author
Dennis Collins
1842–1916
A cowboy and frontier memoirist, this author left behind a vivid first-hand account of life in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas after the Civil War. His best-known book mixes personal recollection with Western history, including the story of the Dull Knife raid.
1 Audiobook
The Indians' Last Fight; Or, The Dull Knife Raid
by Dennis Collins
About the author
Born in 1842 and dying in 1916, Dennis Collins is remembered for The Indians' Last Fight; Or, The Dull Knife Raid, a memoir published in 1915. The book presents his recollections of frontier life in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas from about 1870 to 1890.
Rather than writing a distant history, he drew on his own experiences in the post–Civil War West. That gives the book much of its appeal today: it offers scenes of cowboy life and day-to-day frontier experience alongside his account of the capture of Dull Knife, the Northern Cheyenne leader.
Very little biographical information about Collins appears to be widely available online beyond his birth and death dates and the evidence of this book itself. Even so, his work remains of interest as a firsthand Western narrative from someone who wanted to record the world he had known.