Voices of the American West, Volume 2: The Settler and Soldier Interviews o f Eli S. Ricker, 1903-1919

US: UNP - Bison Books, 2012. Paperback. Very Good. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting.The spine remains undamaged. In this second volume of interviews conducted by Nebraska judge Eli S. Rick er, he focuses on white eyewitnesses and participants in the occupying and settling of the American West in the nineteenth century. In the first decade of the twentieth century, as the Old West became increa singly distant and romanticized in popular consciousness, Eli S. Ricker (18 42-1926) began interviewing those who had experienced it firsthand, hoping to write a multivolume series about its last days, centering on the conflic ts between Natives and outsiders. For years Ricker traveled across the nort hern Plains, gathering information on and off reservations, in winter and i n summer. Judge Ricker never wrote his book, but his interviews are pricele ss sources of information about that time and place, and they offer more ba lanced perspectives on events than were accepted at the time. Richard E. Jensen brings together all of Ricker's interviews with those men and women who came to the American West from elsewhere-settlers, homesteaders, and veterans. These interviews shed light on such key events as the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Little Bighorn battle, Beecher Island, Lightning Creek, the Mormon cow incident, and the Washita massacre. Also of interest are glimpses of everyday life at different agencies, including Pine Ridge, Yellow Medicine, and Fort Sill School; brief though revealing memoirs; and snapshots of cattle drives, conflicts with Natives, and the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad.