Nancy M. Peterson
Reviews
People of the Moonshell
[This] is a book you'll want to read over and over again, just for the sheer enjoyment. Written by Nancy M. Peterson and illustrated by Asa Battles, People of the Moonshell is one of those rare treasurers that'll find a favored place in that section of your bookshelf where you keep the books that have a special meaning. Whether it's the felicity of author Peterson's writing flow or the sheer love she brings to her story of the River Platte is moot. The writing flows, the artwork happily complements the text -- we think you'll enjoy this one.
El Paso Corral of the Westerners
It is a contribution to western literature, in that it concentrates on character more than events. What it gives us is a beautifully written account of the adventures and hardships of some of the more colorful people who moved or settled along the Platte. Some of these people are as well known as Francis Parkman and Robert Louis Stevenson; others as obscure as the couple homesteading in Nebraska in 1880. A number of them are women; some are Indians. What they have in common is courage and endurance of a sort rarely seen in America today.
Western American Literature
Peterson's writing exhibits an important characteristic of one who relates history, and that is she is a good storyteller. The narratives are interesting and detailed without becoming cumbersome. Her imagery enables the reader to appreciate the physical nature of the Platte and its relationship to the surrounding area. Her words evoke sympathy for those who endured the hardships and benefited from the joys of nature. She pulls together a vast number of varied sources to form a concise history of the Platte River valley, which makes People of the Moonshell an interesting book in which one can discover the different people who made an impart of western history.
Western Historical Quarterly
Nancy Peterson dramatically tells the stories of men and women whose lives were touched by the Platte River, "Moonshell" to the Indians. Asa Battles illustrations complement the text. I heartily recommend People of the Moonshell as an extremely readable history book for teachers who would like to bring Western history alive for their students.
Irene Collins, True West Magazine
"A quality title stands out. I took great personal satisfaction in my wholehearted recommendation. Nancy Peterson's work is among the best I've seen in the past year."
James A. Cox, Editor, Midwest Book Review
People of the Troubled Water
Nancy Peterson's book, expertly illustrated by Asa Battles, is a remarkable history of the Missouri River. Its singularity rests on the accuracy of the historical accounts being told in an unusually griping style. This book is the perfect addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of the West. It is well written, well illustrated and, unlike some history books, a joy to read.
Overland Journal
Peterson uses memoirs and journals to weave a narrative of the activities of the early explorers, trappers, traders, missionaries, military men and settlers who explored the American West along the Missouri River. This highly readable monograph covers the period from Father Jacques Marquett's travels in 1673 through the mid-1800s. Western and Indian artist Asa Battles provides excellent scratchboard artwork.
Missouri Historical Review
This is indeed a unique, colorful, yet factual and well-documented presentation that will immediately capture the attention of the professional historian, general reader, or history buff. It is very readable and flows easily as one gets swept up in the events related in each narrative... Highly recommended for the private, general, or professional library.
Center for Western
Studies Quarterly
...John Colter runs the gauntlet once more and Manuel Lisa builds up the fur trade from St. Louis. George Catlin and John James Audubon record the life of the river as they see it. The charm and value of People of the Troubled Water, however, lies in the acquaintances the reader can make of lesser-known travelers of the Missouri... The fur trader Francis Chardon chronicles the smallpox plague as it wipes out the Mandans, the Jesuit Father Point writes and paints of the Blackfeet among whom he lives, and Emily Partridge, future wife of Brigham Young, flees with her Mormon parents as the mobs drive them out of their homes in Liberty and Far West, Missouri. Readers of a fairly wide range of ability and interests can gain from this text a sense of the immediacy of history.
KLIATT
This work includes twenty-one biographical sketches of people who used the Missouri river between 1673 and 1850. They include French, Spanish, and American explorers, traders, settlers, and travelers. This book is an attractive and readable work of popular history.
SMALL PRESS
People of the Old Missury
Nancy Peterson's People of the Old Missury: Years of Conflict succeeds in bringing the past to life. Peterson, the author of two previous books on the people of the Platte and Missouri River Valleys, uses a series of short biographies to describe the cultures that came together in the late-nineteenth century Missouri River Valley. She balances her work by covering such varied individuals as Black educator James Milton Turner, Mennonite immigrant Paul Tschetter, John Brown, Sr.'s sons, John and Jason, the Hidatsa woman Waheenee and Frances Kelly, an American woman captured by the Hunkpapa... Like James Michener and other authors who base their work upon real peoples' lives, her chapters will lead many others to greater interest in the West and its peoples.
Journal of the West
Nancy M. Peterson's third book, People of the Old Missury: Years of Conflict [is] another valuable contribution to the history of the West. Folks, this is how history should be written for non-scholars: an easy, flowing style that gently educates. Make no mistake, Nancy is a wordcrafter of the first order, and she is at her best here... As in the first two books, illustrator Asa Battles has supplied magnificent drawings to enhance the text.
Lincoln Journal-Star
This is the story of pioneers traveling west along the Missouri River and is what is known as "popular history" or history for the lay person... The author draws on journals and diaries written by the actual people who moved their dreams west. She interprets the records and tells each person's story in great detail.
American West Chronicle
People of the Old Missury: Years of Conflict completes a series of three books of biographical sketches by Nancy M. Peterson. Here, she writes about the myriad of characters who lived on or by the Missouri River and experienced it as the "connecting rod" of the conflict that dominated their lives after 1850. For example American Indian tribes were caught in the whirlpool of westward moving Euro-Americans. The Indians' retreat to unacceptable islands of existence, like reservations that were not their homelands...is one thread of the conflict around which Peterson builds her stories of misery along "the old Missury."
Peterson's concentration on the Missouri River contributes to a little-documented historical phenomenon. The Missouri enable and empowered western people to move onto the western and northern Great Plains. The river, with its tributary fingers that literally connected the upper plains, acted as the engine that drove the seekers of the western experience whom Peterson describes.
South Dakota History