Few places provided a more storied backdrop for key events related to the high plains Indian wars than had Fort Robinson, Nebraska. Established in 1874 just south of the Black Hills, Fort Robinson witnessed many of the most dramatic, most tragic encounters between whites and American Indians, including the Cheyenne Outbreak, the death of Crazy Horse, the Ghost Dance, the desperation and diplomacy of such famed Plains Indian leaders as Dull Knife and Red Cloud, and the tragic sequence of events surrounding Wounded Knee. In Fort Robinson and the American West, 1874–1899, Thomas R. Buecker explores both the larger story of the Nebraska fort and the particulars of daily life and work at the fort. Buecker draws on historic reminiscences, government records, reports, correspondence, and other official accounts to render a thorough yet lively depiction.

Fort Robinson and the American West, 1874–1899

History

Buecker, Thomas R.

Americas

University of Oklahoma Press

Fort Robinson & the American West, 1874-1899

Military

Nebraska State Historical

Most fort histories end when the military lowers the flag for the last time and the soldiers march out. In contrast, Fort Robinsonoccupied and used for more than fifty years since its abandonment by the U.S. armyhas taken on new roles. This book recounts the story of this famous northwestern Nebraska army post as it underwent remarkable transformation in the first half of the twentieth century.In the early 1900s, Fort Robinson hosted the last of the African American buffalo soldiers to serve in Nebraska. In the 1920s and 1930s the fort procured and issued thousands of horses for the U.S. army’s largest remount depot.  During World War II, Fort Robinson housed the army’s primary war dog training center and served as a major internment camp for German prisoners of war.  After 1948, Fort Robinson became a beef research center and is now the state’s premier park.Fort Robinson and the American Century, 1900-1948, is based on more than twenty years of archival research as well as the personal recollections of the men and women who served at the fort. More than ninety photographs and five maps supplement the narrative.

Fort Robinson and the American century, 1900-1948

Nebraska State Historical Society

2014 Award of Merit - American Association for State and Local History Lt. James E. H. Foster (1848–1883) lived a short but eventful life as a junior officer on the Northern Plains. His story—and his illustrated journal—provide a rich portrait of the frontier army at the time of the Great Sioux War. Stationed at Fort McPherson, Nebraska, Foster traveled with the Jenney Expedition of 1875, filling in the large blank area on the map of the Black Hills, and making some of the earliest surviving artistic renditions of the area.
The Black Hills, of course, were not unknown to the Lakotas, who resented the invasion of gold miners and resisted the U.S. government's attempts to buy the Hills. When war erupted in 1876, Foster rode with General Crook's forces, fighting at the Battle of the Rosebud and enduring the infamous Starvation March.
Relying on correspondence, army records, and other documents from the time, historian Thomas R. Buecker reconstructs Foster's life, interweaving his narrative with Foster's own words. Now published for the first time, all illustrations from the journal (plus several more published by Foster elsewhere) are reproduced here, along with the journal's complete transcribed text. For his own part, Foster was a gifted writer and an astute and witty observer of military life. His story increases our knowledge of the American West and the important role played in it by the frontier army.

A Brave Soldier and Honest Gentleman: Lt. James E. H. Foster in the West, 1873–1881

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

University Of Nebraska Press

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a cache of previously unknown photographs are surely worth a book. Especially when those images are from a period of traumatic change for Native peoples in the 1870s on the Northern Plains. This book reproduces for the first time images captured at the "Indian Agency" that marked the end of tribal traditional lifestyles and the beginning of restriction to reservations after the so-called "Great Sioux War."
The book, completed by well-known Ft. Robinson historian Thomas R. Buecker just before his untimely death in 2015, presents a collection of stereo card photographs of the Oglala Lakota and Arapaho Indians at northwestern Nebraska's Red Cloud Agency, of the agency itself, and of other sites and landmarks in the vicinity. Peter T. Buckley, who worked at Camp (later Fort) Robinson, Nebraska, during those crucial years collected the work of multiple photographers. Many views are published here for the first time, and with those already familiar to historians, they tell a story of a land and culture in transition.
Decoding these complex stories takes work. But readers are fortunate to have Thomas R. Buecker to guide their exploration. A longtime curator at Fort Robinson Museum and author of the fort's definitive two-volume history, Buecker (1948-2015) was equally comfortable talking with other historians and with the general public. Here he unravels the events and personalities behind the photographs, and shows how they illustrate the historical moment Buckley lived and wanted to preserve.

Last Days of Red Cloud Agency

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Books by Buecker, Thomas R.