American Indian Wars 1540-1924

Discussion in 'Prewar' started by CL1, Feb 4, 2019.

  1. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  2. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Thanks for posting these interesting facts.
    I wonder how many were killed on both sides compared to WW2 and WW1.
    Stefan.
     
  3. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  4. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    For the Indians, warfare accounted for an insignificant number compared to the diseases brought by European settlers. Some estimates suggest that 50-60% of the pre-contact population died from various outbreaks.
     
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  5. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

  6. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  7. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

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  8. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    There's a couple of camels in that picture too :)
     
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  9. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Shame we haven't got the "Negative Reputation" button like we had it the old days.
    I'd give Clive neg rep for posting such a shit link.
     
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  10. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    BBC Two - Fort Apache

    The first of John Ford's cavalry trilogy, in which a commanding officer, bitter at his demotion after the Civil War, takes his resentment out on the men of Fort Apache, a remote outpost in the Arizona desert.

    He is determined to tighten up discipline but eventually shows his ignorance of American Indian behaviour when he leads his troops into a deadly confrontation.


    Based on a 1947 story and released in March 1948

    Fort Apache (film) - Wikipedia

    A bit like Lancers and the Charge of the Light Brigade ;-)
     
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  11. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

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  12. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Oh Owen my cariad how could you
     
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  13. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    "If you saw them, sir, they weren't Apache."
     
  14. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    I have read a little about the wars against the Plains Indians (1862-1877) and I must say that it's an ugly story. Neither side stands out for its moral conduct. The US Army (all right, Colorado volunteers) had that beast in human form Colonel Chivington, and the Sioux had a similar character in Inkpaduta. There were better men on both sides, but the Western frontier was a savage, Darwinian place where the weak (women, children, anyone of any race who was caught alone and defenseless on the plains) went to the wall. We have romanticized all this in our movies and popular culture, of course, but as far as I am concerned you can take that romance and put it in a certain dark place and leave it there.

    That said, I think it sad and ironic that the one US Army officer who is best remembered from those wars is Custer, who was of course defeated. The US Army finally won the war on the Plains, and it did so despite poor training, inadequate numbers, and miserable funding. Leadership was a vital factor in the victory, but the leaders who finally beat Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, et. al., have been largely forgotten. Look up Nelson Miles, George Crook, Ranald Mackenzie, Eugene Carr, Guy V. Henry, William Hazen, George Forsyth, and Plenty Coups (Crow chief and scout). They were excellent leaders, but who remembers them now?
     
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  15. jonheyworth

    jonheyworth Senior Member


    I agree . I’ve read up on it too and it was a brutal cultural war where each side often became as bad as each other and the few good men of both parties work was undone at almost every turn . The Native American culture was quite frankly a brutal and horrible culture by any mid C19th standards and the US Army often became as brutal in many ways . Deeds and acts of Russian front standards
     
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  16. Gary Tankard

    Gary Tankard Well-Known Member

    Yes, I read this Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains: Amazon.co.uk: Goodrich, Thomas: 0011557029079: Books in the early 1990s. It made it clear Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves sugar coated view of Plains Indian life wasn't entirely accurate.

    I highly recommend it if the Indian Wars are of interest.
     
  17. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    French and Indian War was a complex one. Lots of intrigue and shifting alliances among all tribes with the French, British and each other.

    Britain had to increase taxes on the Americans to pay for it and we know what that led to.
     

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