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An interesting history
This is a concise yet complete history of a little-known people.She brings compassion and humanity to this group, and gives them a place inhistory.An enjoyable, educational book that should not be limited tothose of us who grew up in this region. ... Read more

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A Fine Analysis of a Frontier Army Post and Its Role in the Sioux War
Frontier historians have long been appreciative of the importance of Fort Laramie, at the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie rivers in present-day Wyoming, as a frontier outpost. Established in 1834 to support the fur trade, the fort had become by the 1850s a key post in the U. S. Army's logistical system and an important center for the orderly movement of settlers on the frontier. The troops at the post were involved in most of the major campaigns fought against the Indians of the northern Great Plains, until the post's inactivation in 1890.

Paul L. Hedren, superintendent of the Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site here presents an impressive study of the role of Fort Laramie in the Sioux Indian War of 1876-1877, as the episode that broke the back of the Plains Indians. Using Fort Laramie as the backdrop from which to discuss this important episode in American history, Hedren analyzes in lively fashion the Big Horn, Yellowstone, and Powder River expeditions against the Sioux conducted by Gen. George Crook. There is also comment on Custer's defeat at the Little Bighorn, the gold rush into the Black Hills, and the general discord of the Indians at the various agencies.

But "Fort Laramie in 1876" is more than a recitation of the events of the Sioux Indian War. Many other historians have told that story over the years, and if Hedren had limited his book to the war I would have questioned the necessity of its publication. Instead, Hedren recognizes the army post for what it was, the most important installation on the northern plains and the critical site from which the army's campaign against the Sioux was both orchestrated and supplied. While the author's narrative ranges from Omaha, the headquarters ox the army's Department of the Platte, to the campaigns in Montana and the escape of some of the Sioux into Canada. Hedren's focus is always on Fort Laramie and its contributions to the war in terms of personnel, equipment, commanders, communications, and logistics.

Hedren is the first to draw on the large body of material relating to the operation ox the post contained in the National Archives, particularly Record Group 393; the extensive collection of primary materials at the U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; and documents at the U.S. Military Academy Library at West Point. The result is impressive. Fort Laramie in 1876 captures the essence of the military outpost at war. It is an excellent companion volume and deserves a place on the shelf of all serious students of the American West and the Indian wars. ... Read more

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An essential key to the Dawes Commission enrollment cards, established to assess the claims of former slaves who sought to prove their Cherokee citizenship. These cards record the names of each household member and their ages, sex and relationship to the ... Read more

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Gathered here are the oral accounts that the Elders have been recording for 50 years, representing over 150 years of history, all meticulously translated from Gwich'in. This is a collection of oral history accounts detailing the history of the people of the northern Yukon going back to the mid-1800s. ... Read more

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Sure to garner praise and awards as it crosses genres and fulfills many obligations
"People of the Lakes: Stories of Our Van Tat Gwich'in Elders/ Googwandak Nakhwach'anjoo Van Tat Gwich'in" is an amassing of oral accounts of Gwich'in Elders and the Van Tat Gwich'in which contains stories form four or more generations of Van Tat Gwich'in born in the century span from the 1880's to the 1980's. Some stories which are described as "long -ago" may go back as far as many centuries more. Context for the stories is provided by collaborator Shirleen Smith, Anthropology professor from the University of Alberta. Studded with more than 125 color photographs and more black and white photos, "People of the Lakes" is both a meticulous translation of over 150 years of Gwich'in history and a hailed tribute to the Van Tat Gwich'in community and its heritage. From the transcribing of this shared knowledge, which is priceless, can only come further enrichment of all inheriting cultures who occupy the territory of the "People of the Lakes." A great contribution also to the field of Native American Studies, "People of the Lakes" is a trendsetter and a ground breaker for anthropologists, ethnohistorians, and others interested in the northern regions of Canada and North America. A helpful Glossary is provided at the end of the book that translates from Gwich'in to English and the reverse. The text ;is further enhanced by the presence of various maps and historic photographs, each carefully documented. "People of the Lakes" is sure to garner praise and awards as it crosses genres and fulfills many obligations.
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The four-mile run, located near the town of Ligonier, PA, was the scene of manyconflicts and captures during the period of time from 1760 through 1790. The story ofthe (Kneisle) Nicely family is but one of the many stories from this area. The Kneisle'straveled from Hesse Darmstadt in Central Europe to Philadelphia and later moved onto ahomestead near the Four-Mile Run circa 1761. The book covers their journeys and theIndian capture of one of the family members, Jacob Kneisle. It is a remarkable storycovering his capture and his life after his capture and the reuniting of his descendentswith the other branches of the family 228 years after his capture.

