Roger L. Nichols. Warrior Nations

Roger L. Nichols has produced a well-researched, well-written work of synthesis on the Indian wars in the United States from 1786 to 1877 that identifies the elements shared by these confrontations as well as the unique circumstances that precipitated them. Nichols has produced a study that is sorely needed; many outstanding books have been produced in the past two decades on virtually every one of America's Indian wars, but what has been lacking is a comparative work such as this that provides a general interpretive structure for these distinct episodes of violence. Nichols investigates eight conflicts: the Ohio Valley War (1786–1795), the Red Stick War (1813–1814), the Arikara War (1823), the Black Hawk War (1832), the Minnesota Sioux War (1862), the Cheyenne and Arapaho War (1864–1865), the Chiricahua Apache War (1861–1872), and the Nez Perce War (1877). He concludes, “To label the conflicts examined here ‘Indian Wars’ diverts attention from their basic causes and begins the analysis from the wrong point of departure. They need instead to be considered wars of American aggression that were central to the territorial expansion that created the nation's present land area” (p. 189). Nichols asserts that his objective is to provide “a broad comparative framework” (p. xi) by which the common characteristics of these conflicts can be discerned. He succeeds admirably in this task.

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