Analysis Of Nathaniel Philbrick's The Last Stand

The Last Stand, published in 2010, is a narrative that sheds light on the details of the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn that took place in the latter half of the 19th century during the Indian Wars. It retells not only the events that led up to the battle but also the aftermath left in its wake. The author, Nathaniel Philbrick, fits several key dates and histories into only 312 pages, 466 when you include the notes and the index. The novel provides history for key players on both sides of the battle. Philbrick does not paint any one character as the hero or the villain, instead he conveys that both had negative and positive aspects. His only true goal was to piece together the facts left behind from letters and first person accounts to

The whole conflict throughout the book is based on the migration and the movement of people. There are two viewpoints in this novel. The indigenous inhabitants, such as the Sioux and the Cheyenne, were nomadic people who depended on the buffalo for most of their resources. They were highly impacted by the arrival of the americans. Guns, iron kettles, horses, smallpox, and conflict all seemed to affect the way of life for the indians. Some were even “forced to turn to government reservations” due to the lack of buffalo for food and clothing (Philbrick, 2010, p. 31). Three main opinions arose in the natives. Some wanted to migrate to the reservations forever, others only for the winter, and even more refused to at all (Philbrick, 2010,

They wanted to force them onto reservations just to profit their own expansion. The white man's lust for territorial conquest caused bloodshed, and this very bloodshed perhaps contradicts the very ideals America was founded upon. This event, in the past and the present, affected North America greatly. In the past the outrage caused the army to redouble its efforts against the natives, and many more were slaughtered or sent to reservations. In the present it is a major source of controversy and discussion. It makes people question the actions and decisions of the past in the hopes that such unfairness will not be repeated in the