Crazy Horse

What do you do in your sleeping bag at late at night when you can't get to sleep? The same thing you'd do at home. Bring along a book to read!

I like to read something about the place I may be travelling through. And whenever I travel up through the northwestern Nebraska - Wyoming - South Dakota region, I bring along this worn, dog-eared book by Nebraska author Mari Sandoz: Crazy Horse, The Strange Man of the Ogalalas, given to me long ago by my Grandma E.

Mari Sandoz didn't just pen her work, she researched this biographical novel thoroughly, interviewing the actual eye witnesses of the events. She never fell into the stiff confines of depicting a romantic West. And part of her writing process was to locate herself in the actual locations and reading the manuscripts to herself. She did not take the easy road to her writing.

Crazy Horse was written as from the Native perspective (even mimicing the Lakota style speech) and published in the 1940's, when such personal accounts were unheard of. I've read many of Mari's books such as Old Jules, These Were the Sioux, Cheyenne Autumn... This one without a doubt is the absolute best.