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Thunder in the Mountains

Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War

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About this listen

Oliver Otis Howard thought he was a man of destiny. Chosen to lead the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War, the Union Army general was entrusted with the era's most crucial task: helping millions of former slaves claim the rights of citizens. He was energized by the belief that abolition and Reconstruction, the country's great struggles for liberty and equality, were God's plan for himself and the nation.

But as the nation's politics curdled in the 1870s, General Howard exiled himself from Washington, DC, rejoined the army, and was sent across the continent to command forces in the Pacific Northwest. Shattered by Reconstruction's collapse, he assumed a new mission: forcing Native Americans to become Christian farmers on government reservations. Howard's plans for redemption in the West ran headlong into the resistance of Chief Joseph, a young Nez Perce leader in northeastern Oregon who refused to leave his ancestral land.

Claiming equal rights for Native Americans, Joseph was determined to find his way to the center of American power and convince the government to acknowledge his people's humanity and capacity for citizenship.

©2017 Daniel J. Sharfstein (P)2017 Tantor American Civil War Americas Indigenous Peoples Military Military & War State & Local United States Civil War Native American War Latin American Government Old West Wild West

Critic reviews

"One of the epic tales of American history, rendered by a master storyteller. Daniel Sharfstein breathes new life into the fascinating figures at the heart of the Nez Perce War." (Karl Jacoby, author of The Strange Career of William Ellis)
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An accomplished work that is a classic. Superbly written, telling of an epic engagement with exceptional character descriptions and giving great food for thought. Superb in every respect.

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