Soldiers' Stories | Native American Soldiers: Individual Stories

A Chiricahua Apache of the Chokonen band, Cochise was one of the most celebrated Indian leaders of his time, battling both American intrusions and Mexican troops in the turbulent border region of nineteenth-century Arizona. Much of what we know of Cochise has come down to us in military reports, eyewitness accounts, letters, and numerous interviews the usually reticent chief granted in the last decade of his life.

A brilliant military strategist, Red Cloud honed his skills against his tribe's traditional enemies -- the Pawnees, Shoshones, Arikaras, and Crows -- long before he fought to close the Bozeman Trail. Here, for the first time in print, is Red Cloud's "as-told-to" autobiography, where he shares the story of his early years. This manuscript -- which has rested ignored for decades at the Nebraska State Historical Society -- brings us closer than the historical record has yet allowed to understanding the life of one of the Sioux's greatest war leaders.

Black Elk Speaks, the story of the Oglala Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk and his people during momentous twilight years of the nineteenth century, offers readers much more than a precious glimpse of a vanished time.

A Chiricahua Apache of the Chokonen band, Cochise was one of the most celebrated Indian leaders of his time, battling both American intrusions and Mexican troops in the turbulent border region of nineteenth-century Arizona. Much of what we know of Cochise has come down to us in military reports, eyewitness accounts, letters, and numerous interviews the usually reticent chief granted in the last decade of his life.

This biography provides the first Apache view of a crucial period in American history

Cochise was said to be the most resourceful, most brutal, most feared Apache. Sweeney has traced Cochise's activities in exhaustive detail & we are not likely to learn more about Cochise than he has given us. This biography will stand as the major source for all that is yet to be written on Cochise.

On September 5, 1886, the entire nation rejoiced as the news flashed from the Southwest that the Apache war leader Geronimo had surrendered to Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles. With Geronimo, at the time of his surrender, were Chief Naiche (the son of the great Cochise), sixteen other warriors, fourteen women, and six children. It had taken a force of 5,000 regular army troops and a series of false promises to "capture" the band. Yet the surrender that day was not the end of the story of the Apaches associated with Geronimo. Besides his small band, 394 of his tribesmen, including his wife and children, were rounded up, loaded into railroad cars, and shipped to Florida. For more than twenty years Geronimo's people were kept in captivity at Fort Pickens, Florida; Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama; and finally Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

The surrender of the great Apache leader Geronimo to U.S Army Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood in August of 1886 brought to an end a struggle that had begun in the early years of the century, and had figured prominently in the western campaign of the Civil War. Odie B. Faulk, a leading historian of the American Southwest, offers a lively and often chilling account of the war that raged over the deserts and mountains of Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.

Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the government to sue for peace on his terms. At the peak of Red Cloud's powers the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters. But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the nineteenth century's most powerful and successful Indian warrior can finally be told.

During his mature life, Juh, a redoubtable Apache and a man with a talent for war, was closely associated with and overshadowed by Geronimo. But Juh was a chief and Geronimo only a war leader; Juh took precedence over his warrior comrade and Geronimo deferred to Juh. That is how history should rank these two redoubtable Apache leaders, but until recently the record has been reversed.

In this biography, David Edmunds examines the life of legendary Shawnee leader Tecumesh and his pivotal role in defending the Native American way of life. Since his death as an avowed warrior at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, the details of Tecumseh's life have passed into the realm of legend, myth and drama. In this new edition, David Edmunds considers the man who acted as a diplomat - a charismatic strategist who attempted to smooth cultural divisions between tribes and collectively oppose the seizure of their land.

Traces the life of Parker, the first native American to serve as commissioner of Indian Affairs, and a staff officer to General Grant during the Civil War.