Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

What is depressing about this book is that thirty seven years after its publication most Americans are still so ill informed about the 19th century history of the West that they continue to give it rave reviews. Mr. Brown was a gifted story teller but he was no historian (he was actually the librarian at the College of Agriculture at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana) and his account of the deeply moving and troubled tale of the clash of civilizations that was played out in the West (and it was truly a clash of civilizations: Irish-American vs. Anglo-American vs. Hispanic-American vs. Mormon-American vs. Union-American vs. ex-Confederate-American vs. New England American vs. Midwestern American vs. Brule Sioux vs. Northern Cheyenne vs. Southern Cheyenne vs. Blackfoot vs. Hopi vs. Navajo - and the list goes on) is, in my opinion, only slightly better than a caricature. One point can show this nicely. Yes, annuities (in a variety of forms) were promised by treaty to Indians on reservations or residing near the various agencies. And yes, frequently these annuities failed to arrive or arrived only in part. But that is only part of a much bigger picture. At least in the area of governmental support, the Indians weren't being treated much differently than American soldiers. In the years following the Civil War, Congress was loath to spend money on just about anything and frequently a good proportion of soldiers were AWOL working second and third jobs because Congress hadn't paid them. The treatment of the Sioux and the Blackfoot and the Navajo (etc) by Congress is part of the larger story of Reconstruction and Immigration and needs to be read in that light. It is very poorly served by the kind of bad White duplicity vs. good Indian honesty out of which Brown weaves his story. It isn't that Mr. Brown's story is inaccurate, it's just very incomplete, and because of its incompleteness it presents a deeply distorted picture of this very important part of the American epic. Read Brown if you want, but also read John Monnet, Vernon Maddux, Colin Calloway, and especially Robert Utley (personally I also greatly enjoy Mari Sandoz, but her work, although brilliant literature--I think it's the greatest writing the West has yet to produce--isn't universally admired by historians). At least that's my two cents worth.