Bless Mari Sandoz for saving much of the traditional Plains culture in this very accessible short novel. It is the time before Custer; whites are just beginning to become more populous along the Oregon trail. The main character, Lance, is a boy looking for his role in a band of Oglala Sioux, whose main struggles still involve the enemy tribes of the Rees, Pawnees, and Crow, as well as the battle against hunger. It is his nature to stray from the fold, which goes against the strong tribal value system of doing nothing that will endanger the people. He adopts an enemy as a brother; catches horses; survives a winter alone; participates in the buffalo hunt; attends the Sioux tribal meeting on Bear Butte; falls in love; "buries" his mother in a tree-burial; and finally wins the tribe's--and his sweetheart's--approval for his keen vision in a revenge raid on the Pawnees. His talent is in watching and recording in pictures the people's stories: a comparison could be made to Sandoz and the Oglala historians she worked with. This book renders a topic of inherent interest in beautifully crafted sentences. There is much to learn in its pages.

this story is amazing. all though I am not of native american background I have some friends that are and fortunetly, they are related to the Sioux and Cheyanne tribes and they say this book is one of the best of it's kind.

I really enjoyed the book . Sandoz has taken a lot of scattered tales and woven them into a captivating tale, without only giving one side of the story. She tells all of the reasons that the buffalo slaughter occured and the ripple effects that happened from there. I am going to be looking up more of her many books thank you Mari

If you ever wanted to know what month the "moon of the popping trees," or who "the little people of the air" are all about, you only have to start this book. I have read it more times than you can count on five hands and it still moves me everytime. CRAZY HORSE probably paints the picture of exhiliration and despair of the 19th century Lakota(Sioux)and the end of their world as no other book on the subject I've read. (And I've read a lot of them.) When you've dried your tears at the end of this book, you begin to feel a kindred spirit with the Lakota and their struggle to save the world they know, and anger and contempt for the treaties and the word of the United States. Custer fans will be surprised that the so called "Battle of the Little Big Horn" appears with little fanfair in the book, it's almost over before you know it. The fact is, that's how the battle occured: just another skirmish with the soldiers, but one which the Lakota find out later is the turning point in their long struggle with the United States. A great tragedy in the classic sense of the word.

Her lifelong research, study, and familiarity with the culture of the plains indians, along with her own challenging life experiences in a pioneer family, provide Mari Sandoz with an authentic setting for the universal story of the individual search for self. Issues of morality, personal esteem, responsibility, respect for authority, self-reliance, et cetera, arise as naturally for Young Elk, as for any teenager, any time, any where. This story of a youthful misfit amoung the Cheyenne a hundred and fifty years ago has special relevance for global peacemaking today. It should be a world classic of juvenile fiction. And more, for it is extremely thought-provoking for the adult reader.

This book may be a little pricey, but it reveals much about Mari Sandoz, one of the foremost Nebraska authors of the 20th century. Sandoz's correspondence gives insight into her politics, publishing, friendships, and more. Spanning the years from 1928 through 1966, the letters in this book provide the reader with information about her thoughts and concerns that cannot be found elsewhere. This book was edited by Helen Winter Stauffer, Sandoz's biographer-- author of Mari Sandoz: Story Catcher of the Plains.

This is an extremely beautiful account of the history of Nebraska and the Great Plains. Mari Sandoz is a shamefully obscure writer whose writing is so efficiently pure that it seems timeless. A must for anyone interested in the West, and in the nature of humanity, always looking to expand.

I love Sandoz's books about the Plains Indians, but was never sure until I read her biography, as to their historical accuracy. I now wonder why anyone else would bother to research the culture of the Lakota and Cheyenne or the Sioux Wars, or any of the historical subjects she wrote about. Not only did she get first hand accounts from survivors who are now long dead, she also delved into papers and reports which have long since disappeared, mostly due to neglect. She brought historical writing to a new level. Never being satisfied to surmize, she would spend years researching gaps in her information. I have read several histories of the Sioux wars since reading Sandoz's Crazy Horse, and though her name appears constantly in the footnotes, no one in their introduction seems to want to acknowledge her as the definitive source. Perhaps it is because her writing style was not the standard regurgitation of facts, but had a beauty of its own, perhaps, as she believed, it was because she was from the West, and had no actual college degree, or perhaps it is because she was a woman who added a woman's touch to subjects usually handled by men. I also noticed that the First Nations' Amazon site does not list even one of her books. This is very sad because she probably did more to make white people not only sympathise, but empathise with the Plains Indian, than any other person-Indian or white, before or since. My congratulations to Helen Winter Stauffer for writing a very thorough biography of a great bigrapher.

