Frontier Farewell (new edition)
The 1870s and the End of the Old West
- 2014 INDIES Finalist
- Finalist, History (Adult Nonfiction)
For the time being, let’s not peek again at any of the horrific deeds perpetrated by the US government against the native peoples of North America in the mid–to-late nineteenth century. Let’s also avoid images of slaughtered buffalo, so as not to recall that thirty million (some estimates run as high as sixty million) of the noble beasts once grazed the plains and sustained tens of thousands of aforementioned Amerindians.
We can turn, instead, to the awesome realization that two great nations caught their stride at this same time through the courageous efforts of mountain men, explorers, pioneers, miners, ranchers, military figures, riverboat captains, missionaries, and others.
The splendid Frontier Farewell: The 1870s and the End of the Old West upgrades the historical record through a north-of-the-border lens, offering the US reader an unvarnished account of the ten-year period when the “vast prairies were converted from a great commons that was home to all, to a neatly surveyed system of land titles designed for the individual ownership of thousands of immigrant homesteaders.” Garrett Wilson cites new evidence that confirms the US government initiated a policy in the Black Hills that would stop at nothing short of the complete eradication of the Sioux nation. In his preface, Wilson writes, “These pages carry the story of the tumultuous times, with as much attention to the injustices, misery, and suffering inflicted upon the first inhabitants of the West as my research would support.”
He includes extensive details surrounding Custer’s defeat at Little Bighorn and how that humiliation kickstarted the United States’ own “final solution” policy.
Reviewed by
Matt Sutherland
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
