Publisher's Synopsis
Award-winning journalist and author Stan Hoig presents a poignant history of the US government's attempts to peacefully negotiate treaties with the tribes of the Central Plains, from the friendship pacts of the early 1800s through the last formal treaty in 1871, when Congress put an end to treaty-making. Drawing on records and transcripts of treaty councils in Missouri, Arkansas, the Dakotas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming, Hoig reveals unequivocal testimony that documents countless fallacies and indiscretions by Euro-Americans in the making and enforcement of treaties. He shows how treaty-making, negotiated by peace commissioners and once the most promising method for resolving conflicts without military involvement, degenerated into a deeply flawed system sullied by political deceptions and broken promises. White Man's Paper Trail illuminates the pivotal role of these negotiations in the build up to the Plains Indian wars, in American Indians' loss of land and self-determination, and in Euro-American westward expansion.
