Battles of the Red River War: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of 1874

Description

Battles of the Red River War unearths a long-buried record of the collision of two cultures.
In 1874| U.S. forces led by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie carried out a surprise attack on several Cheyenne| Comanche| and Kiowa bands that had taken refuge in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas panhandle and destroyed their winter stores and horses. After this devastating loss| many of these Indians returned to their reservations and effectively brought to a close what has come to be known as the Red River War| a campaign carried out by the U.S. Army during 1874 as a result of Indian attacks on white settlers in the region. After this operation| the Southern Plains Indians would never again pose a coherent threat to whites’ expansion and settlement across their ancestral homelands.
Until now| the few historians who have undertaken to tell the story of the Red River War have had to rely on the official records of the battles and a handful of extant accounts| letters| and journals of the U.S. Army participants. Starting in 1998| J. Brett Cruse| under the auspices of the Texas Historical Commission| conducted archeological investigations at six battle sites. In the artifacts they unearthed| Cruse and his teams found clues that would both correct and complete the written records and aid understanding of the Indian perspectives on this clash of cultures.
Including a chapter on historiography and archival research by Martha Doty Freeman and an analysis of cartridges and bullets by Douglas D. Scott| this rigorously researched and lavishly illustrated work will commend itself to archeologists| military historians and scientists| and students and scholars of the Westward Expansion.