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Kansas Fort Series--$9.00 each


General George Armstrong Custer

$9.95	$20.00	$20.00	$15.00

Battles and Massacres

$8.00	$15.00	$15.00
$50.00 *Hardback	$20.00	$25.00 *Hardback*

Life on the Plains

$30.00	$25.00	$20.00	$25.00 *Hardback*
$20.00	$20.00	$10.00	$15.00

Archeology and Anthropology

$40.00 *Hardback*	$5.00

Other

$8.00	$8.00	$16.00
$15.00	$15.00	$6.00

Fort Series
Fort Scott; Courage and Conflict on the Border--Leo E. Oliva---Charged with protecting Indians and settlers, Fort Scott was established in 1842 in southeastern Kansas on the border of the "permanent Indian frontier." During the next two decades this army post engaged in dual conflicts as troubled brewed between western expansionists and easter Indian tribes, and dissension between proslavery and free-state forces escalated into civil war. 87 pages
Fort Hays; Keeping Peace on the Plains--Leo E. Oliva---For the thousands who came seeking their fortunes on the Plains, military forts provided protection along rouges of travel.  Fort Hays was one such outpost, founded in 1865 on the Smoky Hill Trail.  Because the route cut through the heart of Native American hunting ground, Fort Hays struggled to keep the peace as violence erupted between advancing settlers and Indians resisting invasion of their homelands. 82 pages.
Fort Larned; Guardian of the Santa Fe Trail--by Leo E. Oliva---Recognized during the 1860s as the sot important military installation on the Western Plains, Fort Larned was founded in 1859 on the Santa Fe Trail to guard travel, commerce, and railroad construction during the Indian wards.  Life was a harsh and risky business for troops at the post, who enduring disease, low pay, and short rations while patrolling a vast and rugged frontier. 102 pages
Fort Wallace; Sentinel on the Smoky Hill Trail--By Leo E. Oliva---In 1865 Fort Wallace was founded on the Kansas High Plains to guard the Smoky Hill Trail, protecting westward migrants from Indian attacks as white settlement encroached upon native hunting grounds.  This military post stood at the center of conflict and progress, engaging in battle, securing the peace, and witnessing the coming of the railroad to the Plains and the West. 132 pages
Fort Dodge; Sentry of the Western Plains--By Leo. E. Oliva---Fort Dodge was established in 1865 on the Santa Fe Trail to control the "Indian problem" in southwestern Kansas.  Its mission: to protect travelers, stagecoaches, stage stations, and settlers in the region.  The challenge proved frustrating and at times fatal for both soldiers and Indians as they vied against one another in a  world of cultural clash and radical change. 115 pages
Fort Riley; Citadel of the Frontier West--By William McKale and William D. Young---Established in 1853 Fort Riley was instantly embroiled in conflict as territorial strife grew into civil war and hostilities between Indians and settlers erupted in the West.  Standing as a central military stronghold, it escaped the gradual demise of most western forts and evolved with a changing army into the twentieth century.  Fort Riley exists today as one of two active posts in Kansas. 141 pages.
Ft. Harker; Defending the Journey West--by Leo E. Oliva---To safeguard passage across western Kansas, Fort Harker was established in 1866 at the juncture of the Fort Riley-Fort Larned Road and the Smoky Hill Trail.  At its strategic location the post provided a vital link in supplying military operation and countered Indian resistance to wagon trains, stagecoaches, and the railroad as they intruded into native lands and changed the West forever. 104 pages.
Ft. Leavenworth; Gateway to the West--By J. Patrick Hughes---The oldest U.S. army fort in continuous operation west of the Mississippi, Fort Leavenworth was built along the Missouri River in 1827 as a frontier post to protect immigrant Indian tribes and white traders.  It played critical roes during the Mexican and Civil Wars and early expansion of the West, and today this historic post is home to the prestigious U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.  121 pages.


