After the war he became a newspaper reporter and editor in Nebraska as well as a county judge. He is most well known for his progressive views on Native Americans and the more than fifty interviews he did with various Native Americans, as well as scouts and settlers, recording various eyewitness accounts on events during the Indian Wars in the west, such as the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Wounded Knee Massacre. He recorded this information for a book he planned on writing to be entitled "The Final Conflict between the Red Men and the Palefaces." Ricker recorded more than 1,500 pages on ruled tablets which came to be known as the "Ricker Tablets". He never got around to writing his book but the information he gathered, many first hand accounts of historical events, is considered an invaluable historical resource for documenting the history of the American West. These tablets are now in the archives of the Nebraska State Historical Society.