Chapters 13 and 14 Summary and Analysis

In Chapter 13, army officers who served in the West were often educated and intelligent. They fought the Indians but many of them had an avid interest in Indian culture. The nation owes a debt of gratitude to these men who kept journals and thus preserved a great deal of history about the American Indians. General George Custer, in his book, "My Life on the Plains," complained about the mistreatment of Indians. The Battle of Little Big Horn has often been misrepresented as has Custer's character. One big misunderstanding about Indians was that the chief of a tribe did not have authority to sign a peace treaty for the entire tribe, only for himself. Military tactics were always of interest to L'Amour from the American Indians to the Roman legions to T. E. Lawrence and the Battle of Tafila. Those...