occurs, as well as some overlapping of events. Both Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, for example, played important roles at the Battle of Little Bighorn years later, Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and Mary Brave Bird did the same during the takeover of Wounded Knee. The narrative begins with Philip in the seventeenth century and the conflict commonly known as King Philip’s War of 1675–1676. A discussion of Pontiac, who lived during the eighteenth century and is best known for his role in what is called Pontiac’s Rebellion during the 1760s, follows. Tecumseh is the subject of the third chapter. Tecumseh was born in 1768, about a year before Pontiac’s death, and died during the War of 1812, bridging the old cen- tury and the new. Black Hawk is the subject of Chapter 4. Although he was born in 1767, almost contemporaneous with Tecumseh, he is most promi- nently remembered in history for the conflict named after him—the Black Hawk War of 1832—and thus follows Tecumseh in this book. Osceola, the subject of the fifth chapter, is the first resistance leader dis- cussed in this book who was born in the nineteenth century. He died young, in 1838, after leading resistance in the Second Seminole War, which began in 1835. The discussion of his life logically follows the story of Black Hawk, who died in the same year, but who was born 37 years earlier than Osceola. Chapters 6 and 7 cover two Lakota leaders, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, both of them born well after Osceola’s birth (and in the case of Crazy Horse, after his death). Sitting Bull, almost a decade older than Crazy Horse, precedes him in this book. In addition to being older, Sitting Bull came to prominence earlier, and his influence in the nineteenth century extended farther than that of Crazy Horse, as reflected in the great gathering of Indians prior to the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Chief Joseph appears in Chapter 8, after the two Lakota leaders have been profiled. Although born in the same year as Crazy Horse, he outlived both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, dying in 1904. The most memorable historical event involving Chief Joseph also followed the defeat of Custer at Little Bighorn—his long, heroic attempt to lead his people to safety in Canada in 1877. Geronimo is the subject of the ninth chapter despite having been born in 1829, earlier than Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph. This Indian leader lived a long life, dying in 1909, but he is an appropriate figure with which to conclude the narrative of the nineteenth century because he was the last prominent Indian resistance leader to surrender, doing so in 1886. Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and Mary Brave Bird—three twentieth- century resistance figures—appear in the final three chapters, in that order. Their relative positions are consistent with both the dates of their birth and the points at which they came to prominence in the resistance movement. Banks co-founded the American Indian Movement in 1968, Means joined the organization about a year later, and Brave Bird, still a teenager, became well known at Wounded Knee in 1973. At the end of each chapter is a list of recommended readings. A much fuller bibliography divided into print and nonprint sections appears near the end of Introduction xi
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