This award-winning history of the Sioux in the 19th century ranges from its forced migration to the reservation to the Wounded Knee Massacre. First published in 1963, Robert M. Utley’s classic study of the Sioux Nation was a landmark achievement in Native American historical research. The St. Louis Dispatch called it “by far the best treatment of the complex and controversial relationship between the Sioux and their conquerors yet presented and should be must reading for serious students of Western Americana.” Today, it remains one of the most thorough and accurate depictions of the tragic violence that broke out near Wounded Knee Creek on December 29th, 1890. In the preface to this second edition, western historian Robert M. Utley reflects on the importance of his work and changing perspectives on Native American history. Acknowledging the inaccuracy of his own title, he points out that “Wounded Knee did not represent the end of the Sioux tribes…It ended one era and open another in the lives of the Sioux people.” Winner of the Buffalo Award

This fascinating account tells what the Sioux were like when they first came to their reservation and how their reaction to the new system eventually led to the last confrontation between the Army and the Sioux at the Battle of Wounded Knee Creek. A classic work, it is now available with a new preface by the author that discusses his current thoughts about a tragic episode in American history that has raised much controversy through the years. Praise for the earlier edition: "History as lively and gripping as good fiction." "One of the finest books on the Indian wars of the West."--Montana "A well-told, easily read account that will be the standard reference for this phase of the Indian 'problem.'"--American Historical Review "A major job . . . magnificently researched."--San Francisco Chronicle "By far the best treatment of the complex and controversial relationship between the Sioux and their conquerors yet presented and should be must reading for serious students of Western Americana."--St. Louis Dispatch (on the earlier edition) Winner of the Buffalo Award

Details the U.S. Army's campaign in the years following the Civil War to contain the American Indian and promote Western expansion

2021 Spur Award Winner for Best Historical Nonfiction from the Western Writers of America True West Magazine's 2020 Best Author and Historical Nonfiction Book of the Year The Last Sovereigns is the story of how Sioux chief Sitting Bull resisted the white man's ways as a last best hope for the survival of an indigenous way of life on the Great Plains--a nomadic life based on buffalo and indigenous plants scattered across the Sioux's historical territories that were sacred to him and his people. Robert M. Utley explores the final four years of Sitting Bull's life of freedom, from 1877 to 1881. To escape American vengeance for his assumed role in the annihilation of Gen. George Armstrong Custer's command at the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull led his Hunkpapa following into Canada. There he and his people interacted with the North-West Mounted Police, in particular Maj. James M. Walsh. The Mounties welcomed the Lakota and permitted them to remain if they promised to abide by the laws and rules of Queen Victoria, the White Mother. But the Canadian government wanted the Indians to return to their homeland and the police made every effort to persuade them to leave. They were aided by the diminishing herds of buffalo on which the Indians relied for sustenance and by the aggressions of Canadian Native groups that also relied on the buffalo. Sitting Bull and his people endured hostility, tragedy, heartache, indecision, uncertainty, and starvation and responded with stubborn resistance to the loss of their freedom and way of life. In the end, starvation doomed their sovereignty. This is their story.

“[This] richly documented book is the definitive study of the decisive role mountain men played in the exploration and expansion of the Western frontier.” —Jay P. Dolan, The New York Times Book Review Early in the nineteenth century, the mountain men emerged as a small but distinctive group whose knowledge and experience of the trans-Mississippi West extended the national consciousness to continental dimensions. Though Lewis and Clark blazed a narrow corridor of geographical reality, the West remained largely terra incognita until trappers and traders—such as Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzpatrick, and Jedediah Smith—opened paths through the snow-choked mountain wilderness. These and other Mountain Men opened the way west to Fremont and played a major role in the pivotal years of 1845–1848 when Texas was annexed, the Oregon question was decided, and the Mexican War ended with the Southwest and California in American hands—thus making the Pacific Ocean America’s western boundary.

At the centre of a dramatic and absorbing story is the flesh-and-blood Sitting Bull - a leader of his people and a man of rare complexity. Yet to the US Governement he was merely an obstacle: one of the last troublesome remnants of resistance to the white man's inexorable westward expansion.