Oh what a slaughter

A history of the bloody massacres that marked--and marred--the settling of the American West in the nineteenth century, and which still provoke immense controversy today. Here are the true stories of the massacres at Sacramento River, Mountain Meadows, Sand Creek, Marias River, Camp Grant, and Wounded Knee, among others. These massacres involved Americans killing Indians, Indians killing Americans, and, in one case, Mormons slaughtering a party of settlers. McMurtry's descriptions recall their full horror, and the …