Accompanied by in-depth captions, Mari Sandoz's Native Nebraska: The Plains Indian Country is a truly impressive compendium of period photography showcasing her life and work. Born on the Nebraska Panhandle in 1896, Mari Sandoz grew to become an outstanding American writer until her death in 1966. Her writing was profoundly influenced by the people who called at her homestead. Her acquaintances included Bad Arm, a Sioux Indian who fought at the little bighorn and was present at Wounded Knee; "Old Cheyenne Woman", a survivor of both the Oklahoma and Fort Robinson conflicts; and the legendary William "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Mari Sandoz's Native Nebraska will prove of profound interest to students of Native American studies, women's studies, and American history.

Maria Sandoz is one of the most underrated American writers of her time. Her account of Old Jules is a vivid portait into the obscure history of the plains, and the people who lived and died there.

Mari Sandoz does an excellent job of bringing an honorable and tragic life out of history and into the minds of the readers. Rather than writing a shopping list of Crazy Horse's life, Sandoz lets these events happen organically out of the story. As a result this book reads like fiction. Although not told from within the head of the Strange One, it is told from his perspective and his tribe members around him. Therefore, there is a continuity in the narrative that serves to pull the reader further and further in. There is no jumping around from Oglala to Cavalry to Trader,etc. which would only serve to confuse the character of Crazy Horse. I found myself wishing that Crazy Horse would just break out and flee into the wilderness rather than the tragic end he found at Ft. Robinson. His murder, although well-foreshadowed, never seems inevitable and drives home the great loss of this man and indeed the tragedy of this shameful aspect of American history. Sandoz also shows that history is never as simple as cowboys vs. indians, she paints a more complete picture of the internal and external conflicts surrounding Crazy Horse. I wish there were only more of his life for Mari to write about. I especially enjoyed her style of mixing direct quote with indirect quote with narrative--it's effective rather than being distracting. If you want to read a book about Crazy Horse, read this one.

It will be 3 years ago this February that I first read this book. I then bought the hard cover version so I could keep it in my library and read it over and over again.

Prior to this, my interest in Western history was confined to pioneers and cowboys. The Indians were just some folks who happened to get a tough break. This book though, opened my mind to a culture that I had never known or thought much about. Now I read every book I can get on the subject, and spend my summers touring forts and battlefields.

Since my first reading of Crazy Horse I have read a biography of Sandoz. I know that her research was maticulous and that she had a good rapport with the Indians who knew Crazy Horse and were still living at the time she was writing. Of course, since this is mostly an oral history it is hard to know what is actual truth and what is the myth which grew around the subject, but it doesn't really matter. No one can read this book without coming away with a new understanding of what it was like to live the free life on the Plains, and how devestating it must have been for those who lost it.

In his foreword to the 50th anniversary edition, Stephen Oates, himself an historian and biographer of note, describes how Sandoz came to write the life of Crazy Horse and states,"Mari Sandoz and Crazy Horse may be the most potent pairing of author and subject in the history of modern biography." He praises Sandoz for writing "with a creative and lyrical brilliance that makes Crazy Horse a tour de force of language and style" and calls the book "...an almost perfect work of biographical art." I could not agree more with Oates. I have read the entire book two times and portions of it many more times.

Readers are often faced with the dilemma of deciding to read further after the first few chapters of a book in the hope they'll "get into it" or to close it and turn it into a dust-catcher. Not so with Sandoz's Crazy Horse. The reader is immediately drawn into it. I was hooked by the lyricism of the first few words of the book which told me that this was going to be no ordinary biography. They read as follows: "The drowsy heat of middle August lay heavy as a furred robe on the upper country of the Shell River, the North Platte of the white man. Almost every noon the thunders built themselves a dark cloud to ride the far crown of Laramie Peak. But down along the river no rain came to lay the dust of the emigrant road, and no cloud shaded the gleaming 'dobe walls and bastions of Fort Laramie, the soldier town that was only a little island of whites in a great sea of Indian country two thousand miles wide."

This story is told, not in the voice of a distant historian, but in the voice of an eyewitness. The vividness of her narrative would convince you, if you did not know otherwise, that Sandoz walked with Crazy Horse and his people. But even though she did not walk with them, she knew them well.

This is an extraordinary work of creative nonfiction that makes you love being a reader.