Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879

The author does an excellent job providing a history of violent contacts between the Plains Indians and whites and between Indians themselves through the use of first hand accounts. What is unique about this format is that the accounts seem to flow freely through the book adding to the story and not detracting from it. The accounts are primarily from whites who were direct witnesses to Indian raids in Colorado, Red Clouds War the Kansas War, The Great Sioux and Cheyene War and the Northern Cheyene's desperate flight back to their homeland. The descriptions discuss not only combat with Indians but the violence extended to victims including gruesome desercations of the victims body, thought to have necessary significance for Indians for an advanatge in the afterlife. The discovery of mutilated bodies understandably created a vengeful lust among friends and family of the deceased. Surprisingly, these accounts include mistreatment of captured women. This seems in sharp contrast to the way northeastern tribes treated prisoners during the mid 18th century where prisoners were used as slaves, barter or assimiliation purposes (see "White Devil" by Stephen Brumwell). The impression the book leaves you is that there was very little of this option with the Plains Indians, which directly speaks to the old proverb "Save the last bullet for yourself". Although the book is primarily from the white perspectives, it does cover the controversial massacre of Sand Creek by Major Chivington as it appears that violence begets violence whether justified or not(The massacre perspective is challenged in "The Battle of Sand Creek: The Military Perspective" by Michael Michno). One thing of note is that General Sheridan was disinclined to trade for white women prisoners if they were held in captivity too long assuming they were no longer fit for society (see "General Sheridan and His Generals" by Paul Hutton). The violent combat is not restricted just between whites and Indians but also between different tribes as one witness observed Crows torturing one of their enemies to death. The book has some balance as Captain Mills from Crooks' army expresses regret for a young Indian child's grief for her deceased mother who was caught in a cross fire at Slim Buttes. It is also noted that whites periodically took scalps (Buffalo Bill) and desecrated Indian graves. Many of the individuals quoted seemed to be very forthright as one scout who survived the siege at Beecher's Island stated that he did not know how many Indians he killed since their attacks were so fast and furious he couldn't follow his shots. The book also highlights the Fetterman Massacre (whites lost), Battle of Washita (some say massacre), Little Big Horn, Rosebud, Slim Buttes and assortment of other campaigns. All in all, the witneses attest to the hard, dangerous and violent life on the edge of the frontier.

I remember during my U.S. History course in college we were assigned our textbooks which were "A People's History Of The United States Of America" by Howard Zinn and "American Holocaust" by David E. Stannard. Both of which paint a gloomy depressing picture of genocide in the American continent. I thought it was kind of suspicious that an American college class would teach us such bad things about it's own country so I did some fact checking to see if it was all really accurate.As it would turn out all other sources seem to corroborate this story but then while listening to an old audio broadcast by White Nationalist (supremacist) William Pierce (who wrote "The Turner Diaries" about killing all none white races on the planet) he mentioned this book by Goodrich about how the Indians were actually sadists who abused the white settlers so I decided to check it out.First off I'm not completely sure if Thomas Goodrich is aware the Indian Wars did not start in 1865. These conflicts stretch back to 1492. In his chapter "Old Men Laugh"on page 158 we get this bizarre statement: "Few soldiers had more respect and ultimately more genuine sympathy for the plight of the Indian than George Armstrong Custer. Realizing that their time was short , the colonel and a handful of others were determined to learn all they could about these mysterious people of the Plains before they vanished from the face of the earth forever.""Mysterious people of the Plains"? Did Indians just exist in the "Plains"? No they were everywhere on the continent North, Central and South. For more information and in depth detail on the subject please check out The Great Indian Wars and the ever depressing 500 Nations... most sad and infuriating documentary ever.Scalp Dance is also laced with bizarre anti-red racism. "There is as much beauty to be found in Indian women as there is to be found in Gorillas." A special look into Thomas's Goodrich's work is revealing. See if you notice a pattern here: In his book "War To The Knife; Bleeding Kansas" he "portrays abolitionists as terrorists" describes one reviewer, in "The Day Dixie Died: The Occupied South" him and his wife expose the hardships the south underwent by the North after losing the war, in "Scalp Dance" he seeks to prove that the red men really were savages and the Calvary was just acting in self defense, and in "Hellstorm; The Death Of Nazi Germany" he talks about the way the Germans were brought to near annihilation.The only other book Scalp Dance is comparable to in my knowledge is "Negroes in Negroland" compiled in the 1800's that record the dysfunctional behavior of African tribes in an attempt to prove Africans as inferior, and even predicted their stupidity would lead to their own extinction which never happened.That being said I still feel I learned a lot from this book, and I'm happy there are people like Goodrich to show the other side of the story in everything. I even hope he makes books on other Indian wars. He could do a book on Columbus's genocide of the Taino people for instance and dig up a bunch of other obscure documents showing that the Tainos were really savages who had it coming, same with Hernando DeSoto's death march, or the treatment of the California natives. Wonder what he'll dig up this time. All jokes aside nothing could prove more that there was White on Red genocide than to read them trying to justify what happened themselves. The whole book itself is literary mutilation porn with every description of dismemberment imaginable even turning people to glass. 0_o ...Oh yes as it turns out the Indians fought back hard. Sitting Bull and Crazy horse f@%ked the 7th Calvary uuuuuuup!

