That Frank Grouard was an important figure in the history of the Indian wars of the Great Plains is beyond any doubt. Nor can there be the slightest doubt of Grouard's position among his fellows, including General George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, and Chicago Times correspondent, John Finerty.
Six feet tall and 200 pounds of muscle, Grouard (also spelled Gruard) was well acquainted with Indian life. He knew Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and most of the Native American leaders. Having been captured by the Sioux, he spent years with them learning their language and ways, becoming accepted as one of their own. Returning to white society, he put what he knew to use as one of the greatest army scouts of the Old West.
In the Great Sioux War of 1876, he was a scout for General Crook's Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition that was supposed to unite with Custer's Seventh Cavalry to bring the Sioux and Cheyenne into reservations. Grouard fought with Crook at the Battle of the Rosebud just eight days before Custer was wiped out by the same Indians under Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.
By the time this book was written in 1894, Grouard was known all over the country. His exciting accounts of Indian life and the Indian Wars is a seminal contribution to our knowledge of the period.
Every memoir of the American West provides us with another view of the events that changed the country forever.
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