General George Armstrong Custer
Kansas Journal of Military History; Summer 2005---A quarterly history magazine, this issue details "Custer's First Stand" as well as articles on Libbie Custer, frontier life, and various other aspects of Kansas History. 72 pages.
Custer; A Photographic Biography--Bill and Jan Moeller---This captivating full-color volume traces the life of one of American history's most controversial figures, from his childhood home in Ohio, to the Civil War battlefields where he led Union forces, to the western prairies of his Indian campaigns, to the Montana ridge where he died.  In pointing their camera at the places he stood or looked upon, award-winning husband-and-wife team Bill and Jan Moeller open a unique doorway into Custer's world. Once inside, we see him less as a either a hero or a villain, and more as simply a man. 223 pages.
The Court-Martial of General George Armstrong Custer--By Lawrence A. Frost---Dr. Frost has spent many years searching for little-known source material relating to this interesting event in the career of General Custer.  The court-martial was an obvious attempt by high officials to white-wash the disastrous Hancock expedition in answer to the public's cry for a victim. It was this Hancock expedition that provided Custer with the Indian experience that motivated Generals Sherman, Sheridan, and Sully to ask for his early reinstatement to lead them to victory over the depredating Indians.  To Dr. Frost, one of the country's foremost authorities on the General's army career, the entire Custer family is indeed grateful for this clear, authentic presentation of a most important chapter in the life of the General. 280 pages.
My Life on the Plains; or, Personal Experiences with Indians--by General George Armstrong Custer---When General Custer led his troops to annihilation in the Battle of th Little Big Horn in 1876, he was probably the most notorious Indian fighter the army had known.  In his own time, he achieved much of his fame as a daring soldier from his own published accounts of his adventures.  Indeed, in My Life on the Plains, Custer displays the flamboyance and glamor generally attributed to him by others.
Covering the years 1867-69, the period of the most extensive military activity against eh Plains Indians, Custer's book tells of the newly reorganized Seventh Cavalry's operations on he frontier.  In the telling, it aroused fresh controversy over the Battle of the Washita during the Winter Campaign of 1868.  In fact, Custer so vigorously denounced the "humanitarians" espousing the "Indian peace policy" that one of those named by him--General W. B. Hazen--defended his reputation in a pamphlet issued in 1874. Hazen's rebuttal is appended to this volume.  418 pages


Battles and Massacres
The Battle of Beecher Island---This is a compilation of short articles written by various historians.  It contains all the accounts of the Battle as well as other information pertinent to the battle.174 pages.
The Massacre at Sand Creek; Narrative Voices--By Bruce Cutler---In the dawn of November 29, 1864, a Colorado militia unit attacked a peaceful encampment of Cheyennes by Sand Creek in southeast Colorado Territory and murdered almost two hundred men, women, and children.  In the Massacre at Sand Creek, Bruce Cutler retells, in a powerful narrative, the events surrounding this atrocity.  We hear the voices of the white participants, such as Colonel John Chivington, who planned and led the surprise attack and Captain Silas Soule, the only officer who refused to attack.  We are also given the voices f the Cheyennes--voices that historical documents do not record--with particular focus on Black Kettle, the chief who trusted the promise of protection he had received from white officers and who waved the white flag of peace even as the attacking army approached.  252 pages.
A Dispatch to Custer; The Tragedy of Lieutenant Kidder--By Randy Johnson and Nancy Allan---A biography of Lyman Kidder might be expected to suffer from a lack of detailed and full information, but Randy Johnson and Nancy P. Allan have uncovered more information than was previously known of this man.  Students and scholars of the Indian Wars period will applaud the discoveries that support this minibiography. Lieutenant Kidder's death, and only his death, has seared the pages of too few texts, and even then with misinformation that reeks with theatrical prose.  Is not his death the only thing most of us know of him? 119 pages
Fifty Fearless Men--By Orvel A. Criqui---This is the first collection of short biographies of Major Forsyth, Lieutenant Frederick H. Beecher, and fifty-three of their scouts to be published .  Each biography honors a scout and represents extensive research.  Each biography is a story in itself, but together they present extensive records and accounts of Fort Wallace, th3 Battle of Beecher Island, the Beecher Island Memorial Association, the development of frontier Kansas, and interwoven throughout is a unique social history of the time.  334 pages. HARDBACK
The Moccasin Speaks; Living as Captives of the Dog Soldier Warriors--By Arlene Feldmann Jauken---In 1874, a band of hostile Indians, mostly Southern Cheyennes led by Medicine Water, massacred John German, his wife, and three of their children.  Four other daughters were taken captive, among them, twelve-year-old Sophia.  Dog Soldier Chief Grey Beard's refusal to release the young girl prolonged the Red River War and the return of the Cheyennes to the reservation.  Now, in The Moccasin Speaks, Sophia German's great-granddaughter, Arlene Jauken, recreates the compelling story of the captive German daughters' struggle for survival. Jauken bases her work not only on years of research, but also on the poignant stories passed on by her great-grandmother.  Jauken brings the story full circle, as she chronicles the 1990 reconciliation ceremony between descendants of her family and the Southern Cheyennes whose ancestors claimed the lives of her great-great-grandparents. 283 pages. HARDBACK. Out of print
Girl Captives of the Cheyennes--By Grace E. Meredith---On September 11, 1874, a Cheyenne war party attacked the wagons of a family of settlers traveling through Kansas. Only four survived--all young girls, ages five to seventeen, who witnessed the gruesome slaughter of their parents and siblings before being carried off by the Indians.  The girls were eventually set free, but not before their ordeal became a cause celebre of the Red River War and a legend of th American West. Grace E. Meredith, a niece of one of the sisters, uses their words and memories to craft a narrative that is both graceful and poignant. 123 pages.


