The native Americans were screwed time and again by the European intruders on there lands. This book, like so many other histories, clearly illustrates how this came to be. Treaty after treaty was ignored as Europeans pushed westward, indigenous people fought against this taking of their homes, as any people would. In the end, they became victims of racist propaganda that almost exterminated them. ( )

This biography of the Oglala Sioux known as Crazy Horse is a biography ahead of its time. It was published in 1942 from source material collected in the 1920's and 30's by the Nebraska Sand Hills native author Mari Sandoz and a friend of hers. It was panned by critics when it was published, my guess is, because it was not done in the accepted writing style of the time. I think that if this book were published today it would find a wide audience, due to its depiction of the Indian side the story of the Sioux Wars.

It is clear that the author's sympathies are with Crazy Horse and the Native Americans, as a reading of the source material indicates a majority of the sources for the narrative are from Native American sources. The use of this type of material would have been unusual and probably suspect back in 1942, hence the poor reception of this work at that time. Subsequent reviews and interpretations of the source material has been much more sympathetic to the viewpoint of the Native Americans regarding the events that took place in the Sioux Wars. There has also been a greater acceptance of the role inter-tribal politics played in the affairs of the Sioux and its wars over time. Back in the 1870's the Native Americans were seen as one hegemonious group with one hegemonious agenda. That viewpoint is severely contested today - with good reason - and inter-tribal politics has ben given a greater place in the history of the times. This later view probably gives us a better picture of what was going on at the time. Readers, amateur historians, and historians of today should be thankful for writers like Sandoz who took the time to gather this primary information and preserve it for people today.

This biography reads like a work of narrative oral history. That takes some work to become accustom to, but it is worth it. It is a very thorough and satisfying biography of a very important figure in America History. ( )

Summary: Crazy Horse was a military leader who was considered "strange" but also fought in many famous battles, including the battle at the Little Bighorn. He set out against the government and their efforts to confine Indians on reservations. While he surrendered peacefully, he was met with a violent and untimely death.

Personal connection: I did not have a lot of background knowledge, but this book made me interested in finding out more information.

Class use: Teach students about the history of Native American culture. ( )

I'm probably not the target audience for this book. What IS the target audience anyway? My guess is that Sandoz did not actually write with any one reader in mind, choosing to focus instead on relating the life of Crazy Horse with as much authenticity as possible--authenticity as distinct from but without detriment to accuracy. Hence the tone of an oral history, and idiosyncrasies of language that are meant to reflect the Lakota way of speaking.

Whatever, this story is awesome! ( )

Crazy Horse, the great warrior chief of the Hunkpatila Oglalas, has always seemed quite a mystery to me. There is so little information about him for he was a modest man, but Sandoz fleshes him out very well. This biography, first published in 1942, is the story, not just of Crazy Horse, but also of the Lakotas –chiefs, warriors and ordinary people - from the 1840s through the time of Crazy Horse’s death in 1877. I now see Red Cloud in a completely different way than I did formerly. Sandoz’s Red Cloud is a despicable man – an ambitious man – a man who is more than willing to sell all of the Lakota down the river in order to serve that ambition. In that, he had a lot of company; very few of the Lakota in this time had a concern for others not of their own family or band. Crazy Horse was different in so many ways – the Oglalas’ Strange Man.

Mari Sandoz grew up on the very edge of Indian country, listening to the stories of many of the old-timers from that period – mountain men, Indians, traders and trappers. She knew the country and all of the people of that place. The voice of the story that she wrote is an Indian voice – true, sad and heart breaking. She writes about Crazy Horse as a young boy (he was known as Curly at that time), about the girl he loves, but cannot have, the loss of his child, his life as a warrior and a protector to his people as well as his battles*, his struggle to keep his people in their own country after their capitulation to the Army and, of course, his murder. His story was a tragedy, but not just a tragedy inflicted upon him by the US government. In the end, his own people – some of them people who had been his friends and allies - betrayed him and killed him.

This is a good book. I loved it. Read it.

*In particular the Battle of the Blue Water in 1855 when Crazy Horse was about 13. This was, for me, a very powerful portion of the book and I was left feeling angry and saddened by the things Sandoz wrote about his experience at the Blue Water. ( )