Classics Illustrated 072 The Oregon Trail

Francis Parkman, set out to see what it was like in the western wilderness. Young, just out of Harvard college, he began his journey into Wyoming, joining a band of war-like Dakota Indians led by The Whirlwind, a famous chieftain, then conducting war against the tribe of Snake Indians who had ambushed and slain his son. It was during his stay with the Dakota tribe that Francis learned the importance of the buffalo to the Indian people, the shortcomings of the U.S. military presence in the west and the language of the Dakota tribe.