The Indian wars remain the most misunderstood campaign ever waged by the U.S. Army. From the first sustained skirmishes west of the Mississippi River in the 1850s to the sweeping clashes of hundreds of soldiers and warriors along the Upper Plains decades later, these wars consumed most of the active duty resources of the army for the greater part of the nineteenth century and resulted in the disruption of nearly all of the native cultures in the West. Dispelling notions that American Indians were simply attempting to stop encroachment on their homelands or that they shared common views on how to approach the Europeans, Bill Yenne explains in Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West that these wars were part of a general long-term strategy by the U.S. Army to subdue the West, as well as extensions of battles among native peoples that predated European contact. Complete with a general history of Indian and European relations from the earliest encounters to the opening of the West, and featuring legendary figures from both sides, Indian Wars allows the reader to better understand the sequence of events that secured the West for the United States. - Back cover.