Land of the Dacotahs [Dakotas]

[x], 354 pp. Includes two sections of black-and-white photographs. A general history of the Upper Missouri Valley from the colonial era through the time of publication, with discussion of the fur trade, French explorers, the Indian Wars, cattle ranching, Wild West gunslingers, etc. "A new story about the American West, Land of the Dacotahs tells the dramatic history of the Upper Missouri Valley from the days of the early French explorers to today's plan for harnessing the Missouri, America's most willful river. Here is the land of the Sioux Indians, of Pte the buffalo, of the amazing Black Hills, of the great plains which became the tragic Dust Bowl. Here is this land's vast natural wealth, its violent extremes of weather, its man-wrought havoc and man-made fortunes - in stories of keelboatmen and Indian fighters, of cattle barons and rustlers, of Scandinavian immigrants and homesteaders, of the steamboats and the railroads, of the Nonpartisan League, and of the fights over the MVA. Bruce Nelson, a young North Dakota newspaperman, writes with a keen sense of historical pattern and a flair for the dramatic. He has made exciting use of little-known Indian lore and pioneer fold tales. Skillfully interwoven with the facts are diverting legends, with a sly bit of debunking besides, about such colorful figures as Hugh Glass, the exotic Marquis de Mores, Teddy Roosevelt, George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and many others. The author was awarded a University of Minnesota Fellowship in Regional Writing to assist him in this work." SGSL: "The author devotes a chapter to Calamity Jane, debunking her own autobiography and exposing her true character. He writes: 'Calamity's claim to being Wild Bill's sweetheart was an infamous slander - a fact which Calamity herself admitted in her declining years - for whatever else may be said of Wild Bill, he was at least fastidious.' But on the whole the author seems to have a poor opinion of Wild Bill, saying that he was not averse to shooting a man in the back. He says that Jack McCall was bribed to kill Wild Bill and was freed at his first trial by a jury packed with men who had paid him to do the job."