The Missouri was the river of Lewis and Clark, of Manuel Lisa, General Ashley, and other organizers of the fur trade; of such noted travelers as George Catlin, Henry R. Schoolcraft, and Prince Maximilian; of a host of adventurous steamboat captains; of explorers like Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and Fremont; of doughty hunters and trappers like Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, and John Colter. Stanley Vestal's rollicking story of one of America's most fabled waterways presents western history on a grand scale, one that. according to the New York Times, "anyone remotely interested in the American West will read." "Vestal takes the Big Muddy as the central character in an intriguing story. . . . It is always readable, always informative."-Los Angeles Times

JIM BRIDGER- MOUNTAIN MAN: A BIOGRAPHY by STANLEY VESTAL. Contents include: PREFACE ix PART 1 TRAPPER I ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN 1 II. SET POLES FOR THE MOUNTAINS 8 HI. HIVERNAN 21 IV. THE MISSOURI LEGION 28 V. HUGH GLASS AND THE GRIZZLY 40 PART 3 BOOSHWAY VI. BLANKET CHIEF 57 VIL THE BATTLE OF PIERRE S HOLE 69 VHI. SHOT IN THE BACK 86 IX. DEVIL TAKE THE HINDMOST 95 X. ARROW BUTCHERED OUT 105 XL OLD GABE TO THE RESCUE 112 XII. INJUN SCRAPES 119 XIII. THE LAST RENDEZVOUS 132 vii mil CONTENTS PART 3 TRADER XTV. FORT BRIDGER 142 XV. MILK RIVER . 154 XVI. THE OVERLAND TRAIL 162 XVH. THE TREATY AT LARAMIE 168 XVm. THE SAINTS RAID FORT BRIDGER 182 PART 4, GUIDE XIX. SIR GEORGE GORE 192 XX. THE MARCH SOUTH 199 XXI. TALL TALES 206 PART 5 CHIEF OF SCOUTS XXII. THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 220 XXHI. RED CLOUD S DEFIANCE 241 XXIV. THE CHEYENNES WARNING 249 XXV. BLOODY JUNKET 258 XXVI. FORT PHIL KEARNEY 268 XXVEL AMBUSH 278 XXVttL MASSACRE 284 XXIX. THE END OF THE TRAIL 295 APPENDIX 301 INDEX PREFACE EVER since tlie days when, as a boy, I raced Indian ponies and swam in a Western river with the Cheyenne lads, I have felt the lack of a satisfying portrait of Jim Bridger. The intervening years permitted much research, but somehow the books about Bridger never seemed to do him justice. In his own time he was a legend, and since his death historians have been content for the most part merely to pile up facts around these retold incidents. There has been no adequate biog raphy to bring the man to life. quot Few men have beenjso misrepresented. On the one hand, he was represented in fiction and on the screen as a drunken, loutish polygamist and liar, in a carica ture so monstrous that his outraged relatives brought suit to recover damages. The court ruled that no one could confuse this caricature with the real Jim Bridger, and denied the suit. On the other hand, Jim Bridger s real achievements have been ignored or neglected by writers, who have tried to rep resent him as an Injun fighter with aE the dash and daring of Kit Carson, as a wag with all the wit and love of fun of Joe Meek, or as a crusty, ignorant hillbilly, unable to hold his own in the society of civilized men...

Even among the mighty mountain men, Jim Bridger was a towering figure. He was one of the greatest explorers and pathfinders in American history. He couldn't write his name, but at eighteen he had braved the fury of the Missouri, ascending it in a keelboat flotilla commanded by that stalwart Mike Fink. By 1824, when he was only twenty, he had discovered the Great Salt Lake. Later he was to open the Overland Route, which was the path of the Overland Stage, the Pony Express, and the Union Pacific. One of the foremost trappers in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, he was a legend in his own time as well as ours. He remains one of the most important scouts and guides in the history of the West. The Christian Science Monitor has called this biography "probably the fairest portrait of Jim Bridger in existence." The New York Times has praise for a "painstaking job of research among the usual Bridger sources and among some others which have been neglected. . . . [The author] has adequately set the scene for his hero's adventures and has honestly appraised the great guide's historical stature."Other Bison Books by Stanley Vestal: Dodge City: Queen of Cowtowns, Joe Meek: The Merry MOuntain Man; The Missouri, The Old Santa Fe Trail, and Warpath: The True Story of the Fighting Sioux Told in a Biography of Chief White Bull

