Circle of Fire

1865 was a bloody year on the Plains as various Indian tribes, including the Southern Cheyennes and the Southern Sioux, joined with their northern relatives to wage war on the white man. They sought revenge for the 1864 massacre at Sand Creek, when John Chivington and his Colorado volunteers nearly wiped out a village of Southern Cheyennes and Arapahos. The violence in eastern Colorado spread westward to Fort Laramie and Fort Caspar in south-eastern and central Wyoming, and then moved north to the lands along the Wyoming-Montana border. - Tells the entire story of the Indian campaigns of 1865 - Examines new material that has come to light in the past few years - The prelude to the clash between Indians and whites