The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West

Finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Military History Prize

Bringing together a pageant of fascinating characters including Custer, Sherman, Grant, & a host of other military & political figures, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, & Red Cloud, The Earth is Weeping—lauded by Booklist as “a beautifully written work of understanding & compassion”—is the fullest account to date of how the West was won…and lost.

"[S]ets a new standard for Western Indian Wars history..." — Stuart Rosebrook, True West Magazine

With the end of the Civil War, the nation recommenced its expansion onto traditional Indian tribal lands, setting off a wide-ranging conflict that would last more than three decades. In an exploration of the wars & negotiations that destroyed tribal ways of life even as they made possible the emergence of the modern United States, Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive & singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the encroachment experienced by the tribes & the tribal conflicts over whether to fight or make peace, & explores the squalid lives of soldiers posted to the frontier & the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their native enemies.

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PETER COZZENS is the author or editor of eighteen acclaimed books on the American Civil War & the Indian Wars of the American West, & a member of the Advisory Council of the Lincoln Prize. In 2002 he was awarded the American Foreign Service Association’s highest honor, the William R. Rivkin Award, given annually to one Foreign Service officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. He lives in Kensington, Maryland.