The Contested Plains
Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush
to Colorado
Elliott West
New in Paperback: February 2000
xxiv, 422 pages, 31 photographs,
6-1/8 x 9-1/4
Paper ISBN 978-0-7006-1029-7, $16.95 (t)
Also available in cloth
ISBN 978-0-7006-0891-1, $34.95
MAIN SELECTION OF THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB
 WINNER:
FRANCIS PARKMAN PRIZE
PEN CENTER WEST AWARD
RAY ALLEN BILLINGTON PRIZE
CAUGHEY WESTERN HISTORY PRIZE
WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA SPUR AWARD
CAROLINE BANCROFT PRIZE
Deftly retracing a pivotal chapter in one of America's most
dramatic stories, Elliott West chronicles the struggles, triumphs,
and defeats of both Indians and whites as they pursued their
clashing dreams of greatness in the heart of the continent.
The Contested Plains recounts the rise of the Native
American horse culture, white Americans' discovery and pursuit
of gold in the Rocky Mountains, and the wrenching changes and
bitter conflicts that ensued. After centuries of many peoples
fashioning many cultures on the plains, the Cheyennes and other
tribes found in the horse the power to create a heroic way of
life that dominated one of the world's great grasslands. Then
the discovery of gold challenged that way of life and led finally
to the infamous massacre at Sand Creek and the Indian Wars of
the late 1860s.
Illuminating both the ancient and more recent history of the
plains and eastern Rocky Mountains, West weaves together a brilliant
tapestry interlaced with environmental, social, and military
history. He treats the "frontier" not as a morally
loaded term--either in the traditional celebratory sense or the
more recent critical sense--but as a powerfully unsettling process
that shattered an old world. He shows how Indians, goldseekers,
haulers, merchants, ranchers, and farmers all contributed to
and in turn were consumed by this process, even as the plains
themselves were uttlerly transformed by the clash of cultures
and competing visions.
Exciting and enormously engaging, The Contested Plains
is the first book to examine the Colorado gold rush as the key
event in the modern transformation of the central great plains.
It also exemplifies a kind of history that respects more fully
our rich and ambiguous past--a past in which there are many actors
but no simple lessons.
"West has harnessed, to powerful effect, the diverse
and complex story lines that form the history of the Great Plains.
His fusion of ecology and history is remarkable."--Washington
Post Book World
"In a way, Elliot West tells a familiar tale: that of
Indians, goldseekers, and the ensuing conflict. But in this case,
West is the first to assess the cataclysmic changes that the
Colorado gold rush brought to the Great Plains. In addition,
rather than casting the story in the usual terms of heartless
aggressors and hapless victims, West supplies a large and insightful
interpretation that at once softens and increases our understanding
of the Anglo disruption of Plains Indian cultures. To understand
where western history is now, and is likely to go in the future,
one must read this book."--Glenda Riley, American
Historical Review
"An interpretive triumph, full of fresh insights into
well-worn topics. For all-round excellence in the full sweep
of the western story, West occupies the pinnacle. A truly fine
book."--Robert M. Utley, author of The Lance and
the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull
"Many books have been written about the Colorado gold
rush. This one is different. The virtue of the book, besides
its lucid writing, splendid design, extensive research, and the
meaning it gives to the frontier concept that has been lambasted
for thirty years or more, is the fact that it never scolds or
trashes any culture. West's story is a story of cultural revisions--and
thus the imaginations and aspirations of many people."--William
H. Goetzmann, Journal of American History
"An interpretive masterpiece. West tells a colorful story
incredibly well, bringing individual actors to life and giving
a sense of the sweep of larger cultural events. This is lively,
literate, and at times humorous reading, paired with thoughtful
historical interpretations."--Environmental History
"In Elliott West's company, the exploration of history
becomes an adventure, a journey with surprises and unexpected
insights sufficient to shake the most comfortable and settled
of assumptions."--Patricia Nelson Limerick, author
of Legacy of Conquest
"This book will change the way the history of the West
is taught and understood forever."--Publishers Weekly
"A haunting history and a wonderful piece of storytelling.
Rarely have historical figures been so deeply human, so funny
and tragic, as they are in this stunning, clear-eyed and yet
deeply empathetic book."--Richard White, author of
It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own
ELLIOTT WEST, professor of history at the University
of Arkansas, is the author of The Way to the West: Essays
on the Central Plains and Growing Up with the Country:
Childhood on the Far-Western Frontier, both of which received
the Western Heritage Award for the best nonfiction book on the
American West. He is also coeditor of Small
Worlds: Children and Adolescents in America, 1850-1950.
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