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This digital document is an article from Dictionary of American History, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1046 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Focuses on cultures and countries around the world, specifically what is and is not shared culturally by the people who live in a particular country. Entries contain descriptive summaries of the country in question, including demographic, historical, cultural, economic, religious, and political information. ... Read more

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Only some half-dozen of the adverse encounters between Indians and emigrants on the Oregon and California Trails can be termed "massacre".The Ward Party Massacre that occurred on the BOise river is the mos is one of those unfortunate, and often overlooked events.Author Donald H. Shannon explores the relations between the peoples of the "Snake Country" of Southern Idaho, Shoshoni, Northern Paiutes, Bannocks and Emigrants, in a attempt to describe the environment that led to several of the most violent conflicts that occurred along the Oregon and California trails. ... Read more

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A complete account of the Ward Massacre
I was interested in this book because I am descended from the Ward family that experienced this tragedy (two boys survived and lived to have families of their own).While this does not include references to some of the material I've found by independent research (an article in the New York Times, for one), there is far more of the contemporary accounts of what happened, or may have happened.All was confusion, and the two survivors were knocked out during part of the battle, unable to give more than a partial account of their part of it.Rescuers had differing reports of what had happened, but all agreed that the men were killed in the fight, leaving the women and children to be tortured to death.
The author does not attempt to fix blame or suggest what might have been a better course of action.The Ward party was trailing another group of travelers by approximately a day, and had they kept up, or waited for another group, they would have been part of a more formidable train.The small family group was easy prey, and one member of the group might have provoked anger among the Indians by thoughtlessly and cruelly shoveling hot coals on the bare feet of a man standing too close to his cooking fire.This is the first mention I have ever found of this particular action, and it may be the reason that the party was later attacked.Indians constantly visited the travelers along this part of the Oregon Trail to trade fish for bread and clothing, and some thefts of livestock and horses occurred.As the Indians grew bolder and suffered slights, imagined or real, they became more aggressive.The trail travelers were an easy target for goods and animals.
This is an interesting book, and it will join the others in my history collection.Names associated with the party in this book will give me more material for extending my own research, and as it turns out, we have a lot more cousins and such than we ever knew of. ... Read more

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Unabridged, 8-cassette audiobook read by the author, Shannon Applegate. ... Read more

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Lying in the shadows of Mt. Hood and the Cascade peaks, Columbia River Gorge is as rich in history as the bounty its fertile soils provide. From the numerous native tribes, Lewis & Clark, and famed botanist David Douglas to a guru's siege at Antelope and the modern Gorge's reputation for world-class windsurfing, its stories shape the area into a thriving chain of distinctive communities. The Gorge meshes its vibrant past with a stunning physical backdrop to provide the perfect vista for all who are curious about this alluring region. ÝÝ ... Read more

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Stirring sunbonnet narratives
Once again, these diaries and letters of the "Covered Wagon Women" series detail the extraordinary stamina of early day pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail.
The year 1852 not only had the heaviest trail traffic westward, but it was also rife with hundreds of human cholera deaths.As Parthenia Blank solemnly relates, "it makes it seem very gloomy to us to see so many of the emigrants buried on the plains".At the end of her journey, Martha Read had counted 750 graves, "but I suppose that a small part, for there were so many campt off from the road and buried their dead".
Life on the trail also took its toll on livestock.Martha Read further notes the tally of "600 dead cattle and 50 horses" from "hollow horn"(anthrax), alkali water, poisonous plants, "want of good care", little food, lack of foot care, etc.
Even in the early stages while crossing the Iowa River, Polly Coon is quoted as saying, "What a brittle thread has life and how uncertain that another moment is ours" after witnessing three men drowning during the river fording.
Seventeen year old Abigail Jane Scott's lengthy diary is complete not only of daily routines, observations of the countryside and the many hardships associated with trail life, but also the vivid and harrowing descriptions of the deaths of her mother and brother during the journey.She further says, "If it wasn't for hope, the heart would fail".
Editing by Dr. Kenneth Holmes and David Duniway brilliant. Introduction by Dr. Ruth Moynihan excellent. ... Read more

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Gertrude Jane Hall (married Mrs. Owen N. Denny) was the last known survivor of the Whitman massacre of 1847 when she died at the age of 96 in her home in Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Denny was interviewed about her experience of the massacre by the Oregon Native Sun in 1899 when she was 62 years old. Many of the vivid details she shares in the interview are distinctive from other narratives of the massacre. The interview sheds new light on the incident and broadens our understanding of the notorious Whitman massacre.

This is a short book by editor Bonny Hannah with a preface and introduction covering the life of Gertrude Jane Hall Denny followed by an edited reprint of Gertrude Hall’s interview with the Oregon Native Son in 1899.

The reader will enjoy a very vivid and detailed description of the massacre, with information that has not been published elsewhere. ... Read more