As the peerless warrior who brought the U.S. Army to its knees at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse remains one of the most perennially fascinating figures of the American West. Now Joseph MarshallΠ²Πβa masterful storyteller, historian, and descendant of the same Lakota community that raised Crazy HorseΠ²Πβgoes beyond that image in this one-of-a-kind portrait of the legendary leader. Drawing on extensive research and a rich oral tradition that is rarely shared outside the Native American community, Marshall gives us a uniquely complete portrait of Crazy Horse, from the powerful vision that spurred him into battle to the woman he loved but lost to circumstance. The Journey of Crazy Horse celebrates a long-standing communityΠ²Πβ’s enduring culture and gives vibrant life to its most trusted and revered hero.
From Publishers Weekly
In one of the first Penguin Lives biographies (1999's Crazy Horse), novelist Larry McMurtry drew on what scant facts he had to craft a brief and rather novelistic look at the legendary Lakota warrior. Here, Lakota author Marshall (The Lakota Way; Winter of the Holy Iron) draws on a rich Native American oral tradition to carefully and lovingly "unfold the life of Crazy Horse as a storyteller would." The result is a vivid, haunting biography that acknowledges the author's boyhood hero worship but avoids hagiography. Raised on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, Marshall recalls hearing his grandfather share stories of battles fought 75 years earlier against "Long Hair," the Lakota name for Gen. George Custer, vanquished at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Marshall reveals Crazy Horse as loyal son, spurned lover, instinctive warrior, doting father, compassionate hunter and natural leader, one who "reluctantly answered the call to serve" and "literally had no desire to talk about his exploits." Marshall sidesteps blood-and-guts combat scenes, emphasizing the larger picture of the Indians' defiant, doomed struggle, as settlers and miners flooded the Great Plains of the Sioux tribes between the 1840s and the 1880s. This book adds spirit and life to our understanding of this enigmatic and important man.
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From Booklist
Marshall's portrait of Crazy Horse builds on Mari Sandoz's 1942 biography of the great Lakota leader. Using his skills as a historian along with the oral histories Marshall collected from the children and grandchildren of contemporaries of Crazy Horse, he freshly characterizes the charismatic leader. The author of The Lakota Way (2001), Marshall seeks the man behind the legend; accordingly, less attention is paid to Crazy Horse's battlefield exploits than to his leadership qualities. Although Crazy Horse's famous taciturnity makes him an elusive subject, Marshall does a good job of bringing Crazy Horse to life by examining all his milestones: the boy's early military training by High Back Bone; his doomed love for Black Buffalo Woman; his role as leader of one of the last remaining bands wishing to retain their traditional ways. Marshall includes a few reminisces of his own Lakota boyhood, which reveal some nice parallels. A highly readable, as-accurate-as-the-record-allows study of the nineteenth-century's best-known Lakota chief. Rebecca Maksel
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