Sand Creek and the Tragic End of a Lifeway

In Sand Creek and the Tragic End of a Lifeway Louis Kraft tells a complex, detailed, and contextualized story. He traces the Tsistsista (Cheyenne) people from their origins in Eurasia through their migration and emergence as a political and cultural entity, first on the Missouri River and later on the southern plains. Central to Kraft's account is his attention to the Tsistsista “lifeways,” including their consequential adoption of horses in the eighteenth century and their trading, raiding, and diplomatic relationships with other groups on a shifting geopolitical terrain, both Native and European. This is not an argument-driven book. Nor, as the title makes clear, is its denouement ever in doubt. Instead, what Kraft has provided is a richly detailed account of a multifaceted assault on the Tsistsista lifeways from all the familiar quarters: coercive and deceitful treaty making, incompetent and self-serving Indian agents, and, most implacably, the Indian-hating white settlers

Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Ethnology · Geopolitics · Kraft paper · Political science · Politics · Treaty · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law