Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scouts in the U.S. Army

2011; Oxford University Press; Volume: 98; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jahist/jar272

1945-2314

Sherry L. Smith,

Canadian Identity and History

That the U.S. Army successfully enlisted Native Americans to fight other Native Americans often surprises students. They wonder why Indians would voluntarily fight members of their own race and why they did not understand that the U.S. government posed more serious challenges to their well-being. Mark Van de Logt's book joins a growing scholarship that addresses these issues, and it reinforces rather than challenges current understandings. Quite simply, Pawnees responded to the invitation to join forces against the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe because these tribes, as they expanded onto the plains and waged total war, posed the more immediate threat to Pawnee security. Further, Pawnee scouts received pay, drew the fighting away from their own communities, exacted revenge, gained war honors and economic status at home, and found escape from the devastation and poverty of reservation existence. Rather than being dupes of the government, they used this military service for their own purposes.