The Nebraska Indian Wars Reader, 1865-1877 provides the first comprehensive look at the Indian Wars in Nebraska, focusing on the years immediately following the Civil War, when hostilities between Plains Indians and white settlers erupted. R. Eli Paul has assembled a first-rate anthology of eyewitness accounts and the most significant historical scholarship on the subject. Readers are treated to a clear, detailed overview of the course of events, the key individuals and groups involved in and affected by the hostilities, and the central issues underlying them. An important and unique feature...

A brilliant military strategist, Red Cloud honed his skills against his tribe's traditional enemies -- the Pawnees, Shoshones, Arikaras, and Crows -- long before he fought to close the Bozeman Trail. Here, for the first time in print, is Red Cloud's "as-told-to" autobiography, where he shares the story of his early years. This manuscript -- which has rested ignored for decades at the Nebraska State Historical Society -- brings us closer than the historical record has yet allowed to understanding the life of one of the Sioux's greatest war leaders.