Our Wild Indians: Thirty-Three Years’ Personal Experience Among the Red Men of the Great West
Hartford, Conn. A. D. Worthington and Company, 1883. Second Printing.
A COMPLETE 1883 ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT PLAINS WITH STRIKING COLOR PLATES DOCUMENTING FRONTIER LIFE.
An important nineteenth-century account of Native American life on the Great Plains, written by U.S. Army officer Richard Irving Dodge from more than three decades of military service on the western frontier. With an introduction by General William Tecumseh Sherman, the work combines personal observation, military experience, and contemporary descriptions of Native customs, warfare, social life, and traditions.
THE FRONTIER FROM EXPERIENCE.
Dodge’s narrative reflects the perspective of an army officer who spent years stationed among western tribes and sought to record his experiences of frontier life. While shaped by the attitudes of its era, the volume remains significant as a primary source for the study of the late nineteenth-century American West.
A VISUAL RECORD OF THE PLAINS.
The strength of this volume is its extensive illustration program. The book includes engraved portraits, wood engravings, and chromolithographic plates depicting Native clothing, weapons, objects, customs, and scenes of frontier life. The full-color plates preserve detailed visual records of artifacts and material culture, making the volume particularly appealing to collectors of Western Americana.
The work also includes a portrait frontispiece of Colonel Dodge, engraved illustrations of military and frontier events, and plates reproducing objects and drawings associated with Plains tribes.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Octavo volume, approximately 8.5 inches tall; 653 pages. Professionally rebound in a plain cloth binding with gilt spine lettering. The original text block is complete, including tissue guards protecting illustrated plates.
Illustrated throughout with engraved portraits, wood engravings, and chromolithographic plates, including full-page color illustrations of Native dress, weapons, tools, and other objects. Includes frontispiece portrait of the author and extensive preliminary matter, including lists of illustrations.
CONDITION: Very Good. The binding is tight and square with minimal shelf handling wear to the newer cloth binding. Text is clean with light, even age-toning throughout. The original preliminary leaves, frontispiece, and title page show damp staining, with occasional foxing in the margins. The illustrated plates remain present and complete, with tissue guards intact.
FRONTIER DOCUMENTATION: THE AMERICAN WEST RECORDED.
Published during the period of western expansion and conflict, 'Our Wild Indians' represents one of the many nineteenth-century attempts to document Native peoples, customs, and frontier encounters through firsthand accounts. Dodge’s long military career placed him in direct contact with communities across the western territories, giving the work importance as a historical record of attitudes, observations, and experiences during a transformative period in American history.
The combination of firsthand military perspective and extensive illustration makes the volume especially notable among nineteenth-century works on the American frontier.
SUBJECTS: Richard Irving Dodge, Great Plains, Native Americans, U.S. Army, American West, Frontier Life, Nineteenth-Century Illustration,Western Americana, Native American History, Military History, Frontier History, Travel and Exploration.
Item #22375
Price: $85.00
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