Paul Piana and Todd Skinner are well known in the world of climbing. But some folks don't know that Paul first climbed in the Needles, in the early seventies. His descriptions of the routes are sometimes sketchy, but this is nonetheless the classic book on climbing in the Black Hills. He includes some maps of the various areas, and a good introductory section on the history of climnbing in the area. Some interesting biographical notes, including Herb and Jan Conn, some Yosemite greats and others.

I was asked to review this book for a publishing contest. How lucky I was! It is the finest book I've seen this season--full of wonderful information, attractively designed, and very fun to look through. I think you'll enjoy this book, whether or not you do genealogy (I don't!), and no matter where you live. It's an entertaining historical read.

This book is fabulous in that in that it not only charts the tour sites of the Great Sioux was with excellent maps, directions and fantastic pictures but also provides excellent mini-histories on what occurred at each site including bios on the main participants. Just reading this book gives you a good historical perspective for the great plains war with chapters that categorize the historical sites by period starting with the Gratten marker in Wyoming. The Gratten monument was for a Lt. and his company that threatened Conquering Bear's village over the alleged theft of a cow resulting in his death and his companies (1856). This book proceeds with sites and histories flowing the Red Cloud War of 1866, through the Little Bighorn Campaign period and aftermath, the summer and winter campaigns. Also includes historical sites after 1877 such as sitting Bull's Canadian sites with descriptions of the sites and pictures. Hedren covers every major historical site from old forts, some of which have been reconstructed and some have actual structures that he describes and has pictures of. You can virtually follow the expeditions of the army or find exact locations of significant village sites. This book adds an extra dimension to any trip as Hedren shows you additional sites, some obscure, right next door to the more publicized sites. A great example is Little Bighorn, just 30 miles away is the pristine Rosebud Battlefield site where Crook encountered the Sioux and Cheyenne in a desperate and critical battle a week before Custer. In addition, the Powder River Battlefield where Crook's forces struck first but lost the initiative in March is just further west of the Rosebud Battlefield. This book provides so much information and easy directions including those that are on private property (includes caution to seek permission) that an adventurous traveler can seemingly so it all in a long week but perhaps two. The book's pictures are better than many books that are dedicated to a specific battle. The pictures of the massive Bear Butte Mountain are incredible as its mass is seen along a flat plain. The also book includes pictures of the main participants and their places of rest. A book that Walter Camp would be proud of as he documented many of these sites almost 100 years ago before they were lost to obscurity. I wish I had this book when I visited the Little Bighorn two years ago; however, there is so much great information I would have had to stay west another week.

If your heading West to do some flyishing, do yourself a favor get this very detailed book and spend a few days fishing in total solitude. Browns, Rainbows and Brook trout, the hills have all of them and this book will tell you how and where to catch them. A great find!

I have read this book several times, and have given to every important person in my life. If you want to know the landscape of western South Dakota in all its sundry emotions, walk across it. If you don't have the time for that, read this book. It doesn't get any more intimate than this.

My 8 year old daughter was wide-eyed as she followed these two American Indian brothers on their quest to seek out the monstrous Uncegila. Jill Rubalcaba's language is rhythmic and poetic, and children will enjoy the starkly colorful paintings. A good choice for read-aloud

This book was recommended to me for its wonderfully sensitive portrayal of the Sioux people as living, culturally alive, reaching for the fullness of their possibilities. It was suggested that other Native American tribes should consider creating a similar self-portrait. I have been very much impressed by the content and quality of this work.

In the many books written about Native Americans Sioux that lived during the Great Sioux War as a hostile this is one of the best. A bit of a braggart, White Bull also is very revealing as far as what he was thinking at the time. E.i. There was an incident when his uncle, Sitting Bull, who decided to show the young braves how brave he was and asked who would like to walk out into the middle of a battlefield and sit down and have a smoke from his pipe with him. White Bull along with three other braves not wanting to look afraid volunteered. When they sat down in between the soldiers and their fellow Sioux with bullets zinging all around them, Sitting Bull put tobacco in his pipe, lit it, and took a long slow draw. When it got to White Bull he states "Except for Sitting Bull we smoked it as fast as we could." For those that wish an authentic flavor of what the Sioux thought during the Great Sioux War this book hits the spot.

On the morning of December 29, 1890, the Lakota chief Big Foot and some 350 of his followers were camped on the banks of Wounded Knee creek. Surrounding their camp was a force of U.S. troops charged with the responsibility of arresting Big Foot and disarming his warriors. What happened is now called the massacre at Wounded Knee, which resulted in approximately 300 Lakota dead. Although scattered fighting continued after the massacre, what happened at Wounded Knee effectively ended both the Ghost Dance movement and the Indian Wars.

Neil Waldman begins his book "Wounded Knee" with the recollections of Black Elk, a young Lakota warrior, of being awaken that morning by the sound of gunfire. From there Waldman goes back to the first contacts between native peoples and Europeans, putting the massacre in context with the entire history of the conquest of the New World. He then narrows his focus to the Plains War in the 1870's, which includes the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and Ghost Dance movement of the late 1880's that led to this final, fatal confrontation between the Lakota and the U.S. Calvary. Waldman provides an objective view of how this tragedy came about, covering how events made the massacre almost an inevitable finale to centuries of conflict. Waldman also does the illustrations for this book, and I believe several of the them are based on period photographs.

The massacre at Wounded Knee is the important historical counterpart to what happened at the Little Bighorn, which was the one great victory enjoyed by the Plains Indians against federal troops. However, that victory only increased the determination of the Army, and the government, to eradicate the "threat" posed by the Indians. Wounded Knee becomes the final price the Indians had to pay for their "victory" and therefore you really should not teach or learn about one without the other. True, Waldman provides an objective view of this event, but in doing so he really gives his reader little choice as to where their sympathies should lie.

Since her mother's death, twelve-year-old Rachel has grievedsilently - there's simply no time to mourn on the harsh late nineteenth century plains. When a brutal drought shows no signs of letting up, Rachel's father does the only thing he can think of - he sends Rachel and her little brother John to stay with their mother's sister in Savannah, Georgia. When he finally comes to bring them home, he announces that he plans to marry the local schoolteacher. Rachel refuses to accept her future stepmother, setting into motion a chain of events that nearly ends in tragedy. Now it is up to Rachel to earn her father's forgiveness and let go of her grief. I highly reccomend this poignant novel. Although it is set a little over a hundred years ago, the feelings in it are as real now as they were then.