The South Dakota Historical Society has just released John D. McDermott’s Red Cloud: Oglala Legend ($14.95). The Rapid City writer is a well-published Great Plains author who previously worked as a historian for the National Park Service. His biography of Red Cloud is the fourth book in the Historical Society’s biography series, and McDermott’s third book on the respected Indian leader, Circle of Fire: The Indian War of 1865 (2003) and Red Cloud’s War: The Bozeman Trail (2010). McDermott is an excellent researcher and his years studying Red Cloud is shared with the reader through a strong historiography of the Oglala leader in the introduction; well-written, literary prose that is as informative as it is enjoyable to read; and, an outstanding set of endnotes and bibliography. According to the author, his ultimate goal was “to create a larger cultural context for Red Cloud’s particular way of viewing the world and its challenges, …” I believe he has accomplished his goal with a great deal of empathy, and I highly recommend McDermott’s Red Cloud: Oglala Legend. For more information on Red Cloud and McDermott’s earlier works on the Indian leader, visit the publisher’s website: SDHSPress.com.
September 2015
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Younger Brothers – The Lost Interviews
- The First Sheriff of Maricopa County
- A Hardcase Confederate Soldier
- Licks and Slicks
- Tunstall Ambushed
- Salting the Mines
- The Last Train Holdup in Oklahoma
- She Dared to Wear Pants!
- Sending Geronimo Off With a Song
- A Dream Turned Ray Simpson Into a Hero
- No Hangin’ Tree ’round These Parts
- Butch and Sundance Go to the Movies
- A Serious Hualapai Insult
- Allen English
- Kit Carson Couldn’t Live up to the Legend
- Virgil’s Arm Flapping in the Breeze
- Chinatown’s Angry Angel
- The Great Escape
- Matt Kimes, Oklahoma Outlaw
- A Texas-sized Custody Battle
- Bill Standifer vs Pink Higgins
- The “Hang ’em High” Judge
- Flora Quick aka Tom King
- Wild Bill and the Englishman
- Big Alice vs Etta Clark
- Drew Barrymore’s Tie to the Old West
- Taylor’s Slicked Up ’73s
- Claw-Finger Kitty Meets Her Fate
- Doc Holliday, the True Story
- Southwest Crusader
- Remington’s Kodak Moments
- Harvey Girls in Dodge City
- Goodnight, Old Shakespeare
- Six-Shooters in the Air
- Ben Johnson Goes to Hollywood
- Bat Masterson’s Cane
- Val Kilmer As Wyatt Earp?
- Burying the Hatchet
- Abducted!
- “End of the Trail” Centennial Celebration
- Descended from Gunmen
- The Gunfight at the O.K. Barn?
- Red Cloud Remembered
- A Bank Robbery Gone Wrong
- Workin’ on the Railroad
- Saving a Piece of True West
- World’s Most Gorgeous Saddle
- The Top 10 Western Museums of 2015
- The Scandalous Boomtown Temptress
- Dust-Covered Foot Soldiers
- Fighting to Cross an Unknown America
- Rick Wallner
- What became of Hickok’s weapons?
- “The Severed Heads Campaign” (March 2015) was a most interesting story. Did some frontier bounty hunters also collect heads?
- What kind of rifle was Bull Harris using in 1966’s El Dorado?
- What’s the story behind the phrase “There’s gold in them thar hills?”
- What was life like for people living in “soddies?”
- Rough Drafts 9/15
- Rough Drafts 8/15
- California Raisins
- Museums We Love
- Bronco: Final Season
- Western Events for September 2015