Life on the Plains
A Great Plains Reader--Edited by Diane D. Quantic and P. Jane Hafen---The Great Plains are as rich and integral a part of American literature as they are of the North American landscape. Int his volume the stories, poems, and essays that have described, celebrated, and defined the region evoke the world of the American prairie from the first recorded days of Native history to the realities of life on a present-day reservation, from the arrival of European explorers to the experience of early settlers, from the splendor of the vast and rolling grasslands to the devastation of the Dust Bowl.  Several essays look to the future and explore changes that would embolden the people of the plains to continue to call home this place they have learned to value in spite of its persistent challenges.  730 pages.
Frontier Regulars; The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891--By Robert M. Utley---Utley combines scholarship and drama to produce an impressive history of the final, massive drive by the Regular Army to subdue and control the American Indians and open the West during the twenty-five years following the Civil War.  Here are incisive accounts of the campaign directed by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman--from the first skirmishes with the Sioux over the Bozeman Trail defenses in 1866 to the final defeat and subjugation of the Northern Plains Indians in 1890.  Utley's brilliant descriptions of military maneuvers and flaming battles are juxtaposed with a careful analysis of Sherman's army: its mode of operation, equipment, and recruitment; its lifestyle and relations with Congress and civilians. 462 pages.
West of Wichita; Settling the High Plains of Kansas, 1865-1890--By Craig Miner---(Excerpted from the American Historical Review's review of the book) "Regional history at its best...Many of the traditional tales of early hardships--grasshoppers plagues, Indian attacks, the stress of loneliness and isolation, drought, blizzards, prairie fires, and the unaccustomed hazards of nature--are retold with vigor and a sense of immediacy.  These gritty tales of pioneer persistence and stubbornness are used to illustrate the regions' cyclical history of hope and despair. ... Not the least of Miner's talents is his engaging style.  Images are alive, progression of the story lively, and the analysis convincing.  This first-rate book is an important addition tot he history of Kansas and, more broadly, to the study of western settlement."  303 pages.
The Frontier Trail; A Personal Narrative--by Col. Homer W. Wheeler---"At the insistence of numerous friends (both in and out of the Untied States Army), I have attempted to narrate here my experiences as cattleman, post trader, scout, Indian agent, and army officer on the Great Plains of the West in the days when the buffalo, gun-fighter and the Indian occupied the stage in the drama of frontier life."  334 pages OUT OF PRINT, HARDBACK
Pioneer Women; The Lives of Women on the Frontier--By Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith---Pioneer Women provides a rare look at frontier life through the eyes of the pioneer women who settled the American West.  Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith vividly describe the hardships such women enduring journeying west and making homes and communities on the frontier.  Their hopes and fears and, most of all, their courage in the face of adversity are revealed in excerpts from journals, letters, and oral histories.  Illustrated with a fascinating collection of seldom-seen photographs, Pioneer Women reveals the faces as well as the voices of women who lived on the frontier.  144 pages.
The Buffalo Soldiers; A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West--By William H. Leckie---Black soldiers who wanted to remain int he United States Army after the Civil War were organized into the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments.  Their service in controlling hostile Indians on the Great Plains during the next twenty years was as invaluable as it was unrecognized.  The regiments, commanded by white officers and operating under intense disadvantages--difficulty in obtaining officers; prejudicial treatment by higher army officials concerning equipment, assignments, and camp policy; and prejudice in frontier towns--nevertheless developed into remarkable fighting unites during their extensive engagements on the Southern Plains.  Called all sorts of names--most of them insulting--by various groups, the men of these two regiments were dubbed "buffalo soldiers" by their Indian opponents.  They were proud of this title, and the most prominent feature of the Tenth Cavalry's regimental crest was the figure of a buffalo.  The long-neglected story of their courage and devotion to duty adds a new dimension to frontier history. 290 pages.
Tales of the Smoky Hill--By Leslie and Bertha Linville---A compilation of various articles written about the towns and times of the Smoky Hill Trail, this book has 80 different stories pertaining to the early days of western Kansas.
Ghost Towns of Kansas; A Traveler's Guide--Daniel Fitzgerald---This illustrated guide to Kansas ghost towns will delight travelers and armchair tourists alike.  Organized by region, it tells tech story of 100 towns that have either disappeared without a trace or are only "a shadowy remnant of what they once were." Fitzgerald chronicles each town's settlement, politics, colorful figures and legends, and eventual abandonment or decline.  Ten maps and detailed instructions for finding each site are included.  384 pages.

