The Last War Trail - (Civilization of the American Indian) by Robert Emmitt (Paperback)

About the Book

The stage was set for trouble in spring 1878 when new agent Nathan C. Meeker arrived at the White River Indian Agency on the Ute Reservation. In The Last War Trail, Robert Emmitt details the conflict that followed, the Meeker Massacre and the Ute War of 1879.

Book Synopsis

The stage was set for trouble in spring 1878 when new agent Nathan C. Meeker arrived at the White River Indian Agency on the Ute Reservation. The Utes had seen agents come and go without bringing any great change, but Meeker intended to convert them to Christianity and a farming lifestyle. His efforts to alter their society drove the White River Utes to war. In The Last War Trail, Robert Emmitt details the conflict that followed, the Meeker Massacre and the Ute War of 1879.

From White River Ute chief Saponise Cuch, a young warrior at the time, Emmitt heard the story of the Utes' antagonism to Meeker's plan to teach them to farm, their version of the battle at Milk River, and their attitude toward removal. Emmitt spoke with other Utes, some of them descendants of war participants, and with whites who had lived near the reservation. He also consulted congressional documents and official testimonies to craft this well-rounded account.

Review Quotes

"This narrative has the quality of good fiction, although it carries the unmistakeable imprint of both ethnology and history. . . . Commands the reader's attention from first to last." -- Carl Coke Rister, in American Anthropologist

"[Robert Emmitt] has written a story that is as rich and poignant as the Ute chronicle really was. No one else has told it quite so well." -Robert G. Athearn, in Pacific Historical Review