Long cited as a source for the history of the Indian Wars, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge's memoir of thirty-three years observing and befriending Native-Americans is a classic. Not only did he serve on the western frontier but his passionate curiosity and desire to understand Indian culture left us one of the most fascinating books of the period. A Civil War veteran, he later served for two years as aide-de-camp to General William Tecumseh Sherman, who wrote an introduction for this volume. While Sherman found the book valuable and interesting, he made it clear he did not agree with Dodge's assessments of the failure of government policy towards native peoples. Dodge includes many anecdotes about well-known and not so well-known Indians that he met and befriended. And he shares many exciting and thrilling adventures of his own career in the west.