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The Beaver Men

The Beaver Men

Spearheads of Empire

by Mari Sandoz

Introduction by Andrew R. Graybill

Published by: Bison Books

Imprint: Bison Books

133.00 × 203.00 mm, 14 illustrations, 3 maps

EPUB
9780803246010
Published: January 2013

Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

Covering more than two centuries, The Beaver Men recounts the beginning of the beaver trade along the St. Lawrence to the last great rendezvous of traders and trappers on Ham’s Fork, in what is now Wyoming, in 1834. The Beaver Men is the third in Mari Sandoz’s trilogy of books narrating the history of the American West in relation to an animal species.

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Foreword

BOOK I. SOFT GOLD

1. Bearded Men and Summer Fairs

2. Castor, Guardian of Hospitality

3. Paddle and Portage

4. Still Ponds and War Whoops

BOOK II. THE RISE OF THE COMPANY

1. River to the "Vermillion Sea"

2. The Romantic Explorations

3. The Gentlemen Adventurers

4. A Daring Race of Scots

5. The Five Villages--International Prey

BOOK III. THE FIERCER RIVALRIES

1. Voyageurs of the Plains

2. Americans to the Western Sea

3. Winter of the Explorers

4. Fur Fair and Blackfeet Wall

5. Pursuit of the Eternal Remnant

6. Romantic Buckskin to the Last Boisson

7. "Gone" Rendezvous and Foppish Silk

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Key to Map on Pages ii-iii

Mari Sandoz (1896–1966) is the noted author of The Buffalo Hunters, The Cattlemen, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn (all available in Bison Books editions).

Andrew R. Graybill is an associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the author of Policing the Great Plains: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875–1910 (Nebraska 2007).

“This book is not so much a historical study as a careful and intelligently drawn portrait of a world . . . that of the Great Plains during the period 1630–1834. [Sandoz’s] point of focus is the hunting of the beaver, but the cumulative effect of the study is much broader than the conventional historical examination. Her essential concern is ecological: the relations of living creatures with each other and with their physical world. It is this perspective, unique among chroniclers of the fur trade, that gives the book its very considerable value. . . . Miss Sandoz’s treatment of the Indian role is a good deal more complete than most studies; her sources include Indian documentation as well as the more conventional white man's documentation.”—Colorado Magazine

“Mari Sandoz has brought into focus the materials, written down with power and clarity, of a mighty movement.”—J. Frank Dobie, New York Herald Tribune

“A brilliant, dioramic narrative, as vast in scope as the far-flung Great Plains.”—Saturday Review of Literature