Grasshoppers in Summer Free online reading

Grasshoppers in Summer examines the conflict between Native American plains tribes and the U.S. westward expansion from 1866 to 1876. It begins with the Fetterman massacre and negotiation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. That treaty ended Red Cloud's war for control of the Bozeman Trail. President Ulysses S. Grant came to office a year later on a reform platform that included Indian peace policy. Relentless cultural, economic, political and religious pressure frustrated Grant's effort to reform Indian policy. Military, railroad and mining interests conspired to destroy the Fort Laramie Treaty. That broken promise led to the drum beat of war. The plain tribe's last great victory at Greasy Grass would win the bitter spoils of total defeat.