Review: The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story – by Elliott West

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Richard H. McBee Jr.

Review: The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story – by Elliott West
Here is a long but very well researched look at the whole concept of the Nez Perce War: giving and overview of first contacts with whites, congenial relations, willingness to work to solve problems followed by a gradual betrayal by the US government and their officials to the point where a peaceful people are literally driven into a war. Spend a good week or so reading this book. Take it slowly, get out a map and follow the campaign, check out the sizes of the reservations and the way land was literally scalped from the tribe and then follow the movements of the last bands of resistors who went with Joseph on his epic attempt to find a new home where his people could live peacefully. Read the statements of the two sides and realize that these political conversations of two parties of people viewing the world through different colored lenses of experience and tradition make human communication a morass of misunderstandings is so real today as we move from our own tribal world into the world of nation-state and globalism. I will cherish this book as I have know the story since childhood but never before taken it to the depths that Elliott West presents so thoughtfully and eloquently. I wish I had read this before I wrote my own book, “Rough Enough” as it certainly would have featured as one of my references.
 
<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/17209090-richard-mcbee”>View all my reviews</a>