting friendship with Washakie, the famous Shoshone chief, and Sacajawea, of Lewis and Clark fame.
Draws on Red Cloud's autobiography, which was lost for nearly a hundred years, to present the story of the great Oglala Sioux chief who was the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war.
Describes the lives and varied experiences of some of the many women who traveled across the American West, including Cynthia Ann Parker, Mary Richardson Walker, Harriet Sanders, Maria Virginia Slade, and Elizabeth Custer.
Montana: A History of Two Centuries first appeared in 1976 and immediately became the standard work in its field. In this thoroughgoing revision, William L. Lang has joined Michael P. Malone and Richard B. Roeder in carrying forward the narrative to the 1990s. Fully twenty percent of the text is new or revised, incorporating the results of new research and new interpretations dealing with pre-history, Native American studies, ethnic history, women's studies, oral history, and recent political history. In addition, the bibliography has been updated and greatly expanded, new maps have been drawn, and new photographs have been selected.
This acclaimed New York Times bestselling biography of the legendary Sioux warrior Red Cloud, is “a page-turner with remarkable immediacy…and the narrative sweep of a great Western” (The Boston Globe). Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the government to sue for peace on his terms. At the peak of Red Cloud’s powers the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters. But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the nineteenth century’s most powerful and successful Indian warrior can finally be told. In this astonishing untold story of the American West, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin restore Red Cloud to his rightful place in American history in a sweeping and dramatic narrative based on years of primary research. As they trace the events leading to Red Cloud’s War, they provide intimate portraits of the many lives Red Cloud touched—mountain men such as Jim Bridger; US generals like William Tecumseh Sherman, who were charged with annihilating the Sioux; fearless explorers, such as the dashing John Bozeman; and the memorable warriors whom Red Cloud groomed, like the legendary Crazy Horse. And at the center of the story is Red Cloud, fighting for the very existence of the Indian way of life. “Unabashed, unbiased, and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor-sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled....a compelling and fiery narrative” (USA TODAY), this is the definitive chronicle of the conflict between an expanding white civilization and the Plains Indians who stood in its way.
