Scouting on the Plains
SCOUTING ON THE PLAINS
SCOUTING ON THE PLAINS. Early fur trappers and hunters in the West, such as Kit Carson and William F. ("Buffalo Bill") Cody, acquired a remarkable knowledge of the geography and Indian tribes of the country, fitting them to be scouts and guides in later military campaigns on the Plains. For all the skill of these frontiersmen, however, friendly Indian scouts proved essential to the army—from General George Armstrong Custer's march in the Washita campaign of 1868 to the Sitting Bull Sioux war of 1876–1877, and later in the Ghost Dance uprising of 1890–1891. In the Southwest, Indian scouts bore the brunt of many campaigns in the Geronimo wars of 1881–1883 and 1885–1886.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wooster, Robert A. The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865–1903. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988.
Paul I.Wellman
ChristopherWells