Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (The Lamar Series in Western History)

This is the first comprehensive history of the Lakota Indians and their role in shaping American history. The book traces Lakota history from the sixteenth century to the present, examining how Lakota philosophy and worldview guided their adaptations and interactions with colonial powers. Pekka Hämäläinen documents how the Lakotas transformed from marginal hunter-gatherers into a dominant river people controlling the Missouri Valley, then into a horse people who ruled the high plains during America's first westward expansion. The book presents figures like Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull as architects of Lakota America—an Indigenous regime that exercised power across the North American interior for generations. The work won the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize and was named a New York Times Critics' Top Book.