| The Contested Plains - Indians, goldseekers, & the Rush to Colorado
(1998)
|
| Front Cover |
Book Details |
|
| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
Colorado - Gold discoveries; Great Plains - History; Human ecology - Great Plains; Indians of North America - Great Plains - History |
| Publication Date |
4/30/1998 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.6
x
6.5
mm)
|
| Publisher |
University Press of Kansas |
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover; Remainder |
|
| Description |
| The Contested Plains recounts the rise of the Native American horse culture, white Americans' discovery and pursuit of gold in the Rocky Mountains, and the wrenching changes and bitter conflicts that ensued. After centuries of many peoples fashioning their own cultures on the plains, the Cheyenne and other tribes found in the horse the power to create a heroic way of life that dominated one of the world's great grasslands. Then the discovery of gold challenged that way of life and led finally to the infamous massacre at Sand Creek and the Indian Wars of the late 1860s. Illuminating both the ancient and more recent history of the plains and eastern Rocky Mountains, West creates a tapestry interlaced with environmental, social, and military history. He treats the "frontier" not as a morally loaded term, either in the traditional celebratory sense or the more recent critical judgment, but as a powerfully unsettling process that shattered an old world. He shows how Indians, goldseekers, haulers, merchants, ranchers, and farmers all contributed to and in turn were consumed by this process, even as the plains themselves were utterly transformed by the clash of cultures and competing visions. |
| Personal Details |
| Store |
AbeBooks |
| Purchase Price |
$9.95 |
| Acquire Date |
11/5/2015 |
| Condition |
Very Good/Very Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
|
|
| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
F591 .W4527 1998 |
| Dewey |
978 |
| ISBN |
9780700608911 |
| Cover Price |
$34.95 |
| No. of Pages |
422 |
| First Edition |
No |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
Protected jacket and covers in fine shape, binding straight, pages clean and unmarked. Only flaw is a remainder mark on the bottom.
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This book nominally covers the period from the start of the Colorado gold rush to the Sand Creek Massacre, roughly 1858 to 1864. The first chapter introduces us to the native plains peoples before the arrival of the Spaniards (and the horse), going back as far as 12,000 years ago and the last chapter ties up some loose ends into the 20th century.
The key to West's telling of the story is the quest for energy and power. The plains bask in the energy of the sun, which grows prairie grass. This energy was wasted until the horse could convert it into motive power. Besides energy, water and shelter were key factors as well. Water and shelter come together in the plains - the river banks provide shelter from the harsh winter weather.
These resources came under fierce competition with the discovery of gold along the Front Range.
The book is primarily about how this struggle for resources changed the face of the plains, not only for the native peoples but for the American nation. It doesn't spend much time on the gold rush itself, but it does give a good overview.
I didn't realize how little I knew of the subject before reading the book. |
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