Prairie Edge Book Review

 

Sitting Bull’s War: The Battle of Little Big Horn and the Fight for Buffalo and Freedom on the Plains
Author: Paul L. Hedren

Paul L. Hedren’s Sitting Bull’s War: The Battle of Little Big Horn and the Fight for Buffalo and Freedom on the Plains offers a tightly researched and even-handed account of the 1870s conflict that reshaped the Northern Plains. Rather than retelling the Little Big Horn through the familiar lens of George Armstrong Custer, Hedren places Sitting Bull and the Lakota Cheyenne coalition at the center of the story, grounding the narrative in treaty violations, the collapse of the buffalo herds, and the growing pressure of U.S. expansion. The book traces how those forces pushed the Lakota toward a defensive war they neither sought nor avoided, and how Sitting Bull’s leadership, rooted in diplomacy, spiritual authority and political unity, shaped the resistance.

Hedren draws on military records, Lakota and Cheyenne testimony, and contemporary accounts to reconstruct the months leading to the 1876 battle. His reporting underscores that the Little Big Horn was not an isolated clash but the culmination of years of broken agreements and federal decisions that destabilized the region. The book also challenges long-standing myths about Native warfare by documenting the strategic planning, intertribal cooperation and disciplined leadership that defined the Lakota and Cheyenne response.

For Lakota readers, the book’s strength lies in its refusal to flatten the story into a frontier legend. Hedren acknowledges the cultural, political and spiritual dimensions of the conflict, presenting Sitting Bull as a statesman whose authority extended far beyond the battlefield. As the 150th anniversary of the Little Big Horn approaches, Sitting Bull’s War offers a timely and accessible account that restores context to one of the most misrepresented periods in American history. It is a valuable addition for readers seeking a fuller understanding of the fight for sovereignty, land and survival on the Plains.

Paul L. Hedren is a retired National Park Service historian and one of the most widely published scholars of the Northern Plains Indian Wars. Over the past four decades, he has written extensively on the Lakota, the Northern Cheyenne, the Great Sioux War and the military officers who shaped federal policy in the region. His work is known for its reliance on primary sources and for its efforts to correct long-standing inaccuracies in frontier history. Sitting Bull’s War continues that approach, offering readers a detailed and carefully documented account of a pivotal moment in the struggle for sovereignty on the Plains.

$35.00 • 576 pages • Published by Pegasus Books

The post Prairie Edge Book Review first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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