Sandoz's Crazy Horse--A Reprieve!

[crzhrs]

In a latest publication of Mari Sandoz's Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas (Third Edition) there is an excellent introduction by Vine Deloria. When Deloria first read the book nearly 50 years ago he stated: "I was a little offended that a non-Sioux had written a biography of one of the legendary personalities of my tribe . . . she could not know little of the nuances of meaning that characterize Indian communities . . . I was suspicious of the awkward sentences that seemed to parody reservation English and detract from the straight historical narrative I had encountered in other books on Indians. On the whole I could not see the book as distinguishing itself from other popular histories of the Sioux. My first response was to look for footnotes, as scene after familiar scene unfolded in my mind. Surely I had ready many of these things before . . . but where? As each chapter chronicled the story of Crazy Horse, I began to see something entirely different emerging. Mari Sandoz had presented a wholly authentic account of the struggle for the northern plains during the 1850s through the 1870s in which almost every line rang true. I was stunned at the wealth of detail contained in each line of text . . . material that must have come from her conversations with elders . . . that overflows with authenticity. I doubt anyone else could tell the life of Crazy Horse as well as Sandoz does. How else can we explain how her writing captured nuances that only a few would know and understand? How unfortunate that reviewers and scholars lacking any experience of the western lands have missed the real genius of this book."

Perhaps it's time to reread Sandoz' book and see in this book history as biography and biography as history.

[Dark Cloud]

"Perhaps it's time to reread Sandoz' book and see in this book history as biography and biography as history."

Why? It isn't. It's comforting to think that, but Deloria was a spiritual denier of science and wanted to equate nonsense as fact solely because it gave Indians political capital today. Understandable, but he didn't believe in evolution because he didn't seem to understand it, or so pretended. He was scared Indians were NOT the first here, which proved true. There were several invasions of humans and the Utes and Inuit were earlier than the others. Like the Sioux.

Native Americans are trying to do what Israel has: use archaeology and paleontology (to which they've contributed little, willingly) to 'prove' the Bible (or the Indian general cosmos construct) is correct and therefore God's gift of land should be honored by all (although previously they claimed nobody owned it). Israel's work has been extremely interesting, given that it proves that much of the Old Testament is wrong and fictional. They don't hide it, either, but continue to work in hopes of pulling what is needed from the ground. Remarkable scientific honesty, given the pressure. Indians are in the circumstance of realizing that by their own cultures, the strong win and the weak lose. Move on. It's only in the culture of the Americans that they have legal standing for their goals.

[tubman13]

Great post BT, aaa, era, DC.