My Friend the Indian (Expanded, Annotated)

"If his sense of justice had led him to fine discrimination in these matters, the [Native American] would long ago have made an attack on the national Capitol." So wrote Indian Inspector and former agent for the Sioux, James McLaughlin, in 1910. Long used as a source for scholarship on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, McLaughlin's classic memoir is a fascinating read. Acquainted with all of the major Native American personalities of the late 19th century (Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, Rain-in-the-Face, etc.), McLaughlin had opportunities to question them at length about their involvement in Custer's last battle. Though more recent research has brought into question some of the Indian accounts in this book, many of them stand and the first-person perspectives are invaluable. In addition, McLaughlin's many years of contact with the Sioux made him an admiring and honest friend. He advocated for policies that were fair to the Indians and, like many others of the period, saw westward expansion as an irreconcilable force that was overwhelming the Native Americans while not supporting their extraordinarily difficult transition to a new way of life. If you buy this book only for the Custer material, it's worth the price of admission. But the work is much richer than that.