Edward Wynkoop,
Soldier and Indian Agent
By Nancy Oswald
#7 in the “Now You Know” series for young scholars by Filter Press
ISBN: 978-0-86541-184-5
Reviewed by Forrest Whitman
Cotopaxi author Nancy Oswald does a nice job of presenting this historical Colorado figure. Some young scholars will recognize that Wynkoop Street down by Union Station in Denver is named for him. Oswald does a careful job telling the military history story of the Colorado volunteers halting the Confederate advance north in 1862. Ironically that was a time Wynkoop became friends with Col. John Chivington – the same Chivington who led the Sand Creek Massacre of Indians. Their friendship ended in disputes over Indian policy soon enough.
Especially interesting is Oswald’s treatment of Wynkoop’s response to the Massacre. He was devastated, but he still vowed to work for peace. Wynkoop’s Indian agent years were always difficult in a hostile environment. Oswald shows how unpopular Wynkoop was as he argued for some kind of rational response to the Indians beyond just shooting them.
He was hit hard in the press for being an “Indian lover.” Still, he tried to cross the barriers between the two cultures and worked for peace. His efforts finally failed as the Indians were herded onto reservations and too often killed. He resigned as Indian agent in 1868 after the Washita Massacre, where peace chief Black Kettle and his wife were killed. He went back to Pennsylvania.
Middle school students should especially enjoy the games Oswald places in the book. Some of them are time-honored, like “telephone,” to show how easy it is to mistake a message. I like it that Oswald never talks down to her readers, even in her more complex illustrations of concepts like “annuities.”
Lucky are the young scholars who read this one. They’ll probably agree with the verdict of the Santa Fe New Mexican that Wynkoop was “big-hearted and as true as steel.”