If that is Long Hair, I am the one who killed him,"" White Bull, the young nephew of Sitting Bull, said when Bad Juice pointed out Custer's body immediately after the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Yet it was Sitting Bull who acquired the notoriety and was paraded in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as ""the warrior who killed Custer."" But this new edition of Stanley Vestal's classic biography of the famous chief emphasizes that ""Sitting Bull's fame does not rest upon the death of Custer's five troops. Had he been twenty miles away shooting antelope that morning, he would still remain the greatest of the Sioux.""The stirring account of the death throes of a mighty nation and its leader is the story of the ""greatest of the Sioux"" and his struggle to keep his people free and united. The Sioux were formidable warriors, as attested to by men who fought against them, like General Anson Mills, who said, ""They were the best cavalry in the world; their like will never be seen again,"" but they were up against an overwhelming tide of soldiers, homesteaders, and bureaucrats. Sitting Bull fought long and hard and ""He was ... a statesman, one of the most farsighted we have had,"" but statesmanship could not prevail against such odds. This powerful biography of Sitting Bull is brought to a new generation of readers in h a new and expanded edition, for much new material had been added to the original edition (published in 1932) that could not be disclosed while the informants were still living. Sitting Bull is a moving account of the epic courage of one man in the face of his inevitable defeat as the last defender of his people's rights.

A wine tasting party turns deadly, as shady business at a vineyard brings together wine connoisseurs and unsavory characters. George Congreve has invited his friend Merton to the Chateau Roet in France, but plans for a wine feast are soon spoiled when another guest is found murdered. Trepidation towards the French principle, "guilty until proven innocent," leads to Congreve taking on the role of detective in an effort to find the guilty party before calling in the gendarmes. Congreve believes that the right wine stimulates the right frame of mind, and uses his extensive knowledge to pair wine and witness moving forward in the case. This is a well-written mystery that will interest enthusiasts of Golden-Age Detective fiction, with plenty of clues scattered among the empty wine bottles.

This is a new release of the original 1932 edition.

This is a new release of the original 1932 edition.

This is a new release of the original 1931 edition.

With Introduction And Notes By Theodore C. Blegen And Sara A. Davidson.

With Introduction And Notes By Theodore C. Blegen And Sara A. Davidson.

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This Article Is Contained In Volume Seventeen, Number One, October 1931 Issue Of The Southwest Review. Contents Also Include: Streaks Of Rust, Charles M. Spence; Lanier In Lastekas, John S. Mayfield; The Music-Box, Henry Exall, Satanta, Orator Of The Plains, C. C. Rister; And More.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

New Sources of Indian History 1850-1891: THE GHOST DANCE - THE PRAIRIE SIOUX A Miscellany. by STANLEY VESTAL. Originally published in 1934. PREFACE: THE HISTORY OF THE WEST, AND PARTICULARLY THE history of the American Indian, shows many gaps and, in general, requires coordination and more com plete documentation. In fact, considering the large number of unpublished sources and available eye-wit nesses who might be consulted, the general high level of excellence maintained by our historians is remarkable. My five years research among the Sioux Indians in preparation for the writing of my biography of Sitting Bull uncovered much fresh material. Of course it was impossible in a one volume biography to present all the documents and publish all the statements of Indians which led me to accept the view of Sioux history there put forward. These materials, however, seemed much too valuable in themselves to be cast aside when the biography was completed. They seemed worthy of publication. Hence this miscellany. The Sioux occupied a territory about as large as the State of Texas. The Western Sioux, with whom this book has chiefly to do, were at the very center of the culture area of the Plains Indians, so that what we learn of them is significant to a greater or less degree for all the surrounding tribes. Comparatively little has been done upon the northernmost Western Sioux tribes, with vn which I am chiefly concerned. Another book, therefore, seems justified. The first part of this volume consists of some sixty papers having to do with the Ghost Dance among these Sioux and with the military campaign of 1890-91. 1 have arranged these papers chronologically in groups so as to present in turn the views of officials of the Indian Bureau, officers of the United States Army, Sioux In dians, and white citizens. Hardly any of these papers have been published heretofore and most of them are items of private correspondence. They are reproduced here from the originals or from true copies of originals prepared by myself, and for permission to use them I am indebted to the following ...

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