Most Popular Books by Allan W. Eckert

A biography of the famous Shawnee describes Tecumseh''s plan to amalgamate all North American tribes into one people, his role as statesman and military strategist, and his death in the Battle of Thames.

They had defeated the French and now the English possessed the vast North American Empire. Soldiers, traders, settlers--all began the trek across the wilderness to claim the land and its riches. Against this relentless tide Indian warriors rose up in bitter fury exploded in the bloody battle for the conquest of the Northwest territory.

Driven from their homeland, the Indians fought bitterly to keep a final stronghold east of the Mississippi. Savage cunning, strength, skill, and knowledge of the wilderness were their weapons, and the Indians used them mercilessly. But they couldn''t foresee the white men who would come later, men who loved the land as much as they did, who wanted it for their own. Men who learned the Indian tricks and matched brutality for brutality.

A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie and spends a summer under the protection of a badger. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

A narrative account of the defeat and dispossession, by 1780, of the Iroquois tribes of New York State and upper Pennsylvania despite the valor of the great chief, Joseph Brant.

Winter ended in late March. April was a transitional month, with freezing rains and raw winds. In May, spring truly arrives. As day after day the sun continues to shine, to warm the cold waters of Oak Lake near the Illinois-Wisconsin border, the lives of the animal who live in and around the lake begin to change, for May is the Wild Season. The feeding, the fighting, the mating, the bearing of young and the dying of nature''s wild creatures take on intensity and excitement. There is a renewed vigor in the processes of life.

With his unmatched ability to bring our vibrant early history to life, Allan W. Eckert now presents his latest saga of the battle for the North American wilderness. Here, in all its fascinating human drama, is the struggle to control the " gateway to empire" --Chicago Portage, the vital link between the East and the untapped riches of the west. Caught up in the turbulent sweep of events are two men--John Kinzie, a successful trader with a heroic taste for a new frontiers who fought to live in mutual respect with the Indians, and Tecumseh the Shawnee leader, a man of unparalleled wisdom and courage who would see his dream of a united Indian empire betrayed. As the British move toward the war 1812 both men and their people would be trapped in a tragic conflict that would threaten the land they so passionately loved.

An award-winning author chronicles the settling of the Ohio River Valley, home to the defiant Shawnee Indians, who vow to defend their land against the seemingly unstoppable. They came on foot and by horseback, in wagons and on rafts, singly and by the score, restless, adventurous, enterprising, relentless, seeking a foothold on the future. European immigrants and American colonists, settlers and speculators, soldiers and missionaries, fugitives from justice and from despair—pioneers all, in the great and inexorable westward expansion defined at its heart by the majestic flow of the Ohio River. This is their story, a chronicle of monumental dimension, of resounding drama and impact set during a pivotal era in our history: the birth and growth of a nation. Drawing on a wealth of research, both scholarly and anecdotal—including letters, diaries, and journals of the era—Allan W. Eckert has delivered a landmark of historical authenticity, unprecedented in scope and detail.

In the year 1771, a white boy named Marmaduke Van Swearingen was captured by Shawnee Indians in what is now West Virginia, but was then the edge of the American frontier. Impressed with his bravery, he was not killed but instead was taken to Ohio where he was adopted into the tribe and given the name Blue Jacket, from the blue shirt he was wearing at the time of his capture. The boy grew to excel as a warrior and leader and became the only white to be made a war chief of the Shawnee Nation. And the name Blue Jacket became famous throughout the Northwest Territory. The characters in this book were real people who lived the life and did the things herein recounted. Much of the dialogue is taken directly from historical records. Allan W. Eckert, author of The Frontiersmen and 39 other notable books, has taken all of the known facts of Blue Jacket''s life and has woven them into a narrative of compelling interest, with a very different perspective on the way America was settled.

One of the premier chroniclers of our nation''s turbulent frontier history, Allan W. Ecker now presents another spellbinding chapter in the conquest of the American wilderness. Here is the powerful, compellingly human story of the white man''s struggle to claim the rich land of the Northern Mississippi--ancestral home of the Fox and Sac tribes--from the legendary war chief Black Hawk. Having killed his first enemy at sixteen. This proud, brooding warrior extends a hand in friendship to the Spanish and the British, but harbors a lifelong hatred for the Americans, who once burned his home village. Now charged by the president himself, the ambitious governor of Illinois Territory leads a brave and illustrious group of settlers and soldiers to wrest the beautiful land from a nation of destiny and a noble chieftain fated to be betrayed by his own kind.

