coming two-volume history). This anthology sprang from those efforts.

Once the focus narrowed to the 1865-77 period, though, the compiler's
decisions became more difficult, the most challenging being: Why these
selections? I wanted to feature all the major personalities--" Buffalo Bill"
Cody, Frank North, Red Cloud, and Crazy Horse--and the major adver-
saries--the Pawnee, Lakota, and Cheyenne tribes arrayed for or against
the United States Army. Spotlighted as well are the major places and
events--building and guarding the transcontinental railroad across Ne-
braska, the Republican River Expedition of 1869, the Battle of Massacre
Canyon, the flagpole incident at Red Cloud Agency, Camp Robinson in
the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, and the killing of Crazy Horse. These
are all Nebraska stories, illustrating the integral role western Nebraska
played in the Plains Indian wars.

The initial selection of articles--twice the number that survived--not
only covered these topics, but fell neatly into four categories. The group
headings, "Seizing Control of the Platte and Republican Rivers," "Paw-
nee Triumph, Pawnee Tragedy," "Red Cloud Agency in the Spotlight,"
and "Sioux War Saga," reflect the shifts in Nebraska's cultural and his-
torical geography during this relatively brief period. Although the num-
ber of articles in each section was whittled away, the balance I sought
remained.

Soon I saw that this anthology might evolve beyond a mere "best of"
compilation. To make the final cut each candidate article had to possess
strengths in two areas. First, it could stand alone on its historical and
scholarly merits. Second, the articles taken together had to present a
comprehensive story that discussed the important persons, places, and
events while avoiding redundancy. To turn a stale phrase, the sum of the
whole had to exceed the sum of its parts. This mathematical impossibil-
ity has, to some degree, been achieved by the gathering of articles that
have never appeared together, thereby providing a fuller context for all,
and the inclusion of a previously unpublished article as an epilogue.

Although the death of Crazy Horse, the dramatic denouement of the
Great Sioux War, figures largely in Eleanor Hinman "Oglala Sources on
the Life of Crazy Horse" (Chapter 10), several loose ends remained. Most
are drawn together by James E. Potter "The Pageant Revisited" (Epi-
logue), a study appearing for the first time in this book. Potter's tracing
of the record of Nebraska Medal of Honor recipients in the frontier army
provides another overview to the Indian wars in western Nebraska,
complementing King's introduction and the chapters to follow.

Looking at both sides of this epic struggle and striving to reach a
balance in the storytelling required the inclusion of first-person, eyewit-

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