Chief left hand biography

Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho

December 24, 2023
So thoroughly researched, well-organized, and well-written. Oftentimes purely historical non fiction books can be dry, and while it may have been partly due to my personal connection/background knowledge on the subject matter, I finished this book in about 3 days. For the most part, it did not sugar coat on either side and gave such a full picture of the context and events of the Sand Creek Massacre. Since there doesn't seem to be an extensive amount of sources about Left Hand himself, there were some sections of speculation about specifics for him to make it biographical, but that couldn't be avoided. There were also a couple of minor things where I have heard different conclusions (specifically what happened to Bent's Old Fort, who was responsible for Hungate murders, and number dead at Sand Creek) and I wished she had addressed the role of the bison robe trade as well, but these are minor things in an overall fantastic book.

Chief Left Hand

This is the first biography of Chief Left Hand, diplomat, linguist, and legendary of the Plains Indians. Working from government reports, manuscripts, and the diaries and letters of those persons—both white and Indian—who knew him, Margaret Coel has developed an unusually readable, interesting, and closely documented account of his life and the life of his tribe during the fateful years of the mid-1800s.

It was in these years that thousands of gold-seekers on their way to California and Oregon burst across the plains, first to traverse the territory consigned to the Indians and then, with the discovery of gold in 1858 on Little Dry Creek (formerly the site of the Southern Arapaho winter campground  and presently Denver, Colorado), to settle.

Chief Left Hand was one of the first of his people to acknowledge the inevitability of the white man’s presence on the plain, and thereafter to espouse a policy of adamant peacefulness —if not, finally, friendship—toward the newcomers.

Chief Left Hand is not only a consuming story—popular history at its best—but an import

Chief Left Hand: Southern Arapaho (Civilization of the American Indian Series)

December 24, 2023
So thoroughly researched, well-organized, and well-written. Oftentimes purely historical non fiction books can be dry, and while it may have been partly due to my personal connection/background knowledge on the subject matter, I finished this book in about 3 days. For the most part, it did not sugar coat on either side and gave such a full picture of the context and events of the Sand Creek Massacre. Since there doesn't seem to be an extensive amount of sources about Left Hand himself, there were some sections of speculation about specifics for him to make it biographical, but that couldn't be avoided. There were also a couple of minor things where I have heard different conclusions (specifically what happened to Bent's Old Fort, who was responsible for Hungate murders, and number dead at Sand Creek) and I wished she had addressed the role of the bison robe trade as well, but these are minor things in an overall fantastic book.

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