Nicely also presents other capture stories to give the reader ahistoric view of the dangerous conditions that existed in the area of the Four-Mile Runduring the Revolutionary War. His interest in genealogy led him to the capture of thebrother of his Three Great Grandfather and his research into the story eventually aidedin reconnecting with the descendents of Jacob Kneisle who was known by his Indian nameof Tsu-Ka-We or Crow. ... Read more

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This set is a MUST have for those tracing your Cherokee root
This set contains the Official US Census Rolls of Cherokee Indians recorded between 1817-1924. Volume one covers those Cherokee living East of the Mississippi River, Volume 2 covers Cherokee who were living West of the Mississippi River. These same rolls are still used today in determining tribal enrollment eligibility, along with the 1924 Baker Roll and the Dawes Roll for Cherokee people. If you are looking for your Cherokee ancestors, this set is a MUST have!
Raven SiJohn,Managing Editor
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Placed firmly in its historic context, this charming account of church and village life in a Renfrewshire weaving village, before, during and after the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 clearly illustrates the symbiosis between the parishioners, their beliefs and their church buildings. Tales of local characters, the role of the major estates and the mill owners, and the division of opinions as the incumbent minister left the church, took half the villagers with him, and built another fifty yards away. The original limited edition is reprinted in facsimile, with the addition of a substantial index of names and places, for the convenience of family and local historians. ... Read more

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Written as a chronological narrative of Mohawk history and genealogy, the text is enhanced by detailed reference footnotes and about fifty Mohawk lineage charts. Excerpts from letters and memoirs add character to the history. Appendices contain transcript ... Read more

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Dearth of French-language scholarship
On the one hand, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book -- at least, if the reader enjoys both genealogy and Native American history.

However, in spite of the extensive scholarly citations, it does not make use of prior research published in French.As a specific example, the chapter on the Montour family does not even mention:

Vincens, Simone. Madame de Montour et son temps. Montréal: Québec/ Amérique, 1979

or the preceding seminal article by Vincens.This results in the omission of many pertinent members of the family.Thus, at best, the book only provides a starting point for understanding the Mohawk families of the northern New York frontier.

A good source of early Mohawk genealogy
This is a good book if you are looking for early Mohawk genealogy (1700s).However, if you find your ancestors in here, check the authors sources very carefully because I believe she makes a lot of assumptions.There aremany interesting stories about Mohawks and people who were involved withthem at the time.There are also family trees and much factual historicalinformation.But, as I said earlier, be careful to distinguish facts fromassumptions.

I am descended from Hertell, Ostock, Bradt, Van Slyke.
Can you imagine my surprise when I thumbed through this jem of a book and found the first chapter was about my oldest known ancestors.Howwonderful it is to read about Nicholas, Jacques, Gautsh, Kenutjie, Ostock, Istychosaquacha, Hilletie, and Francois, Van Slye and Bratt.This is my blood and part of who I am.It is the story of very early colonial America and of real people who loved their cultures and whose cultures melded and clashed and survived in the blood of their descendants.Thanks for writing their stories and I can not wait to finish reading the rest of the stories.They are common to America's and Canada's heritage. Kind Regards, Paul Scarseth ... Read more

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In 1892 the U.S. Census Printing Office published a report on the Six Nations in New York State which collected evidence still used today by the Six Nations to defend their legal rights. This facsimile edition, printed on heavy clay stock, with hand-folded maps, and in the original large trim size, belongs in the collection of all enthusiasts of American, New York, and American Indian history. ... Read more

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A Historical Gem
Mr Pangburn has put together a vast collection of transcripts of original court and government records from the 18th century onward for the researcher of Native American history and Native American genealogical research. If you want to get serious about finding your Native American roots, you must have this book. ... Read more

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On the morning of August 9, 1757, British and colonial officers defending the besieged Fort William Henry surrendered to French forces, accepting the generous "parole of honor" offered by General Montcalm. As the column of British and colonials marched with their families and servants to Fort Edward some miles south, they were set upon by the Indian allies of the French.The resulting "massacre," thought to be one of the bloodiest days of the French and Indian War, became forever ingrained in American myth by James Fenimore Cooper's classic novel The Last of the Mohicans.

