Review of Paper Medicine Man: John Gregory Bourke and His American West

Authors

Thomas William Dunlay, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

1988

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly WINTER 1988. Copyright 1988 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska—Lincoln.

Abstract

John Gregory Bourke (1846-1896) is best known to students of the American West as the author of On the Border with Crook, a classic record of frontier military life. He was also, like certain other army officers, among the pioneers of American anthropology. Like his commanding officer, General George Crook, he was a critic of federal Indian policy and an advocate of the rights of American Indians. His biography is, therefore, much more than the record of a frontier soldier. He is worthy of study as a chronicler of Western campaigns, a dedicated scholar of Indian culture, and a man whose life casts light on Indian-white relations.