Running away from a vicious trapper, seven-year-old Ben MacDonald is separated from his family and eventually ends up on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, where he is taken in by a tribe of Metis Indians.

Readers will find fascinating details about the discovery, whereabouts, and value of famous opals, from such classic specimens as the Burning of Troy Opal to the Bonanza Opal and other more recent discoveries. Finally, the book surveys today''s major opal-producing areas and provides current information on opal occurrence worldwide. Punctuating the text are useful tables, extensive glossaries of opal types and opal-related terms, and beautiful photographs that capture the essence and mystery of this most exquisite stone.

Based on a true but little known episode in Daniel Boone''s lide, Allan Eckert''s first full-length novel re-creates the legendary frontiersman''s severest test - the trial for his life at Boonesborough in 1778. A captain during the Revolutionary War, Boone faces court-martial and hanging for such high crimes as betraying his command to the Indians, conspiring to surrender Boonesborough, consorting with the enemy, and accepting favors from the British. And Boone pleads guilty to all of the actions detailed in the charges against him. But he also pleads not guilty to the charge of treason, and to the amazement of the court, he insists on defending himself - disregarding the advice of experienced counsel in favor of a plan only he himself knows. Strong, seemingly irrefutable evidence is added to the prosecution''s case with each witness. To a man, they corraborate the capture of Boone and his company by Shawnee Indians, Boone''s preferential treatment in the Indian camp.

Reconstructs the story of the Dayton flood in March, 1913.

His mother was a housecat gone wild—a huge, tiger-striped cat who survived almost certain death at the hands of a man intent upon destroying her and her family. His father was a bobcat—a proud, cunning creature of the Wisconsin countryside, whose tumultuous courtship with her resulted ultimately in his own violent death. The Crossbreed himself was their largest offspring—the only one that strange litter the feral housecat bore to resemble his sire, even though his markings were those of his mother. His intelligence and ability and the combination of the better attributes of both breeds enabled him to survive in a world of enemies and t undergo an incredible odyssey of over two thousand miles in four years. The Crossbreed is a swiftly paced, sometimes brutal sometimes sad, always compelling novel of an indomitable spirit; of the perfection that is nature and of the cruel and sometimes wonderfully tender moments between men and animals.

In 1841 a party of men, women, and children set out from Missouri led by John Bidwell, the prince of California pioneers. Their trip to California across the plains and mountains, as revealed in the journal of their leaders, is a tribute to human courage, endurance, and faith. The Bidwell pioneers were followed by many other parties, including the Donner-Reed party. Caught in the Sierra Nevada mountains by the icy grip of an early winter, the Donner party built crude shelters and struggled to survive. Soup made of boiled leather and powdered bones became a luxury. Of the 79 persons who started, 34 died before an expedition out of California rescued the survivors.

The wading and marsh birds of North America north of Mexico is described and illustrated.

Here at last, is the ultimate guidebook to actual locales that can be driven to for collecting rocks, minerals and fossils in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The four volumes, with over 1,200 maps, describe over 5,000 specific sites; this Volume 1 includes over 300 to-scale maps marked with over 1,000 collecting sites and detailed directions on getting there, the types of rocks, minerals and fossils to be found at each site, and how and where to search once you''ve arrived.

Accounts of typical experiences and activities of animals native to Louisiana''s bayou country: Louisiana heron, armadillo, raccoon, water moccasin, snakebird, spadefoot toad, hognose snake, alligator snapping turtle, dragonfly, spotted skunk, and alligator.

A story of a boy maturing, experiencing his first real loneliness, the first stirings of sex, and the first awareneww of nature.

A sweeping portrait of the French & Indian Wars.

"This book is strong stuff...magnificently crafted, powerfully written. Read it if you dare...astounding suprise ending."The Daily World

A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie and spends a summer under the protection of a badger.