The only thorough treatment of Lincoln’s Indian policy during the Civil War and the corrupt “Indian System” of government aid that mainly benefited ambitious whites.

Minnesota Public Radio Interview

“Lincoln and the Indians has stood the test of time and offers this generation of readers a valuable interpretation of the U.S. government’s Indian policies—and sometimes the lack thereof—during the Civil War era. Providing a critical perspective on Lincoln’s role, Nichols sets forth an especially incisive analysis of the trial of participants in the Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota and Lincoln’s role in sparing the lives of most of those who were convicted.” — James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom

“For the Dakota people, the Indian System started with the doctrine of discovery and continued through Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and beyond. The United States was bound to protect the rights of Indian parties. But in the end, the guilty were glorified and the laws for humanity disgraced. This book tells that story, and it should be required reading at all educational institutions.” —Sheldon Wolfchild, independent filmmaker, artist, and actor

“Undoubtedly the best book published on Indian affairs in the years of Lincoln’s presidency.” —American Historical Review

“Thoroughly researched and eloquently written, Lincoln and the Indians helps complete our picture of the Civil War and remains a must read for anyone interested in the contradictory story of freedom in nineteenth-century America.” —Paul Kelton, author of Epidemics and Enslavement: The Economic Origins of Biological Catastrophe in the Native Southeast, 1492-1715

“[Nichols] does a superb job of probing the multiple factors and the complex interrelationship of events that produced Lincoln’s Indian policy during the Civil War.” —American Indian Quarterly

“Provocative and original… Nichols has given us a valuable study of a wretched side of the Lincoln era.” — Journal of American History

David A. Nichols was vice president of academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Southwestern College in Kansas. He is a leading expert on the Eisenhower presidency, and his most recent book is Eisenhower 1956.

Available June 2012 from Minnesota Historical Society Press

Paperback, $16.95, 232 Pages  Amazon, Powells, or B&N

E-book, $9.99 MHS, Amazon, ibookstore, Nook, Kobo