War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scouts in the U.S. Army Paperback – 30 Nov. 2021

Van de Logt starts with a general overview of Pawnee culture in the mid 19th century, when the Pawnee, a Caddoan ethnicity from the Central Plains, were already a people in decline, facing huge population losses and a detoriating economy. The author pays spectal attention on warfare and its importance for Pawnee culture. Because of the limited space the chapter could have been more detailed, but overall it offers a clear, well balanced picture for the general reader.In the following chapters he meticulously describes the formation, composition and military history of the Pawnee Scouts, auxiliaries who quickly became one of the most important and successful units of the Plains Wars. The central aspect of this study is the Pawnee were not passive, but very active participants in the political, ethnical and military world of the Central Plains, astute politicians and soldiers (warriors) with their own agenda, pragmatists with a strict code of honour who tried to ensure the existence of their nation as a coherent tribe in their ancestral homeland. In this latter aspect they failed, the Pawnee left Nebraska in the mid 1870s, but their excellent military service was nevertheless an extremely important contribution to the pacification of the Central Plains tribes, especially the Teton Sioux, the Cheyenne and Arapaho.Van de Logt offers vivid descriptions of the campaigns in which the Pawnee Scouts participated and he sheds a light on the gap between their warrior ethos and the expected military discipline of Western tradition - even after several years in US service, the scouts fought in the Pawnee way - and that's precisely what made them so successful.All in all a superb piece of historical research about a neglected topic, which corrects the image in popular works that Native Americans collaborating with the US Army were something like traitors. The book also underlines the importance and dynamics of intertribal relations, which were a key factor in the decisions of certain groups to cooperate with the American government.There could have been more indepth biographies of particular scouts and their individual motivations, more detailed muster rolls in the Appendix could have been also very helpful for the ambitious student, but these minor points don't affect the convincing overall impression.

I thought the book was well researched and well written. It brought out the significant actions of the Pawnees themselves that have tended be overshadowed by previous accounts that gave Frank and Luther North preeminence. The author did a good job analyzing some of the cultural conflict that occurred between officers and the Pawnee scouts. Very good at presenting the Pawnee worldview and circumstances that led them to volunteer. For me this was a very good and informative read.

Hier bekommen die Pawnees, seit Dances with Wolves d e r Bösewichtstamm eine verdiente Rehabilitation. Eine spannende Story, voller farbiger Details, eine klasse Lektüre!

This is not recent recent but compile from numerous sources on the subject of the Pawnee Scouts. Local Pawnee Indians with whom author actually spoke with tended to focus on their particular family members who were scouts. Many other people were not consulted about their Pawnee scouts ancestors mentioned in the book. It appears to me that one has to be somewhat familiar with the history of the time of the Pawnee scouts, because some references to people and situations are not explained to the reader. All in all it is an interesting, but focused, compilation of the Pawnee Scouts and would recommend it.

Mark van de Logt thank you very much for this complete chronicle. War party in blue: Pawnee scouts in the U.S. army is my book of the year 2015. Hi-hi-hi-hi-hi!&c. John Grooteman.

I bought this as a gift for a family member after learning through research we are related to some of the men referred to in the book. Glad to own it.