From Our Special Correspondent: Dispatches from the 1875 Black Hills Council at Red Cloud Agency, Nebraska

For a month in late summer 1875 the nation’s gaze was drawn to proceedings at the remote Red Cloud Agency in northwestern Nebraska, where the federal government sought unsuccessfully to convince Lakota leaders to cede ownership of the Black Hills. The council was noteworthy for the issues involved, its effect on the future of Indian-white relations, and because it was among the largest such gatherings in American history. Gathered in this volume, the correspondents’ reports provide a fascinating glimpse of the personalities, interactions, and cultures of the Indian, mixed-blood, and white participants in the negotiations.