{"title":"Building New Fort Kearny, 1848: The Pawnee Nation, William Tappan, and Powell's Missouri Volunteers","authors":"Catherine Nealy Judd","doi":"10.1353/gpq.2023.a908051","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In 1847 Congress and President James K. Polk assigned a Missouri militia to build military forts along the Platte River Road. Their first project was the construction of New Fort Kearny near present-day Grand Island, Nebraska. Col. Ledwell Pow-ell's Missouri Volunteers undertook and completed the fort by late spring and early summer of 1848. Utilizing Boston artist and traveler William Henry Tappan's 1848 diary, as well as other primary sources including letters home from a Volunteers' infantry soldier, this essay aims to expand our social memories of events long forgotten. Highlighted here is the presence of the Pawnee Nation, owners of the New Fort Kearny building site. In turn hostile toward and admiring of the Pawnee, Tappan recorded detailed aspects of Pawnee material culture, customs, tribal leaders, and religious rites. Tappan's diary also offers glimpses of the deeply embedded racial animosity and bellicosity of the Volunteers' officers, as well as the complex culture of militia life among the Missouri Volunteers' rank and file. In addition, Tappan's interactions with several other Platte River Road–located nations, including the Ioway, Lakhota Sioux, and Cheyenne, offer us a wider-ranging and more comprehensive picture of the Great Plains Platte region of 1848.","PeriodicalId":12757,"journal":{"name":"Great Plains Quarterly","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Great Plains Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/gpq.2023.a908051","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract: In 1847 Congress and President James K. Polk assigned a Missouri militia to build military forts along the Platte River Road. Their first project was the construction of New Fort Kearny near present-day Grand Island, Nebraska. Col. Ledwell Pow-ell's Missouri Volunteers undertook and completed the fort by late spring and early summer of 1848. Utilizing Boston artist and traveler William Henry Tappan's 1848 diary, as well as other primary sources including letters home from a Volunteers' infantry soldier, this essay aims to expand our social memories of events long forgotten. Highlighted here is the presence of the Pawnee Nation, owners of the New Fort Kearny building site. In turn hostile toward and admiring of the Pawnee, Tappan recorded detailed aspects of Pawnee material culture, customs, tribal leaders, and religious rites. Tappan's diary also offers glimpses of the deeply embedded racial animosity and bellicosity of the Volunteers' officers, as well as the complex culture of militia life among the Missouri Volunteers' rank and file. In addition, Tappan's interactions with several other Platte River Road–located nations, including the Ioway, Lakhota Sioux, and Cheyenne, offer us a wider-ranging and more comprehensive picture of the Great Plains Platte region of 1848.
期刊介绍:
In 1981, noted historian Frederick C. Luebke edited the first issue of Great Plains Quarterly. In his editorial introduction, he wrote The Center for Great Plains Studies has several purposes in publishing the Great Plains Quarterly. Its general purpose is to use this means to promote appreciation of the history and culture of the people of the Great Plains and to explore their contemporary social, economic, and political problems. The Center seeks further to stimulate research in the Great Plains region by providing a publishing outlet for scholars interested in the past, present, and future of the region."