Thunder in the Mountains

When Union General Oliver Otis Howard was named right after the Civil War to head the Freedman’s Bureau, Howard was creating a new kind of government agency, one that would take an active role in solving the problems of freed slaves and poor whites in the former Confederacy. A dozen years later, with the Freedman’s Bureau disbanded, Howard went west. Aided by a bright young officer from Baltimore, Howard led the fight against Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians in Oregon. In this program, historian Daniel Sharfstein introduces us to those characters, and traces the arc of change in how the U.S. saw its governing role as he discusses his new book, Thunder in the Mountains.