In Betrayals, historian Ian K. Steele gives us the true story behind Cooper's famous book, bringing to life men such as British commander of Fort William Henry George Monro, English General Webb, his French counterpart Montcalm, and the wild frontier world of Natty Bumppo.The Battle of Lake George and the building of the fort marked the return of European military involvement in intercolonial wars, producing an explosive mixture of the contending martial values of Indians, colonials, and European regulars. The Americans and British who were attacked after surrendering, as well as French officers and their Indian allies (the latter enraged by the small amount of English booty allowed them by the French), all felt deeply betrayed.Contemporary accounts of the victims--whose identities Steele has carefully reconstructed from newly discovered sources--helped to create a powerful, racist American folk memory that still resonates today. Survivors included men and women who were adopted into Indian tribes, sold to Canadians in a well-established white servant trade, or jailed in Canada or France as prisoners of war.

Explaining the motives for the most notorious massacre of the colonial period, Steele offers a gripping tale of a fledgling America, one which places the tragic events of the Seven Years' War in a fresh historical context.Anyone interested in the fact behind the fiction will find it fascinating reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Okay but not great
Much of this book concerns the French and Indian War in general and not just the "massacre."In fact, I don't see why the title claims it is specifically about "Fort William Henry and the Massacre."

This is an okay book, but I have read better ones.I wouldn't feel less informed, really, if I had never read it.Decent writing but somewhat dry.Not a page turner, but just okay to read.Disappointing in that it didn't really cover the subject well (in my opinion).

Honor, Chivalry, andWar: the Old World meets the New
Accounts of the siege and fall of Fort William Henry (3-9 August 1757) vary dramatically depending on the source (or movie), but all agree English/Colonial forces were attacked a day after their surrender to Montcalm with the `honors of war.' The causes, responsibility, and number of victims have been widely disputed ever since.

This work convincingly reconstructs the actual event from sources drawn from colonial to modern times (all presented). It describes the frontier (from Kalm's 1749 travels), the struggle for dominion, the combatants, and the victims' fate (with a tabulation of killed and missing). It is a lucid, balanced account that sets the record straight and raises larger questions.

Each party was betrayed: English/Colonials by the attack, each other, and the absence of Iroquois allies; the French by unreliable native allies (especially those from the pays d'en haut) and Canadians; Canadians by French neophytes in North American warfare; and the perpetrators (Indians allies of the French) by European terms that foreclosed their expectations. It was an event that exposed radically disjointed cultures.

One of the Indian perpetrators best explained himself to Sulpician Abbé François Picquet in Montréal en route west after refusing Governor Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnail's attempts to redeem his captive:

"I make war for plunder, scalps, and prisoners. You are satisfied with a fort, and you let your enemy and mine live. I do not want to keep such bad meat for tomorrow. When I kill it, it can no longer attack me." The native world had no conception of the `honors of war' or chivalry (save silent days of torture of a captive before inevitable death).

A few minor items missing in the text/footnotes:
-The Ohio Land Company (formed by George Washington's elder brother Lawrence, Lt-Gov Dinwidde, and others, employing George Washington as a surveyor) which stood to directly profit from the acquisition of western Pennsylvania - claimed by France;
-The `assassination' of Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville and ten other Frenchmen after they surrendered to George Washington by Tanaghrisson and his Mingo tribesmen 28 May 1754 at Jumonville's Glen PA (a formative event for war, similarly disputed in subsequent accounts);
-Louis Coulon de Villiers's (Jumonville's elder brother) victory at Fort Necessity 3 July 1754 is mentioned, but without any acknowledgment of Villiers's award of `honors of war' to George Washington and Washington's immediate renunciation of them on regaining safety in Virginia (he returned with Braddock the following year and narrowly escaped death at Monongahela 9 July 1755);
-The Battle of Carillon 8 July 1758, Montcalm's last victory, in which (deserted by most native allies) his force of 4,200 defeatedMaj-General James Abercromby's 17,600 man (including 400 Mohawks) attack.

Those points aside (they have more to do with context rather than content), this is an excellent work that is highly recommended.

