Books:

Fritz, Henry Eugene.  The Movement for Indian Assimilation, 1860-1890.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963.

“This evaluation of the forces shaping American Indian policy during the rapid expansion of the frontier treats the relationship between frontier developments and federal actions and conditions of the tribes that resisted white settlement.”  –From the Publisher

Jackson, Helen Hunt.  A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes. 1885.  Reprint, Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, 1964.

Jackson’s book, first published in 1885, is a nineteenth century call to attention for the inappropriate treatment of Indians through numerous failed U.S. policies.  She focuses on specific tribes that were directly and negatively effected by the poorly initiated U.S. policies in order to support her argument, these include the Cheyenne, Nez Perce, Dealware Indian Tribe, and the Winnebago Tribe to name a few.

Kavanagh, Thomas W.  Comanche Political History: An Ethnohistorical Perspective, 1706-1875.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

Comanche Political History is a sourcebook that is based on Spanish, Mexican, and United States archival documents.  Kavanagh used the archival resources to sketch the history of the Comanche tribe from their first contacts with Europeans up to the time of their surrender to the U.S. military.

Keller, Robert H.  American Protestantism and United States Indian Policy, 1869-1882.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

This book explores Grant’s “Peace Policy,” which handed control of Indian affairs in the West over to religious denominations.  Keller’s work examines the successes and failures of the policy, demonstrating that overall the program lacked financial and administrative support, which led to the policy being scrapped in 1880.  The highlight of this book is Keller’s detailed information about the Protestant leaders instituting the policy.

Lazarus, Edward.  Black Hills White Justice: The Sioux Nation versus the United States, 1775 to the Present.  New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

”Tells the history of efforts by the Sioux Nation to retain and regain the land of the Black Hills in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Wyoming that had been deeded to them in the 1851 Fort Laramie treaty. Detailed are not only the legal and military battles fought with the U.S. government, but also much of the debate and conflict within the Sioux nation itself over proper strategies and goals to pursue.”  --Annotation c. Book News, Inc.

Pratt, Richard Henry.  Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.

This is an edited edition of General Richard Henry Pratt’s memoirs.  As the founder and superintendent of the Carlisle Indian School, Pratt helped form the ideology that assimilating Indians through a proper school setting would civilize them.  The memoirs of Pratt are an invaluable primary source of information for what became one of the most controversial policies in U.S.-Indian relations.

Price, Catherine.  The Oglala People, 1841-1879: A Political History.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

”Catherine Price charts the political strategies employed by Oglala councilors as they struggled to preserve their political customs and autonomy. She examines Lakota concepts of leadership and decision-making authority, highlighting the fluid political relationship among the several forms of Oglala leadership, such as the itancan (symbolic fathers of bands, or tiyospaye).”  --From the Publisher

Prucha, Francis Paul.  American Indian Policy in Crisis: Christian Reformers and the Indian, 1865-1900.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.

This is an examination of Indian-white relations during a time in the nineteenth century when U.S.-Indian policy was under the influence of Protestant reformers.  Prucha explores in detail the logic of the Indian policy and the reasons behind assimilating Indians into American society.  The narrative ends with the Protestant based Peace Policy begun in U.S. Grant’s presidency ending and the introduction of the disastrous Dawes Act.

Stewart, Edgar Irving.  Custer's Luck.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.

Custer’s Luck covers the period of the Indian wars in the Northwest, from the close of the Civil War until the Custer disaster on the Little Big Horn. It presents in graphic detail and on a vast canvas the great events and the small which reached a decisive crescendo in Custer's fate. Here is no savage battle incident presented in isolation from other events, but a sweeping panorama of a whole era.”  --From the Publisher

United States.  Indian Peace Commission.  Proceedings of the Great Peace Commission of 1867-1868.  Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Development of Indian Law, 1975.

Wooster, Robert.  The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865-1903.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

”Wooster delineates military strategy against the western tribes, places the political influence of the Gilded Age military establishment in solid perspective, gives an able survey of the institutional structure of the postwar army, briefly describes key Indian campaigns, and presents pithy characterizations of leading western military personalities.”  -- Paul Andrew Hutton, American Historical Review