Books- Western/Plains Indians

[coloyooper]

I’ve been wanting to get into reading about Plains Indians and general life in the west way back when. There’s a great book thread on here already but hoping to narrow it down. I’ve got a bit of down time at my fire station and would love to get into a few good books. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[ericacymcdonald]

empire of the summer moon is one of the best books I've ever read

 

[HighUintas]

The Big Sky by A. B. Guthrie is my favorite book of all time.

 

[ericacymcdonald]

Guns germs and steel is another great one, it isn't about native Americans but is about the evolution of human society and written by an evolutionary biologist

 

[Trr15]

Another vote for Empire of the Summer Moon. Consider The Heart of Everything That Is and Blood and Thunder, as well. All great books.

 

[Rokbar]

Guns germs and steel is another great one, it isn't about native Americans but is about the evolution of human society and written by an evolutionary biologist

I read the free chapters on a library app and it seemed pretty good up through there. Funny how that islander native asked the foreigner why you have so much stuff.
I've been wanting to order and read Liver Eating Johnson. About the character on Jeremiah Johnson.

 

[Mt Al]

I wanted to sound all literary, but these guys beat me to it! Empire of the Summer Moon and the rest.

Tough Trip Through Paradise is a good one and touches a little on plains and Western Indians, as are the books about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

There are also books in the category of "Captivity Narratives", look them up on Wikipeadia. Most are racist, biased from the perspective of the person captured and I'm sure I would have been the same were it me. However, those books and narratives give a good look at daily life and habits, very interesting.

The Bloody Bozeman about the Bozeman Trail, a book about the travels of Zenas Leonard and River of the West about Joe Meek is really good.

 

[Overthefalls]

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides .... Should be required reading. It follows Kit Carson through time in the american west so you get a lot of native american history as a result. Mainly centered around the navajo and southwestern indian civilizations. Exhaustively researched and told in a very engaging way..

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Black Elk Speaks.

 

[Runningwater]

Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, and Crazy Horse, Strange Man of the Oglalas by Mari Sandoz are two of my favorites on plains Indians. Mari Sandoz's Old Jules, a biography of her father is an excellent first hand account of settler life in NW Nebraska.

 

[mdp22]

All previously mentioned books are great reads. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee and The Earth Is Weeping are good books about the Amerindian wars. To Hell On A Fast Horse is a really good history of Billy the Kid and Pat Garret.

 

[Milestone522]

Second tip of the hat to “Tough Trip Through Paradise” by Andrew Garcia, an excellent personal account about life with the Indians in western Montana.

”I will fight no more Forever” by Merrill Beal. A great book about Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War.

“The Time of the Buffalo” by Tom McHugh. History of the Buffalo and the Plains Indians.

 

[Life_Feeds_On_Life]

Crazy Horse and Custer. It parallels their lives up to their battle at Little Bighorn. So you get a pretty in depth view of the Sioux way of life at the time.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

For reference materials, "The Mystic Warriors of the Plains" and the Time Life series "The Old West" are both phenomenal. Luther Standing Bear wrote some great books about his boyhood on the plains as well.

 

[dieselchessy]

Not really plains Indians but of that time frame and just west of the plains. A bit of talk of the Indians in there. Maybe a fair bit romanticized though.

Russel Osborn Journal of a trapper.

 

[kda082]

The Fighting Cheyenne by George Bird Grinnell. Read it years ago, still one of my favorites.

 

[1stGenOutdoorsman]

“Empire of the Summer Moon” is good, I especially liked the first part which is broader and longer history.

“American Indian Myths & Legends” isn’t a history per say, but a collection of myths from various tribes. It’s interesting and a illustrates a different way of seeing the world than Western/Europeon world views that we are all familiar with.

 

[Deadfall]

empire of the summer moon is one of the best books I've ever read

Second that

 

[Deadfall]

Plenty coups, chief of the crows

 

[P Carter]

“The heart of everything that is.” — About red cloud and the Sioux war. It’s a good one.


“Chief Joseph and the flight of the Nez Perce.” - Highly recommended, quite comprehensive and very well told. (The Nez perce are technically not plains Indians, but the govt chased them over 1,000 miles and ended up catching up to them on the plains 40 miles from Canada.)

I’ll also recommend empire of the summer moon, as noted above.