doesn't look so good anymore. these days, i have to say, the university professor at stanford university where the stanford cardinals are having quite a special season, come on. you know what those special seasons are like, you have had plenty of them. let us have one. that's the greatest job in the world. rep. shalala: thank you, madam secretary. [applause] sec. rice: that was fun. >> history bookshelf features the country's best-known american history writers of the past decade talking about their books. you can watch our weekly series every saturday at 4 p.m. eastern here on american history tv on c-span3. >> the c-span cities tour travels the country exploring the american story.

since 2011, we've been to more than 200 communities across the nation. like many americans, our staff is staying close to home due to the coronavirus. next, look at one of our cities tour visits. >> here, the landscape is our artifact. when people come in, it's our job to help them understand how the contour lines shaped the narrative. we have a lot of people who come here that no nothing about it or a little something about the plains indians war. but when they come in and talk about the main landmarks around here, you see them start to absorb how crucial the artifact that we preserve in wyoming, which is our landscape, how that shaped the westward expansion, for example. these broad american narratives

that we have kind of grown up with, but maybe haven't truly understood until you get out here and realize what is at the core of this complex. >> located in traditional native american lands, the fort laid a central role in red clouds war -- an armed conflict between native americans and the u.s. from 1866 to 1868. one of three u.s. army installations situated along the bozeman trail, a shortcut to the goldfields of the west. the court -- the fort was commanded by colonel henry carrington. >> carrington, who is the colonel hired to build the fort, he end up deciding to put the fort in its location where we are today instead of moving it north of sheridan on the tongue river. we have had military strategists who have come through that said

this natural bench in this landscape is a strategically smart location to place the fort. it's got these natural benches and carrington had drawn out the shape and plans for the fort before he came west and he decided this was going to be the best place for it. he gets here in july, friday the 13th, 1866. on his way, red cloud has delivered the message that he is going to have to fight for every day the military is here. it is at that point carrington really realizes how deep he is, how in over his head he is. wives and children have come out with him. they think they are at peace. red cloud understands the history of non-native expansion in the west, so there are 560 two recognized tribes in america and by 1866, red cloud has seen and heard the stories of how all

of those tribes have been dispersed throughout north america. in 1866, when red cloud succeeds in aligning the cheyenne, arapaho and lakota people, he ends up asking them to gather and make a very strong showing against fort phil kearney. we think there was an attempt on december 19 -- there were probably 1500 very disciplined warriors. but on that day, for whatever reason, the leadership did not go over the ridge and carrington said he told everyone not to cross the ridge because he can't defend any battle that might happen over there. he can't see it happening, it's going to be difficult to get the howitzers out there. the wooden train goes out and is attacked as it usually was. carrington says it's the last day they are going to gather wood. in what we consider the decoy

party, there were six warriors. two from each of the rep setting tribes for the coup that is about to occur on that day. one of those men is almost definitely crazy horse, a very young warrior. and a man with incredibly strong medicine as a warrior. they attacked the wood train. the infantry goes out -- that was one of the amazing things about fort phil kearney, one of the nails in their coffin, was that they are largely marching everywhere they are going and they are completely worn out from starvation or the effects of scurvy and now they are trying to walk to these engagements. so the wood train is attacked, the infantry marches out and they head out to the ridge four miles north of here. the cavalry goes out and we don't know the conversation that happened on the ridge, and it is the core of a lot of speculation about what happened on december

21 1866, but for whatever reason , all 81 men did decide to go over lodge trail ridge, who knows if they fought, a small band of warriors down there and they thought they could take them, but we do know they were completely surrounded by 1500 warriors and wiped out in about half an hour. at that point, carrington realizes red cloud has been incredibly successful putting together a fighting force that could totally overwhelm them if they wanted to. that 1500 warriors did not come to the fort that day but they were ready to take their lives into their own hands basically if they were overwhelmed. they did not want there to be any survivors. they gathered all the women and children and the men left at the fort after the 81 men went out that day and gathered them around the powder magazine and gave one guy the end of the fuse and they said if they come down,

