The Great Sioux War of 1876-77 began at daybreak on March 17, 1876, when Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds and six cavalry companies struck a village of Northern Cheyennes - Sioux allies - thereby propelling the Northern Plains tribes into war. The ensuing last stand of the Sioux against Anglo-American settlement of their homeland spanned some 18 months, playing out across more than 20 battle and skirmish sites and costing hundreds of lives on both sides and many millions of dollars. And it all began at Powder River.

Powder River: Disastrous Opening of the Great Sioux War recounts the wintertime Big Horn Expedition and its singular great battle, along with the stories of the Northern Cheyennes and their elusive leader Old Bear. Historian Paul Hedren tracks both sides of the conflict through a rich array of primary source material, including the transcripts of Reynolds’s court-martial and Indian recollections. The disarray and incompetence of the war’s beginning officers, who failed to take proper positions, disregarded orders to save provisions, failed to cooperate, and abandoned the dead and wounded soldiers in many ways anticipated the catastrophe that later occurred at the Little Big Horn.

“Will now be considered the definitive work on the subject.” (True West Magazine)

"Flows like a novel.” (On Point: The Journal of Army History)

“This is a model of military narrative at its most compelling.” (Thomas Powers, author of The Killing of Crazy Horse)