Gregory F. Michno

Recommended to me by a Lakota Indian, this is an incredibly detailed account of Custer's last stand assembled from historic interviews of Indians who actually participated in the battle. It corrects so many of the accounts of this battle that it obsoletes most of what has been written. Unless, of course, you would rather stick by the largely fictional accounts? A very unusual book which I enjoyed immensely.

After years of research, independent history scholar Gregory Michno has created a chronological listing of every significant fight between Indians and the United States Army, as well as better-known Indian battles with civilians. In addition, Michno interprets the data to reveal patterns and draw conclusions, some of which challenge the current orthodoxy among historians, such as the revisionist contention that the "wild" West is a myth.

If you like your history with a little bit of sensationalism, this is your book. The narrative is solidly-written around the theme of kidnappings and atrocities committed by Native Americans, albeit with a strong flavor of resentment at the underreporting of these facts. The facts are lurid enough without the sales pitch. Three stars for the quality of the writing and the solid, cross-referenced research.

Depressing going, actually. The brutality dished out to captives taken by Indians in the west is bad enough one by one, but this compendium of hundreds of captive experiences makes extremely disillusioning reading.