I greatly enjoyed the Lakota folktale stories. These are somewhat padded out with reflections by the author which I enjoyed less. I recommend his biogI greatly enjoyed the Lakota folktale stories. These are somewhat padded out with reflections by the author which I enjoyed less. I recommend his biography of Crazy Horse which more effectively portrays the beauty and wisdom of Lakota culture. ...more
I loved Days Without End. This is the sequel. It's set in the period following the war of independence when disorder is rife. The writing is again fabI loved Days Without End. This is the sequel. It's set in the period following the war of independence when disorder is rife. The writing is again fabulously lyrical and the author's empathy with his characters and ability to bring them to life is excellent. But it fell a long way short of its predecessor for me. It never quite rang true. A good novel gives the feeling the plot is being shaped by the characters. In this novel you feel the plot has too much control over the central character. Some of the things she does which the plot needs her to do don't make much sense. ...more
An epic American civil war novel with at its heart an Irish Republican James O'Keefe who ends up in America after escaping hanging and imprisonment inAn epic American civil war novel with at its heart an Irish Republican James O'Keefe who ends up in America after escaping hanging and imprisonment in Australia. The novel makes a mystery of the true identity of O'Keefe, idolised and hated in equal measure, by deploying a mosaic of forms - conventional third-person narrative interspersed with first-hand accounts, ballads, transcripts of documents, posters, poems, all of which provide the author with an opportunity to impress with his ventriloquist skills. But you know at the dinner table when a guest does a very good impression of someone and then carried away by his success begins boring everyone with a whole string of impressions? Well, this novel can feel like that at times. The more conventional sections of narrative were for me the most successful when the author shows himself to be a better prose writer than most but many of the documents bored me a little. I understood that he was telling us that any history cannot be understood by only one source but often these ruses to underline the fallacy of objective truth as possibility were long winded and repetitive. I'm currently reading the predecessor to this novel which is more straightforward and more enjoyable.
Ultimately it feels like O'Keefe is at heart a sentimental man and it's his mania for feeding his sentimentality in the guise of nationalism, reminiscent at times of the Germans under Nazism, which is responsible for much that is awry and damaging in his character....more
It was inspired of John Neihardt to get Black Elk to tell him his life story. It’s hard to believe anyone could have told better the story of the LakoIt was inspired of John Neihardt to get Black Elk to tell him his life story. It’s hard to believe anyone could have told better the story of the Lakota Nation’s demise as an autonomous, proud, wise, communal, deeply spiritual and sometimes brutal culture. Black Elk lived through the so-called “Fetterman Massacre”, the battle of the Little Big Horn and the massacre at Wounded Knee. He even participated in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and visited Paris and London where he met Queen Victoria who told the Lakota they were the most beautiful people she had ever seen.
Black Elk was both a warrior and a holy man. Thus we get both sides of Lakota male culture. It’s faintly unnerving how matter-of-factly he mentions taking his first scalp at the battle of the Little Big Horn when he was still in his early teens. But it’s his depiction of his life as a holy man that is most fascinating, recounted in compelling rhythmic prose which seems to have the beat of medicine drums behind it. He was given a vision that promised to save his people but felt he was weak and had failed them. He thought seeing the world with Buffalo Bill might help him understand what he needed to do. Instead – ““I did not see anything to help my people. I could see that the Wasichus [white man] did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation's hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. This could not be better than the old ways of my people.” He also witnessed the aftermath of the massacre at Wounded Knee which prompts one of his most famous quotes: “I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream . . . the nation’s hoop is broken and scattered.” ...more
In a nutshell this is a considerably less moving version of Bury My heart at Wounded Knee. Early on the author disparages Dee Brown's book for making In a nutshell this is a considerably less moving version of Bury My heart at Wounded Knee. Early on the author disparages Dee Brown's book for making no effort at offering a historical balance. Though there is some truth in this statement it's a statement you can make about any individual historical perspective. At the end of the day Dee Brown's book is much more powerful and anything Peter Cozzens adds in the way of detail didn't for me amount to much in terms of altering the 'historical balance' of Bury My heart. That said it was nevertheless a good read....more
Should be said this is more of an overview of everything that was happening in present day Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota in the 1860s than a biogrShould be said this is more of an overview of everything that was happening in present day Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota in the 1860s than a biography of Red Cloud. It’s also a less idealised account of the Lakota than how they were presented in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. We get graphic accounts of the tortures they subjected white settlers to and as a result perhaps understand better why they had to be subjugated. The book is fabulously researched, benefiting from numerous journals and letters which enables the authors to bring to life the events in a thoroughly immersive and exciting manner. A tremendously engaging read. ...more
“Remember it is better to lay a warrior naked in death than to be wrapped up well with a heart of water inside.”
