I used this book to aid me in teaching a recent lesson on North Dakota and the Great Plains. I found it to be a good reference for everything from the ice ages, to Native Americans, to modern agricultural techniques. This is an interesting book.

I have only slight connections with North Dakota, but I have always been interested in the state, and its interesting and different political history. This book has good chapters on early days in North Dakota, and on the wild times politically from 1915 to 1960. A better book is A History of North Dakota, by Elwyn B. Robinson, which I read with much appreciation Mar 7, 1989. Even this book says Robinson's book is the best history of North Dakota. I thought this book was a little overly defensive about North Dakota, but it is full of interesting facts. For instance I did not know that Senator Nye, when he heard about Pearl Harbor, went ahead and delivered his prepared speech anyway, castigating the Administration for its foreign policy. Of course, the next day he voted for war just like nearly everybody else. I know this book came out in 1977 and I would like to read a more recent history of North Dakota. Is there one?

This is a true story of a man in the South Dakota territory between end of the Indian Wars and the settling of the homesteaders. This will fill the void that this time period is seldom written about.

This is an informational picture book for young students studying Sitting Bull. I would recommend the book for early elementary students learning about Plains Native Americans. The book is also well illustrated.

I enjoyed reading about life in the first half of the 20th century, told vividly and humorously. Walta tells about her childhood as if she were still a little girl experiencing it, but her style of writing changes as she "grows up." I split my sides laughing at the joke pulled on her step-dad at the Chivaree, but the Great Depression stories about sharing cold biscuits with a tramp and being bilked by an escaped convict are poignant and sensitive. She's a good "story-teller," with the ability to paint pictures with her words. She's the kind of author you'd like to get to know.

The Sacred Vision is a personal venture into Native American Religion by the author. It is useful for anyone inquiring to where spirituality may lead them; specifically into Native American culture from an outsider's perspective. And it is also a useful gauge of the culture as of the 1980's, in the pre-casino era.

Hyde's chronicle begins with the surrender of the Sioux to the U. S. government, and the beginning of the "noble experiment" of transforming Native Americans into Neo-Europeans (by making them farmers, for example). The book ends with the tragedy of the Wounded Knee massacre, and can be read as an analysis of all the factors leading up to that incident, which revealed the failure of said experiment.

Hyde recounts the many factors which led to the resumption of hostilities between a small minority of Sioux and the U. S. Army. the author clearly has favorite villains on both sides: from religious philanthropists on the East coast, who had never met a live Sioux in his native habitat, to Sitting Bull who went about caching firearms, to the corrupt politicians who replaced relatively knowledgeable Indian agents with inexperienced political cronies. Hyde paints the portrait of all of these actors and more with verve and detail.

Missing from Hyde's account is any in-depth analysis of Sioux culture that would allow us to understand the appeal of the Ghost Dance. Instead, Hyde's account posits that Sioux and white are motivated by the same factors: greed, political infighting, fear, hatred, and hunger. But Hyde's focus on action and decision, his love of detail, and his sardonic style make for gripping and informative reading. Recommended for anyone interested in frontier history or in the fraught relationship between whites and Native Americans.

This is a good reference book for anyone studying the Sioux Uprising (Dakota War) of 1862.

Mr Nix was one of the settlers from a small town in Minnesota called New Ulm. Mr. Nix and other New Ulmers succesfully defended their city against two separate Indian attacks during the height of this war (he was shot twice, but survived.)

The English portion of this book was translated from the original German document written in the late 1800's, so the verbage is a little dated. The author still had strong prejudices against the Native Americans when he wrote this testimonial, and frequently refers to them as "Red Devils" and "Red Scoundrels." This book is hardly objective.

This is a good glimpse at one man's viewpoint of the war, but should be examined as just that, one man's viewpoint.

Mrs. Eastman should be considered a pioneer in more ways than one. She was one of the first educators to teach in the Dakota territory. Mrs. Eastman advocated day schools which allowed the native children to remain with their families (a concept which was strongly discouraged by the church boarding schools of the time), she took the time to learn the D/Lakota language and conversed in it, and she lived within the community (as opposed setting herself against it). Mrs. Eastman worked many years while she was a single person (which was quite unusual). She also reported with accuracy what was really occuring on the reservations (often upsetting those in charge-including government and church officials).

Among many things within this book, one can learn about: what works and does not work when teaching individuals whose first language is not English, the Native Americans of the Dakotas, a Feminist before her time, and the account of The Wounded Knee Massacre from someone who tended the few left alive.

As a first grade teacher, I find this book to be a wonderful, well written, resource book for any classroom or children's library. It provides simple and accurate information in a compassionate, although protectively realistic, easily understood manner. This easy-to-read book provides the reader with an enjoyable and meaningful reading experience.