Publisher's Synopsis
This superbly illustrated volume focuses on the changing character of American Indian warfare - the tactics, practices, customs and techniques - under the impact of confrontation with the European colonisers and the environmental changes they made. The book begins with a broad overview of the military tactics of the North American Indian, contrasting and evaluating the various regions. A major thrust, however, relates to the tribes of the Great Plains, a region which, in the historic period, was home to many groups who moved in from other cultural areas. Initially employing tried and tested techniques inherited from their original homelands, they quickly adapted and changed to match new conditions. Not least, it considers the changing military patterns on the Great Plains under the impact of the horse and white encroachment; a fascinating saga of both continuity and change. The author has consulted with military officers who have made battlefield studies of the engagements against the whites.;As a result the book will also provide accounts from the Indian viewpoint of some of the more famous battles of the Plains conflicts, such as the Wagon Box Fight, the Fetterman Massacre, the Battle of the Rosebud, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
