The Oklahoma western biographies

Narcissa Whitman and her husband, Marcus, were pioneer missionaries to the Cayuse Indians in Oregon Territory. Very much a child of the Second Great Awakening, Narcissa eagerly the burgeoning evangelical missionary movement. Following her marriage to Marcus Whitman, she spent most of 1836 traveling overland with him to Oregon. Narcissa enthusiastically began service as a missionary there, hoping to see many "benighted" Indians adopt her message of salvation through Christ. But not one Indian ever did. Cultural barriers that Narcissa never grasped effectively kept her at arm's length from the Cayuse. Gradually abandoning her efforts with the Indians, Narcissa developed a different ministry. She taught and counseled whites on the mission compound, much as she had done in her own church circles in New York. Meanwhile, the growing number of eastern emigrants streaming into the territory posed an increasing threat to the Indians. The Cayuse ultimately took murderous action against the Whitmans, the most visible whites, thus ending dramatically Narcissa's eleven-year effort to be a faithful Christian missionary as well as a devoted wife and loving mother. --From publisher's description.

"George Armstrong Custer. The name evokes instant recognition in almost every American and in people around the world. No figure in the history of the American West has more powerfully moved the human imagination. The Custer wielding this enormous influence, however, is the legendary Custer, not the real Custer, the immortal rather than the mortal. Cavalier in Buckskin probes the mortal and the immortal while also characterizing and interpreting the institutional context of both - the frontier army of the American West.". "When originally published in 1988, Cavalier in Buckskin met with great critical acclaim. Now, on the 125th anniversary of America's most famous "Last Stand," Robert M. Utley has written a revision of his best-selling biography of General George Armstrong Custer. In his preface to the revised edition, Utley writes about his summers (1947-1952) spent as a historical aide at the Custer Battlefield - as it was then known - and credits the work of several authors whose recent scholarship has illuminated our understanding of the events of Little Bighorn. He has revised or expanded chapters, added new information on sources, and revised the maps of the battlefield."--BOOK JACKET.