Expansion! The history of the United States might well be summed up in that single word. The Indian Wars of the American West were a continuation of the struggle that began with the arrival of the first Europeans, and escalated as they advanced across the Appalachians before American independence had been won.

This history of the Indian Wars of the Trans-Mississippi begins with the earliest clashes between Native Americans and Anglo-European settlers. The author provides a comprehensive narrative of the conflict in eight parts, covering eight geographical regions-the Pacific Northwest, California and Nevada, New Mexico, the Central Plains, the Southern Plains, Minnesota and the Northern Plains, the Intermountain West, and the Desert Southwest-with an epilogue on Wounded Knee.