A scholarly investigation
Despite the Liberal revisionist description of this book I found it to be an honest scholarly investigation into this event in history which has become one of the darker legends of colonial American history. Clearly not the work of some Amerindian apologist bent on denying or trivializing what happened, this book tries to provide the reader with an honest and unbiased source of what happened. Provides a good source of background on the war and the treatment of captives, including the French Colonial slave trade of American captives. The author makes a sincere effort to determine what actually happened.

A good book for those interested in this period.

What is a Massacre ?
The title of this perceptive book tells the gist of Professor Steele's investigation into the seige and subsequent murder or kidnapping of prisoners after the British garrison surrendered to Montcalm in 1757. In essence, the English prisoners were betrayed by the French by letting their Indian allies seek scalps, prisoners and plunder after being given parole to march to a British force on the Hudson. On a larger scale, the French betrayed the Indians by not allowing them to take what Indians assumed were rightfully theirs as a part of 18th century warfare: prisoners to replace tribal members killed in combat, plunder of European materials, and scalps. Steele asserts that the losses suffered by the British garrison were smaller than previously claimed (including a number of men who were forced to travel home with Indians from the Great Lakes)and that the incident was not the bloodbath of popular legend. The men taken to the Lakes kept turning up for years afterward. Many of the scalps taken were from the corpses in the fort's cemetery-the Indians who took these scalps therefore brought smallpox back home with them and might have inadvertently destroyed whole tribes. Steele tries to count the men killed during the "massacre" and I think he is successful in his enumeration. He does not overlook the wounded who were murdered in their beds, the man boiled and eaten by his captors, and the soldiers knocked out of line and killed because they resisted being plundered. I agree that Montcalm was not complicit in directing the massacre, but set up the conditions that caused it to happen.

The Massacre lives on in popular imagination, but so does the Boston Massacre, certainly one of the most non-massacres in American history.

On a personal note, my 7th generation great-grandfather Bernardus Bratt commanded the New York troops at Fort William Henry in the summer of 1756 and came out as a company commander in Sir William Johnson's regiment after the 1757 massacre.

Well-written and well-documented modern accounts of the French and Indian War are few and far between. Steele's book should remain the final word for some time to come.

Not enough focus on the actual event
Although this was a good book in itself, it covered too much of the French and Indian War to just have a title of Fort William Henry and the "Massacre". The book was interesting up to the point of the siege and massacre then it became very vague. It lacked details to the point of disappointment. It did not say what specific Indian tribes did most of the massacre, nor did it have a thorough account of actually what was happening! It told about some injured being killed in the fort , then it jumped to militia killed on the road to Ft Edward, then to the English officers dining with the French officers and chasing away Indians from their personal effects. In addition the author downplayed the massacre! Every time the word was used it was in quotation marks,making it seem the massacre was overplayed. But if 10 people are massacred instead of 200 does that make a difference? The book did inform the reader about the Canadien slave trade which was going on between them and some tribes, which other books clearly never bring up. Many English suffered because of it. It also made it clear that because of the French's terms at Ft. William Henry, many Indians then refused to help the French in the future. Sealing their fate in the French and Indian War. ... Read more

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This new work, Tracing Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes, is designed to eliminate speculation and help you determine the truth about your possible links to the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, or Seminoles. It focuses on the toughest period to research--the century or so prior to the removal of the Southeastern nations to Indian Territory (the point at which records were regularly maintained). It provides the cultural, genealogical, and historical background needed to turn family stories into proved lineages. And it outlines a method of research that will take you as far back as the colonial and early federal periods and forward to the great tribal enrollment records of the late nineteenth century. ... Read more

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Excellent!!!
It was great! It was delivered on time & had no problems ordering!!!

Thank You!!
Alice Helton Smith

THE Book for Tracing Undocumented Native Americans in the South
A great many Native Americans who belonged to the Five Civilized Tribes were never offically enrolled. Researchers who want to find their American Indian heritage are left completely empty-handed and confused after they've checked the usual records for the Five Civilized Tribe and come up empty-handed.

Lennon, an obviously gifted researcher and historian, has written THE definitive book for understanding how to find the records that might lead you to finding those non-enrolled American Indians.

If you're looking for an individual or family who was thought to be or known to be a member or members of these tribes, but you cannot locate them in the obvious records, buy this book. It's the only one of its kind and is invaluable in understanding the realities of Indian research in the South. ... Read more