Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2011
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 31:2 (Spring 2011).
Abstract
The history of the central Great Plains is at its heart a vast collection of stories about the complex interactions between humans and the grasslands. When American settlers during the nineteenth century ventured into what had hitherto been Indian country, they found that their fortunes were inextricably bound to the whims of the often harsh Plains environment. In Here You Have My Story: Eyewitness Accounts of the Nineteenth-Century Central Plains, readers have the opportunity to view the challenges and triumphs of settling the Plains of present day Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming through the eyes of those who were there.
This book is a compilation of twenty-three accounts originally published between 1885 and 1919 by the Nebraska State Historical Society. Editor Richard E. Jensen presents these recollections in four chapters: "Indian Country," "Military Campaigns and Army Life," "Overland Freighting on the Plains," and "White Settlement." Although each narrative offers a unique perspective on one of those themes, they collectively paint a vivid picture of the Central Plains, describing in great detail the landscape, vegetation, animals, Indians, and other settlers. Among the most fascinating things that readers learn about are Native intertribal warfare, the centrality of bison to Plains life, hardships imposed by the weather, and the cultural divide between American and Indian cultures. The reader should be warned, though, that the book offers little in the way of Native American viewpoints; the stories are those of white American settlers and but one "civilized" Indian.
Comments
Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.