General George Crook was one of the most prominent soldiers in the frontier West. General William T. Sherman called him the greatest Indian fighter and manager the army ever had. And yet, on hearing of Crook's death, the Sioux chief Red Cloud lamented, "He, at least, never lied to us." As a young officer in the Pacific Northwest, Crook emphasized ......
Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper was a former slave who rose to become the first African American graduate of West Point. While serving as commissary officer at Fort Davis, Texas, in 1881, he was charged with embezzlement and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. A court-martial board acquitted Flipper of the embezzlement charge but convicted ......
Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963), a towering figure in Texas and western history and letters, published an abundance of books-but for decades the autobiography he'd written late in life sat largely undisturbed among his papers. Webb's remarkable story appears here in print for the first time, edited and annotated by Michael Collins, an authority ......
Hydraulic mining was, and remains, controversial. It produced great wealth from the soil of California, yet damaged the land in such a way that the scars will remain for eons. Great hillsides were denuded of soil by streams of water which boggle the imagination, and the sediment which was washed away filled the streambeds of the valleys below, ......
The Contribution to the Mining History of the United States by EmigrantCornish Miners - the Men Called Cousin Jacks
The hands of Cornish miners bore scars of one of the most sophisticated traditions of hard-rock mining in the world. Toughened "Cousin Jacks" brought generations of toilsome underground experience to the Americas from one of the oldest mining regions of the world. Once here, their skill with granite and ore won their fame as the industrial elite ......
During the decades between the Civil War and the establishment of Oklahoma statehood, Choctaws suffered almost daily from murders, thefts, and assaults-usually at the hands of white intruders, but increasingly by Choctaws themselves. This book focuses on two previously unexplored murder cases to illustrate the intense factionalism that emerged ......
"The storyteller's gift is my inheritance," writes Rudolfo Anaya in his essay "Shaman of Words." Although he is best known for Bless Me, Ultima and other novels, his writing also takes the form of nonfiction, and in these 52 essays he draws on both his heritage as a Mexican American and his gift for storytelling. Besides tackling issues such as ......
Born in the northern region of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Marie Mason Potts (1895-1978), a Mountain Maidu woman, became one of the most influential California Indian activists of her generation. In this illuminating book, Terri A. Castaneda explores Potts's rich life story, from her formative years in off-reservation boarding schools, through ......
A Living Oral Tradition and Its Cultural Continuance
"Throughout our Cherokee history," writes Joyce Dugan, former principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, "our ancient stories have been the essence of who we are." These traditional stories embody the Cherokee concepts of Gadugi, working together for the good of all, and Duyvkta, walking the right path, and teach listeners how to ......
