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Red Cloud’s War: Brave Eagle’s Account of the Fetterman Fight
Subjects(s):
- Juvenile Fiction / Native American (early reader 4-8)
Format:
Hardcover
ISBN:
978-1-937786-38-0
Price:
$16.95
Date Available:
Available now
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“We are brave and ready to fight for our lands . . . I will go now and I will fight you. As long as I live, I will fight you for the last hunting grounds of my people,” said Red Cloud, war chief of the Oglala Lakota, to Colonel Carrington. The year was 1866, the Civil War had just ended, and the Bozeman Trail was the shortest route for prospectors to reach the gold rush territory of Montana—except that it passed straight through the lands of the powerful Oglala Lakota! When the US government demanded the construction of forts along the trail, the situation quickly dissolved into war. Captain William Fetterman had proudly boasted that he could destroy the entire Lakota nation with just 80 men. Red Cloud, with the support of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, had other ideas.
In this commemorative edition, marking the 150th anniversary of Red Cloud’s War, Goble recounts the tale of events through the eyes of Brave Eagle, a fictional young Lakota warrior. This new edition features an original never-before-published layout, updated and edited text, digitally enhanced artwork, and a new foreword by Robert Lewis, a Cherokee, Navaho, and Apache storyteller.
Paul Goble is an award-winning author and illustrator of over 40 children’s titles. His book, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, won the prestigious Caldecott Medal. Born in England, he has lived in the US since 1977. In 1959, Goble was adopted into the Yakima and Sioux tribes (with the name Wakinyan Chikala, “Little Thunder”) by Chief Edgar Red Cloud. Goble has given his entire collection of original illustrations to the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings, South Dakota, where it is permanently on display. He lives in Rapid City, SD.
Robert Lewis is an award-winning storyteller, author, and artist of Cherokee, Navaho, and Apache descent. He works for the Cherokee Nation as a school and community specialist and conducts outreach classes and services in art, culture, and storytelling. Robert Lewis lives in Tahlequah, OK.
Awards
- Finalist in the “Children’s Fiction” category of the 2015 USA “Best Book” Awards
- Finalist in the 2016 Benjamin Franklin Book of the Year Awards, in the “Young Reader: Fiction (8-12 years)” category
- Gold Medal in the “Children’s Fiction” category of the 2015 Midwest Book Awards
- Silver Medal in the “Interior Design” category of the 2015 Midwest Book Awards
Reviews
“Fighting to preserve Oglala Sioux territory northwest of Fort Laramie, in modern-day Wyoming, war chief Red Cloud routs a band of 80 soldiers in 1866. Young Brave Eagle describes the events leading up to the Battle of the Hundred in the Hands and the fierce encounter, sometimes called the Fetterman Fight for the glory-seeking captain who had led his soldiers into an ambush. There were no U.S. Army survivors. First published in 1972, this stirring story has been slightly reworked and reissued with additional material, including a forward from Native American storyteller Robert Lewis and an extensive list of references. In an opening author’s note, Goble explains that his imagined warrior’s narrative ‘attempts to capture the spirit of the published Indian accounts.’ Maps introduce this history, and Goble’s dramatic color illustrations, digitized from his original ledger-style artwork, bring it alive. Groups of flat figures stand out on shiny white pages; they’re under, adjacent to, or nearly overwhelming the text. There’s glorious detail in the costumes, weapons, and even decorations for the horses. This is part of a series of reissues of early titles by this award-winning author/illustrator, welcome both for their good stories and for the care he’s taken to provide the sources and references that weren’t customary in children’s literature 40 years ago. An exciting tale, rousingly told.”
– Kirkus Reviews
From the “Foreword” by Robert Lewis
“ . . .In reading Paul Goble’s Red Cloud’s War, I am reminded again of the power of stories. These moments that have passed—whether pleasant with beauty or boiling with injustice done and never rectified—they become stories, become history. They remain inside of us like dreams that need to be remembered. Paul Goble has found one of those dreams and with poignant words given a new vision of Red Cloud’s War, looking through the eyes of Brave Eagle.
“I hope you will find echoes of Brave Eagle inside yourself as he travels over a changing world with courage. . . .”
Sample Page Spreads from This Book
Click on the image below to see a larger image and a caption for this and any additional page spreads.
