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Four months later, under circumstances that remain difficult to determine, Crazy Horse was tricked into returning to the Fort under a promise of a meeting with the commanding general. From his youngest days, Crazy Horse went his own way. He remained faithful to the life of a warrior on the lonely plains, to the hunt, and to the mystic vision to the end. In 1999, Penguin Press initiated its "Penguin Lives" series with this short biography of Crazy Horse by the American novelist, Larry McMurtry. To his own people, Crazy Horse was known as "Our Strange Man".In McMurtry's account, Crazy Horse (1840 -- 1877) emerges as a loner and a mystic. McMurtry's book constitutes an exploration of the literature and legends surrounding Crazy Horse as much as it constitutes a biography of the man. McMurtry makes as much as he can of a person with a rare way of life whom we do not know. Crazy Horse continues to fascinate many people as shown, among other ways, in the many reviews of McMurtry's title here at Amazon and of other books about the great Oglalla Sioux warrior.McMurtry uses his gifts as a novelist and his formidable historical knowledge of the American West to give the reader insight into an elusive person.
A victim of military treachery and of jealousies among his own people, Crazy Horse was assassinated on September 25, 1876.Crazy Horse, for McMurtry, was a man who was not an administrator or a negotiator. 49-50)Crazy Horse was a hunter of buffalo and a leader of his people in skirmishes and fights with other Indians. Instead, Crazy Horse was to have been exiled to a prison in Florida. As a young man, he became one of four tribal members honored with the title of "Shirt-Wearer" with the responsibility of looking after the well-being of the people, including the poor. When Crazy Horse ran off briefly with Black Buffalo Woman, the wife of another man, he was almost killed by her jealous husband, No Water, and the Tribe was split apart. It was an intruiging and appropriate choice.
Crazy Horse, in his wanderings over the summer plains, would have seen many mirages, which perhaps encouraged him in his belief that this world, with its buffalo and horses, is only the shadow of the real world. From the Indian wars and tragedies of the American west, McMurtry offers an account of a person whose life and goals were inextricably tied to a particular people and whose story yet remains universal and timeless.Robin Friedman He was in a way a prairie Platonist, seeing an ideal of which the day's events were only a shadow." (pp. Just a glance at titles here at Amazon shows how much has been written about Crazy Horse on the basis of what remains a thin historical record.
He did not surrender or try to adjust to the inevitability of a new way of life, as did some of his compatriots. Even when we are cognizant of what we do not know, as McMurtry is, a remarkable and enigmatic figure emerges. As in many cases, Crazy Horse became a figure of legend because this is what his life merited. He was a visionary, in common with many of the Sioux, but frequently sought his vision in ways outside tribal tradition. Crazy Horse's life is the stuff of legend. This is unavoidable given the state of the historical record. McMurtry imaginatively captures a great deal of Crazy Horse in this description of the dreams, wanderings, and spiritual quests which were a feature of his adolescence and adult life:"It is easy on the plains to imagine things not seen, worlds not known.
These battles established Crazy Horse's fame as a great military leader of his people although his role in each of them, especially Little Big Horn, remains uncertain.After Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse and a group of 900 Indians, exhausted by cold and pursuit, were forced to turn themselves in at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. McMurtry gives a convincing portrayal of an important and difficult man in a book of 140 pages. Several series of short biographies have been published in recent years, including the American Presidents series and the Great Generals series, to give busy readers the opportunity to learn about famous individuals in brief compass. With McMurtry's attempt to sift through the legends, Crazy Horse still emerges in his account as an extraordinary figure. The rift was healed by intra-tribal diplomacy, but Crazy Horse lost his title of Shirt-Wearer over the incident.Crazy Horse is best-known for his role in three battles with the onrushing white settlers, Fetterman's Massacre of 1868, the Battle of Rosebud in 1876, and most famously the Battle of Little Bighorn against Custer on June 25, 1876.
And we don't even have a single photograph of him. There are fatter books about the man, but nothing that will compare to the statue, to be the largest in the world. Perhaps the most documented event is the death of Crazy Horse, which was witnessed by many whites and Indians, and yet there are wildly conflicting versions. Mr. It is not even absolutely certain that Crazy Horse was at the battle of the Little Bighorn. He remains more myth than man, as perhaps he preferred.
That much is clear.Today a version of this ghostly figure emerges slowly from the mountain near Custer, South Dakota. McMurtry does not. It was almost as if this mystic intended to thwart anyone who tried to pin him like some specimen.He may or may not have led the Sioux who obliterated Custer's 7th Cavalry. To add to it all, even his burial site is unknown.McMurtry well descibes the problems in telling of the subject's life and death. Writing about Crazy Horse is no easy assignment. Many biographers, when faced with a dearth of reliable information, make up enough to fill the required pages.
He spent little time with whites and with his fellow tribesmen as well. It is easy to see why some readers would be disappointed, because Crazy Horse never quite emerges in this small biography.
There are many contradictory reports for just about every major event in his life, and McMurtry points this out, tells you what they were, and then tells you what he thinks, whereas most biographers pick what they believe and then tell the story as if that were the way it was. I was very moved by this small but powerful book about someone I had heard about and read about my entire life. Larry McMurtry lays out exactly how little is known for certain about Crazy Horse. But I think he gets to some important truths about the man and about the way life was for the Sioux around this time.
McMurtry's humor can't help but shine forth occasionally with various statements such as ".sealing Custer's doom while, incidentally, making an excellent movie role for Errol Flynn and a number of other leading men." His writing style is smooth, informative, descriptive, engaging, and consistent. Overall, this is a fine addition to works on Crazy Horse and an appropriate volume to the biography series from which it comes. As the facts are presented, McMurtry also presents the various accounts, leaving the conclusions to the reader. Especially refreshing is McMurtry's acknowledgment of the lack of historical scholarship over the details of Crazy Horse's life. McMurtry's concise descriptions of Indian life, government politics, soldiers, and various battles come together to demonstrate how a biography can be effective without unnecessary and often fabricated decoration of facts. This little book is not intended as an exhaustive study or complete biography of the Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, yet McMurtry succeeds in providing enough detail, wading through historical speculation, and imparting his own views to get a clear picture of Crazy Horse without propagating further falsehoods or myths. Obviously well-researched and presented objectively, Crazy Horse the man, and the events of his life, are presented without conjecture and without fanfare in a honest, straight forward manner, whetting the reader's appetite for further study of not only Crazy Horse but white man's relationship to the American Indian. As opposed to the dogmatic assertions often found in history books, this book freely admits not to know everything, but also keeps the energy alive with factual stories.
Highly recommended. Small book packed full of great history. I wish that McMurtry wrote more non-fiction.
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