The Indians' Last Fight or The Dull Knife Raid: Recollections of the Western American Frontier

The iconic times of cowboys and Indians-by one who was there

Although this book's title suggests a particular focus on one notable event in the history of the American Western Frontier it is also a recollection by the author of life as a 'westerner' in the states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, during the post-Civil War years from around 1870-90. Collins gives us many insightful details of life on the Great Plains, of the cattle trails, the 'cowpunchers' who drove the legendary herds along them and of the many fights and skirmishes fought between the settlers, the U.S army and the Indian tribes who were engaged in a last, desperate struggle to maintain their way of life. The subject of the book's title was a noteworthy event of the so called 'Cheyenne Exodus' and in 1878 and was the last Indian raid in Kansas. Dull Knife and his band of Northern Cheyenne were forcibly removed from their lands and took to the warpath, eventually slaughtering between 75 and 100 settlers around the Cimarron area before fleeing from their pursuers. They were eventually caught in Nebraska and Dull Knife was taken prisoner. This is an excellent first-hand account of the western expansion of the United States by one who lived through them and will be appreciated by all students of the subject.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

Another motive that has impelled me to undertake the task of presenting the “West” to the general reader, is that there what the term really means. I shall endeavor to set before the public a true account of many of the recent happenings in the vast country that lies west of the Mississippi, that they may have a better idea of its history and its people. I have read in numerous Magazines and Journals, accounts of the habits and customs of the Western People in general, and of the cow-puncher in particular, with a full description of the Indian at peace and at war, that, from the reality, it would be impossible to recognize any of them. I am quite satisfied that the authors of the so-called narrations did not have an opportunity of studying the subject at close quarters, and, consequently, were not in a position to do the topic justice. As a consequence of this unreliable mode of narration, people who do not know, imagine that the cow-puncher was half-man and half-horse, or, if not so bad as that, pictured him as a ranting, roaring, rollicking, bloodthirsty, oath-emitting, unconstrained son of perdition, whose chief occupation was murder and rapine, and whose avocation was herding cattle. As for the Indian, he was supposed to have no other qualification for attention than murder and pillage, totally depraved, and beyond the scope of all civilizing influences. Such ideas are based on imaginary authority, and are as far from the truth as it is possible for any narrative to be. I shall endeavor to set before the reading public a proper appreciation of both the Indian and the cow-puncher. Dennis Collins