The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00FRR7X2E | Format: PDF
The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Description
In the best-selling tradition of Empire of the Summer Moon, this is the untold story of Red Cloud, the most powerful Indian commander of the Plains who witnessed the opening of the West.
The great Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud was the only Plains Indian to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the American government to sue for peace in a conflict named for him. At the peak of their chief's powers, the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States. But unlike Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, or Geronimo, the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, his incredible story can finally be told.
Born in 1821 in what is now Nebraska, Red Cloud grew up an orphan who overcame myriad social disadvantages to advance in Sioux culture. Through fearless raids against neighboring tribes, like the Crow and Pawnee, he acquired a reputation as the best leader of his fellow warriors, catapulting him into the Sioux elite - and preparing him for the epic struggle his nation would face with an expanding United States. Drawing on a wealth of evidence that includes Red Cloud's 134-page autobiography, lost for nearly a hundred years, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin bring their subject to life again in a narrative that climaxes with Red Cloud's War - a conflict whose massacres presaged the Little Bighorn and ensured Red Cloud's place in the pantheon of Native American legends.
A story as big as the West, with portraits of General William Tecumsah Sherman, explorer John Bozeman, mountain man Jim Bridger, Red Cloud prot?g? Crazy Horse, and many others, The Heart of Everything That Is not only places you at the center of the conflict over western expansion, but finally gives our nation's greatest Indian war leader the modern-day recognition he deserves.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 12 hours and 5 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: November 5, 2013
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00FRR7X2E
I have previously read other books on what has become known as Red Cloud's War but this effort by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin is a masterpiece in old west history. I was puzzled by the title "The Heart of Everything That Is" but I learned that it refers to the Paha Sapa or Black Hills in western South Dakota.
There were several variations of the Sioux tribes and the authors go into detail regarding the time preceding Red Cloud with Old Man Afraid of His Horses as the leader of the Oglala Sioux tribe. We also get a portrait of Jim Bridger, known as Old Gabe, and the authors wonder why more hasn't been written about this influential man in western history. Pretty Owl and Pine Leaf were loves of Red Cloud and the tragic death of Pine Leaf by her own hand is dealt with.
The controversial building of forts along the hated Bozeman Trail through Wyoming and into Montana provides the reader with additional information regarding the building of Fort Phil Kearny which led to the infamous Fetterman Fight on December 21, 1866, in which William Judd Fetterman lost his life along with eighty others. Who was to blame for this fiasco? Was it Fetterman himself or the ill-suited commander of the fort Henry Carrington? Of what role in the defeat, if any, did Tenedore Ten Eyck play? Did his delay in going to Fetterman's defense doom Fetterman and his men or would his support have just added to the victims?
I learned that it was American Horse who killed Fetterman and John "Portugee" Phillips had two others who sent out word of the disaster at Fort Phil Kearny with Phillips being the only one who traveled all the way to Fort Laramie to bring word on the day after Christmas.
I enjoy reading about the Native Americans and their struggle for survival, and this book does not disappoint. I find it to be very well researched, nicely written, and full of facts, yet not at all just another a "boring" history book.
I had heard of Red Cloud, but did not know any of the details concerning his leadership. This book does a good job of telling the reader how the Sioux people came to be located in the West in the middle of the 1800s. It actually starts out a couple of centuries before, laying the foundation for their struggle. Red Cloud is an interesting person because he is the only Native American to actually beat the white man in a strategic battle. During the years between 1865 and 1868 he formulated and executed his plans to drive the usurper from the Sioux lands. Amazingly, he succeeded, and won a treaty in which the US Army was required to remove three forts from the area, and stop allowing wagon trains to move through. As it turned out, the completion of the railroad across the country in the early 1870's killed off the buffalo herds, and the days of the free Native American were doomed. But that does not undermine his strategic achievements. The tale centers around the events of 1866, when Red Cloud (after much learning and studying) opened his campaign against the army, culminating in the destruction of over 80 soldiers at Fetterman's Massacre in 1866. While reading, I was struck by the imbalance of tactical and strategic genius - Red Cloud had the best military mind in the region.
The book is very readable and chock full of facts. I was fascinated to discover that they were driven from their eastern (Minnesota) origins not by the white man, but by other tribes who had acquired weapons from the fur traders.
The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Preview
Link
Please Wait...