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There was a very real menace to the settlers of Northwestern Iowa in 1857.
Of course there was, and in the other prairie and plains states in the next twenty years as well, from raids by warriors from the plains tribes. The pivitol event that seems to have set off general warfare may have been the Grattan Fight in August 1854, something that should have never happened.
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Originally Posted by thriftylefty
I just got a book on Jedediah Smith and it includes his letters. The Kansas Historical society has the originals. The book contains much about the Indian Massacres occurring in the 1820's. I wonder if these attacks occurred more during the opening of the west and not so much after. Perhaps the fur trappers were more of a threat to the lively hoods of the Tribes and thus provoked them.
During the Mountain Man-Fur Trapper era, which only lasted about twenty years, hundreds of men were killed by warriors from at least a score of tribes. The most persistent and deadliest enemy were the Blackfeet, whose hatred toward Americans dated from 1806, when two young Piegan warriors were killed by men from the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Jed Smith himself was killed by Comanches in 1831.
I just found out that Laura Ingalls Wilder has another manuscript which has languished in a museum in South Dakota for years because it was deemed too realistic to be appropriate reading material for young people. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography will be published this fall.
That should be very interesting! I've read all the "Little House on the Prairie" books and really enjoyed them even though they are considered children's literature.
I remember reading little house in the forest/trees which is one of the first books how much it was like a time machine. She talks about the normal life of a young child lived in a forested area, including the toys made of leftover bits of harvest and animals and the vision of the hard life as normal, not really even hard if you had known no other.
Even as an adult its like a small journey into the past. This new one definately sounds interesting.
Here's some perspective on how times were back then.
"We didn't lack for light when I was a girl, before this newfangled kerosene was ever heard of."
Ma.
"That's so", said Pa, These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good things to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em."
I just found out that Laura Ingalls Wilder has another manuscript which has languished in a museum in South Dakota for years because it was deemed too realistic to be appropriate reading material for young people. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography will be published this fall.
A lot of people who read her books growing up will want to read an adult version of her story. You've got me curious about just what wasn't considered age appropriate for young people.
How very interesting! I'll have to do more reading in this forum and make note of these books.
I have stories from my mother, not with a lot of detail unfortunately, about a couple of her relatives traveling west by wagon train who were killed by Indians in Michigan. She use to talk about these things as if it were yesterday. They would have descended from original settlers of NH, MA, CT, NY. I know several branches of the family did make it west as the genealogy is familiar to me.
My Ggrandmother was rescued from the war as a child in Mobile to be raised in the east having traveled by way of relatives in Chicago at the time of the fire. I have lots of family daguerreotypes. I can't imagine how difficult life must have been in those early days. It's amazing there was so much travel.
Something I always notice in the letters is they start with some thing like , " this is my second letter and I have not heard from you," or " I received your last letter." I can't imagine what it was like to have to wait months between every correspondence. Especially if some one was ill.
A lot of people who read her books growing up will want to read an adult version of her story. You've got me curious about just what wasn't considered age appropriate for young people.
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