In Dull Knife's Wake: The True Story of the Northern Cheyenne Exodus of 1878.
Vernon Maddux's In Dull Knife's Wake is a well told account of the Northern Cheyenne's struggle for freedom. Maddux's view of the Cheyenne is unpatronizing and his depictions are rich and vivid." Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S. Senator from Colorado and Great-grandson of Cheyenne Warrior Reuben Blackhorse
(PRWEB) January 8 2004--You have seen part of the story in Cheyenne Autumn.
Now, historian Vernon Maddux tells the rest of the story in In Dull Knife’s Wake
of the breakout of the Northern Cheyenne from Darlington Reservation in Indian
Territory, and their bloody but futile attempt to return to their northern
homeland in the fall of 1878. You'll forget you know the inevitable end of the
story and you'll feel both sides of the conflict as Mr. Maddux recounts the last
Indian raids in Kansas and the final massacre of the Cheyenne. The story has
only recently ended. In 2002, the government found in their archives a bone
fragment that had come from Black Horse, one of the Cheyenne warriors, when army
doctors operated on his shattered ankle. In 2002 the bone was presented to his
great grandson, United States Senator from Colorado, Ben Nighthorse
Campbell.
The story begins in September 1878, when Dull Knife, against
the orders of the federal government, led his followers from Indian Territory.
Over the next several weeks, the Cheyenne swept along the eastern edge of the
Great Plains like a razor-sharp scythe. Following along in their wake was the
4th regiment of the U.S. Cavalry. The men of the 4th marked and recorded the
bodies of nearly a hundred men and boys White, Black, and Native American. The
dead lay by themselves in the grass on a wide prairie, on isolated roads, or on
hilltops. Some were found slumped over their tools and farm implement. One died
in the doorway of a crude dugout. They all had to die. In the Cheyenne eyes it
was justified, cowboys perished for their weapons and horses; soldiers perished
because they were a threat; and the settlers perished because there were in the
way. But many died for no good reason except that they were victims of a century
of frustration.
The story ends in the Northern Plains of Nebraska. After
fighting all the way north, the army captured the Northern Cheyenne and locked
them inside an army barracks at Fort Robinson. Another escape was planned and
implemented. The final chapter of the history of the fighting Cheyenne was
written in frozen blood across the prairie west and north of Fort Robinson. The
army destroyed almost all of Dull Knife's band in a buffalo wallow near
Warbonnet Creek in extreme northwestern Nebraska.
In Dull knife's Wake is
a well-told, well-balanced account of the last resistance of the Northern
Cheyenne. The author presents a complete and accurate account. In so doing, he
doesn't argue that the methods employed by the average warrior to obtain
critical goods for their escape were not justified. The goal is merely to guide
the reader along the trail and to show the humanity on both
sides.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/1/prweb97794.htm