{"product_id":"annual-report-brigadier-general-george-crook-military-operations-hi9bcf8b","title":"Annual Report of Brigadier General George Crook. Military Operations Department of the Platte [wrapper title].","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA rare and important account of the massacre of the Cheyenne at Camp Robinson. This example is further distinguished by being the Siebert copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBrigadier General George Crook (1828-90), in command of the U.S. Army’s Department of the Platte, gives details of the bloody attempted escape by Cheyenne prisoners from Fort Robinson in northwest Nebraska and criticizes the Army for its treatment of the tribe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the mid-1870s the Army resolved to remove the Lakota and Cheyenne from their lands in the Powder River watershed, with the Northern Cheyenne relocated to Indian Territory. Within just a couple of years the tribe - suffering from malnutrition and the diseases of the malarial plains of Oklahoma - saw scores of their people dying, and so the Northern Cheyenne decided to escape Indian Territory and march back north. Confronted by American troops they fought and moved into Kansas, where they killed settlers and took supplies and food necessary to survive. By October 1878, they surrendered to the army and were taken to Camp Robinson in northwest Nebraska, where they suffered through a brutal winter. On the evening of January 9, 1879, their attempted escape from the camp resulted in the deaths of two soldiers. Forty Cheyenne were killed, more than fifty surrendered or were captured, and the rest fled to the bluffs northwest of the post.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere Crook relates the Cheyennes’ reason for escaping Indian Territory and notes with gratitude the assistance they gave his own forces against the Sioux in 1876-77, “distinguished services which the Government seems to have forgotten.” Crook describes how at Camp Robinson they endured sub-zero temperatures without adequate clothing or shelter “and the situation of affairs became desperate.” He gives a brief account of the events of January 9, and absolves his troops of guilt in their response to the Cheyenne escape: “It was impossible in the darkness, cold, excitement and confusion to avoid the deplorable results that might be expected; a number of the squaws were killed and wounded in the affray, although officers and men used every care to capture when possible without inflicting injuries and a number of our men froze hands and feet while taking women and children back to the post.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrook displays some empathy toward the Cheyenne, and implies that their actions were the result of maltreatment by the Army: “\u003cstrong\u003eDuring the 27 years of my experience with the Indian question, I have never known a band of Indians to make peace with our Government and then break it, or leave their reservation, without some ground of complaint\u003c\/strong\u003e; but until their complaints are examined and adjusted, they will constantly give annoyance and trouble … It seems to me to have been, to say the very least, a very unnecessary exercise of power to insist upon this particular portion of the band going back to their former reservation while the other fragments of the same band, which surrendered to the troops on the Yellowstone or escaped to the Red Cloud or Spotted Trail reservations have been allowed to remain north unmolested …”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrook graduated West Point in 1852 and spent much of the next forty years fighting Native American tribes in the West. When he died, William Tecumseh Sherman eulogized him as the greatest Indian fighter and manager the United States Army ever had. That said, Crook was notable for his treatment of Native tribes and his concern for their welfare, especially in the context of his times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOCLC locates a single copy at Harvard. Rare Book Hub lists only three copies: a copy offered by T.N. Luther in 1975 for $750, this Siebert copy which sold for $1900 hammer ($2125 all in) in 1999, and the Jay Snider copy (which was ex-library), which sold at auction in 2005 to a dealer for $1100 ($1320 all in).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNot in Howes, Eberstadt or Streeter\u003c\/em\u003e; Siebert Sale, 768 (this copy). Robinson III, C.M., \u003cem\u003eGeneral Crook and the Western Frontier\u003c\/em\u003e (Norman, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, [2001]), pp.217-31.\u003c\/p\u003e\n","brand":"Maggs Bros.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48674946449565,"sku":"262558","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0669\/0045\/9677\/files\/262558_01.jpg?v=1784645708","url":"https:\/\/store.maggs.com\/products\/annual-report-brigadier-general-george-crook-military-operations-hi9bcf8b","provider":"Maggs Bros.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}