lighted and we will go down with the ship. it is a story of incredible despair from that perspective. for red cloud and his army, it is an incredible victory. they have successfully gathered in the winter, a time they would not normally fight, worked together among the tribes and completely wiped out a huge part of the able-bodied section of what is left at the fort by the middle of that first winter. they end up being able to survive through the winter. red clouds men do not end up overwhelming the fort. by 1867, they got a garden and updated weaponry. that gets us to august 2, 1867. they are a little bit more prepared for red cloud's strategy. that morning, they hear a shot,

they realize maybe there is a fighting force near them. we are at the woodcutting camp about four miles west of the fort. they've been cutting it all summer. they put together a small wagon box corral. they've taken a bunch of wagon boxes and laid them on the ground and jammed it full of ammunition for these updated springfield rifles. now they don't have to stand up to load them. fighting with muzzleloader's is absolutely pointless out here. it looks like exactly the same gun. when the 800 warriors that had gathered that day at the wagon box start to attack the woodcutting camp and all the woodcutter's and soldiers there to protect the woodcutting

activities, it is a massive shootout for four hours. thousands of rounds of ammo. 26 soldiers and civilians lived through it out of 34 and we don't know how many of red cloud's forces were casualties that day but there were about 800 that had gathered to fight those 34 in the wagon box corral. it lasted about four hours and carrington is able -- the post command is able to get the howitzer to the wagon box corral and that disperses the fighting force -- what a shootout, for four hours. an absolutely incredible engagement out there. it is largely uneventful except for the smaller engagements in the outlying areas of the fort. they live through the winter and by april of 1868, we see the signing of the fort laramie treaty. that's the concession that red cloud has won the war against

the bozeman trail fort and the fort are abandoned and they come through and burn this fort with glee, we imagine. they were very glad to see them go. when people walk away from fort phil kearney, i hope they have learned how to absorb distance and just the expansive, wide-open landscape that they have gone to travel through and how valuable it is to our quality of life and to learning what shaped our western history. >> you can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at c-span.org city store. this is american history tv, only on c-span3. cracks you are watching american history tv, every weekend on

c-span3 -- explore our nations passed. american history tv on c-span3. today, we are brought to you by these television companies who provide american history tv as a service. >> sunday, on american artifacts, we visit plymouth massachusetts to explore the re-created 17th-century colonial village and talk to interpreters about daily life. here is a preview. >> i came over on a fishing vessel, a smaller one called the sparrow. smaller than other vessels. that arrived at demirel's cove, not directly here. it wasn't so turbulent, for we were arriving ahead of the summer.

so that is a fair time to sail. whereas i hear the persons who arrived here, they encountered storms along the way, violent storms, i hear, for they were heading directly into the winter. i should say that life here is quite a bit different than back in buckingham sure. do you know where that is? it's just outside of london city. there you might go to market and secure vittles in this manner or purchase this or that item or select thing, where as here, you must harvest everything that you eat or mayhap's kill it or you must make everything that you use, and most things that are

valued came aboard ship. not everything, i suppose. it is not so simple as going to market and having someone else do your work for yourself. you must provide. the manuals which instruct one to plant their selves in the new world, they speak of the abundance of this place. that one might merely walk up to a dear and shoot it in the face or drive a basket into the book -- into the brook and it comes up full of herring. yet what they do not tell you is to avail yourself of that abundance, you must work, you must labor. >> the 17th century english village interprets the town and people who lived there, seven years after the pilgrims arrived on the mayflower.

cracks watch the full program sunday on american artifacts at 6 p.m. eastern, 3 p.m. pacific, here on a merrick in history tv. >> doctoral candidate maria mcdaris discusses the influence of the southern pacific railroad in creating california farming communities. she argues that goal was to create new markets in business for themselves while creating model communities that ascribe to their own view. the center for the american west hosted the event and provided the video. cracks my layman -- >> we are the hosts, you are very lucky to be the host of this presentation by maria mcdaris. brea, is coming