Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
5-1-2002
Abstract
The history of the Great Plains has been dominated by scholars focused on the journey of Lewis and Clark, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and the Ghost Dance phenomenon. Fortunately, William R. Nester has brought historians' attention to an overlooked episode of Plains history, the Arikara War of 1823.
Strategically situated on the middle Missouri River, the Arikaras had served as middlemen between the colonial arms trade flowing south from the Great Lakes region and the horse trade pushing north from the Southern Plains since the late 1600s. When smallpox decimated the tribe in the late 1700s, however, the Arikaras found themselves increasingly vulnerable. When Americans began challenging British domination of the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the early nineteenth century, the Arikaras were caught in historical circumstances beyond their control.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 2 (Spring 2002). Published by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Copyright © 2000 Center for Great Plains Studies. Used by permission.