The author tells the story of what his“Remember it is better to lay a warrior naked in death than to be wrapped up well with a heart of water inside.”
The author tells the story of what history calls The Fetterman Massacre, the first significant defeat of the US army at the hands of the Sioux and Cheyenne from three points of view. There’s Cloud, a friend of Crazy Horse and married to a white woman, Rabbit, an angry young warrior who loses his right arm after being shot by traders and Hornsby, a white settler. The author is a Lakota and thus provides a new perspective on the events. It’s essentially a simple adventure story. What I especially enjoyed was the simple earthy cadence of the prose which seemed to reflect the rhythms of the Lakota language and the cultural details and sayings and customs depicted. A thoroughly enjoyable read. ...more
Usually you can take with a pinch of salt what’s quoted on the back cover of books but in this case when the New York Times says “Impossible to put do Usually you can take with a pinch of salt what’s quoted on the back cover of books but in this case when the New York Times says “Impossible to put down” they hit the nail on the head. Quite simply a masterpiece of conscientious research and organisational artistry. Dee Brown provides an immensely sympathetic account of the plight of many Indian tribes as the wheels of progress arrived to wipe out their lifestyle, if not their culture. You could say Brown is too sympathetic but then for a people so cruelly trampled over by the wheels of progress you could also say this is the least they deserve.
I have to confess my sympathies were stronger for the tribes that fought back – especially the Lakota whose culture is perhaps the most compelling of all though every tribe in its way represents an ideal of freedom that tugs at the heartstrings. This is also a book about spiritual leaders – Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Chief Joseph. Eloquent wise men like Martin Luther-King with a vision, not just war-paint and rifles.
Though Brown names and shames many of the villains of the massacres he also gives credit where credit is due and exonerates certain individuals for posterity – “Not all of Anthony’s officers, however, were eager or even willing to join Chivington’s well-planned massacre. Captain Silas Soule, Lieutenant Joseph Cramer, and Lieutenant James Connor protested that an attack on Black Kettle’s peaceful camp would violate the pledge of safety given the Indians by both Wynkoop and Anthony, “that it would be murder in every sense of the word,” and any officer participating would dishonor the uniform of the Army.” In short, this is a book you feel ought to be taught in schools because it makes such a strong and moving case for the paramount importance of respecting foreign cultures. Though it’s true these cultures could never have survived industrialisation in their traditional form this book highlights the cruelty that ensues when personal and corporate gain prevails over the spirit of community. As such it can almost be read as a grotesque metaphor for much that has happened in the world since.
“The whites are as numerous as the leaves on the trees. We know that. But what do we want to live for? The white man has taken our country, killed all our game. Was not satisfied with that but has killed our wives and children. Now, no peace. We want to go and meet our families in the spirit land. We have raised the battle axe until death. Call back your young men from our hills. They have run all over our country. They have destroyed the growing wood and the green grass. They have set fire to our lands. They have killed the elk, the buffalo, the deer. They do not kill them to eat them. They leave them to rot where they fall. If I went into your country and killed your animals and your wives and children what would you say? Should I not be wrong? And would you not make war on me? I speak straight and do not wish to deceive or be deceived. I will keep my word until the stones melt. The coyotes stalk to rob and kill. I cannot see them. I am not the Great Spirit. We were born like the animals, in the dry grass. You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight straight to our hearts. Tell me, if the Virgin Mary has walked through this land why has she never entered the lodges of the Lakota? Why have we never seen or heard her? I do not want to go to the land where she walks. The flies in those parts eat out the eyes of horses. The bad spirits live there. I have drunk of those waters and they are bad. I do not want to leave here. Here my ancestors are buried. Life is sweet, love is strong. Our days are not many. The white man too shall pass. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild ponies all tamed, the secret corners of the forest contaminated with the odours of the white man. The end of living and the beginning of survival. We might understand if we knew what it is the white man dreams, what hopes he describes to his children, what visions he burns into their minds so they will wish for tomorrow. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us. You say you want to put us on a reservation, to build us tepees of wood and glass. I do not want them. I was born at the foot of the Black Hills.”
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