An Award-Winning Author
On December 21, 1866, Red Cloud and a band of Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne warriors defeated a U.S. Army force led by Captain William J. Fetterman. The Fetterman defeat ended Red Cloud's war for control of the Bozeman Trail with the signing of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Grasshoppers in Summer tells the epic story of making and breaking the Fort Laramie Treaty as seen through the eyes of opposing political, military, and tribal leaders. A conspiracy of military, railroad, and mining interests destroyed the Fort Laramie Treaty, leading to the drumbeat of war. The plains tribes' last great victory at Greasy Grass would win the bitter spoils of total defeat.