Thomas M. Bates

The Prairie Wars 1840-1890 Thomas M. Bates

Today, the United States is engaged in a Middle Eastern war in which the Iraqi's have responded to our overwhelming firepower and technology with guerrilla tactics. The United States' response to these tactics has been mediocre at best. Bates points out that guerrilla warfare is not new to this country's military community. He suggests in his book, The Prairie Wars 1840-1890, that during this fifty year period of the last century the US Army engaged in a guerrilla war with the Native-Americans who were trying to protect their ancient homelands and cultures from the onslaught of the white man. Embedded in the footnotes, Bates also makes the connection that these same tactics were used against the American military in the Philippines in the 1900's and by the Vietcong in Vietnam in the 1960's. His rhetorical question is, "Why haven't we learned to deal with guerrilla warfare more effectively?" This book covers some of the more important conflicts from the south Texas frontier to the Montana territories where the American-Indian tribes of the Apache, Comanche, Cheyenne, Lakota, Dakota and Nez Perce´ fought the Texas Rangers, the white settlers and miners, and the US Army using essentially the same guerrilla tactics that are being used against our military today.