Archeology and Anthropology
Oceans of Kansas; A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea--by Michael J. Everhart---This book reveals a world in which giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, soaring pteranodons, and birds with teeth flourished in and around a shallow sea in the middle of North America.  The abundant and well-preserved remains of these prehistoric animals were the source of great excitement in the scientific community of the day when first discovered in the 1860s in deposits known as the Smoky Hill Chalk.  Two of the best-known bone hunters of the time, E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh, competed vigorously to recover beautiful specimens from this remarkable fossil record.  During the past 140 years, thousands have been collected and sent to museums around the world. 322 pages HARDBACK
The Kansas Anthropologist, Volume 17, No. 2---A Journal for the Kansas Anthropological Association, this book details the Coal-Oil Canyon site in Logan county, Kansas.  A history of the site is given as well as a progress report (as of 1996) and a through description of one of the pottery vessels found there. 82 pages.
 
 
Other
...If You Were a PIONEER on the Prairie--by Anne Kamma---This beautifully illustrated children's novel covers such questions as: What if you lived then? How would your family get around? Would you go to school? What was the prairie like? This book covers everything from natural disasters and travel to living conditions and life in a sod house. 64 pages.
If You're Not From the Prairie...--By David Bouchard---A young boy grows up on the prairie--skipping rocks on the pond under a bright prairie sun, listening to the whisper of the grass in the wind, and playing in the deep snowdrifts after a blizzard.  He knows the prairie is a very special place, and through his experiences we, too, can come to know life in the great heartland of America. A beautifully illustrated children's book.  31 pages.
Fierce Blessing; A Journey into Alzheimer's, Compassion, and the Joy of Being--By Wayne and Terry Baltz---A non-fiction novel of a four year journey to understand Alzheimer's and its impact upon our lives. 276 pages.
Range Riders Cookin'---We all enjoy good down home cooking and "Range Riders Cookin'" features a special and unique collection of mouthwatering recipes providing you with enjoyable moments of fun and ease in preparing and feasting on a wide variety of delicious dishes! From the old-time favorites Grandma whipped up to the exquisite dishes prepared by today's top professional chefs, "Range Riders Cookin'" is a pleasurable experience in cooking. Includes a Wild Game section detailing the proper cooking of turtle, opossum, muskrat, raccoon, rabbit, elephant, and more. Over 330 recipes.
American West Cookin'---A Sequel to Range Riders Cookin', with a similar style and western flair. Both cookbooks include western style pen and ink drawings as well as reproductions of oil paintings.
Night of Falling Stars--By Terry and Wayne Baltz---Lisa, 15, hates her new home: A small town in the Colorado Rockies.  On the night of the falling stars she falls into a hot springs pool and back into time - to 1833 when the Ute Indians called the Shining Mountains home. 181 pages.