The 1700s were a disruptive century in North America, but the 1800s were bloody. Brutal massacres and hard-fought battles. Given thousands of native tribes (initially treated as sovereign nations), European powers, plus Mexico and the United States, any group could wage war on anyone else. Escalated retaliation was common. Add to this a lot of infighting and civil wars.
Alliances. Treaties. Intermarriage. Culture clash. Assimilation. Betrayals. Imperial land disputes. Military forts. Settlements. Trailblazers. Gold rushes. Railroads. Wild West gunslingers. Removal Acts. Reservations.
O'Reilly and Dugard add a small amount of prosaic flair to set each scene without interfering with the accuracy of the historical record. The book covers many events. The Creek attack on Fort Mims. Seminole wars in Florida. The Trail of Tears. Black Hawk War. Apache and Comanche dominance of the American Southwest. Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce resistance. Geronimo rebelling while on a reservation. Sitting Bull, the chief of all the Sioux who allied with the Cheyenne and Arapaho. And Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull's military commander, who defeated General Custer at Little Bighorn. Months later, Crazy Horse was killed while attempting to escape Fort Robinson during a "peace" negotiation.