I bought a copy of this book in paperback when it was first released (in paperback) years ago and was completely absorbed by the book! My paperback copy is covered in highlighter marks & notes in the margin. I therefore later bought a nice hardback copy of the book for a "keeper" just because I LOVE THE BOOK so much!The author relies heavily on "first person accounts" ...written when the bullets and arrows were still in flight. The book does display both sides of the story (whites and Indians) though of course it relies more heavily on the accounts of whites (captives, soldiers, settlers, etc) as the whites were literate, and most Indians of the time were not.Sure some of the accounts of the era depict the Native Americans in a terribly negative light...but what can one expect during the time frame this took place. Generally the book is balanced and fair. The strongest points of this tome in my view however, are the way the author weaves both historical accounts with his own description of the "big picture" of what was taking place, from the Red Cloud war to the Fetterman massacre, the "Battle of the Washita", 2nd battle of Adobe Walls, etc.One learns a lot from the book, even an long time and dedicated student of Native American vs. Anglo history.I give this book 5 stars only because there are not ten stars to give. If you have the least interest in the struggle for the west, as it relates to the wars with the Indians, please read this book. Another I highly recommend is "The Captured" by Scott Zesch.

Good account of warfare against the Plains Indian tribes. Atrocities are accurately described and show the ferocity of the battles fought from 1865-1879.

Scalp Dance is an outstanding book that easily ranks along side the books of Gregory Michno. It is exciting, historically accurate and a real page turner. Its such a good read I find it difficult to put down. A totally superb book in every way. 10/10.

The coolest thing about this book is that I just found out the images and videos on youtube after reading, so It was very entertaining to put images on the words I had imagine. Custer and Sitting Bull are two importants figures of the american culture. I am more on the Native side so I hated how the book end.

This is the best book ever written about the Indian wars. It might seem like a strong statement to make but I can tell you that I own many on this subject and this tops them all. Since reading it, it has remained one of my favourite books to read. Unlike so many other books about this period, which always tell the same story, Thomas Goodrich allows the reader to experience the Indian wars through the words of those who witnessed the events as they happened. Goodrich has collected an impressive number of letters, diaries, newspaper articles and biographies from those times.As you read it, you will gain a better understanding of what it was like for the people who had to endure the horrors of the Indian Wars. There is an eye-opening chapter, 'A Fate Worse Than Death,' which deals with the subject of white women who were taken captive by the Indians. This topic has been overlooked since the 1960s when academics and Hollywood began depicting the American Indians as the victims of white aggression. It is true that the Indians were forced to abandon their nomadic lifestyle as Euro-American settlers pushed westward to build an industrial civilisation but the idea that these westward-moving pioneers were the aggressors is ridiculous. Most of them were the victims of Indian aggression. The white women captured by Indians were forced to endure continuous gang rape and torture. There is no way anyone can defend such crimes against innocent human beings. The book gives an insight into how the Indians fought the white trespassers and believe me, it wasn't all that heroic most of the time. If you're only going to buy one book about the Indian Wars, make sure it's 'Scalp Dance.'

Great

Eye opening.