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Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

Winter 2007

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man Of The By Marl Sandoz Historiography, A Philosophy For Reconstruction

Mary Dixon Hastings College

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Dixon, Mary, ": The Strange Man Of The Oglalas By Marl Sandoz Historiography, A Philosophy For Reconstruction" (2007). Great Plains Quarterly. 1534. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1534

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. CRAZY HORSE: THE STRANGE MAN OF THE OGLALAS BY MARl SANDOZ HISTORIOGRAPHY, A PHILOSOPHY FOR RECONSTRUCTION

MARY DIXON

HISTORIOGRAPHY: MYTH FOR Durants claim, there is much to gain from a ENLIGHTENMENT proper understanding of it. In order to gain perspective and enlightenment from an under­ Noted historians Will and Ariel Durant standing of the peoples of the past, particularly have outlined the importance of knowing, Native Americans, whose way of life had been understanding, and celebrating history as a all but obliterated by the coming of white set­ valuable heritage. They call historiography "an tlers, we must delve into past events and con­ industry, an art, and a philosophy-an indus­ sider their impact on the culture and norms of try by ferreting out the facts, an art by estab­ contemporary society. If we are to gain a philo­ lishing a meaningful order in the chaos of the sophic understanding of history, as the Durants materials, a philosophy by seeking perspective insist that we must, then there must be those and enlightenment."! A true evaluation of the historians among us who diligently produce a history of the American West is an important reliable manifestation of that understanding. consideration for Americans, because as the Robert Dorman categorizes what Mari Sandoz does in this regard as "myth-making." His conception of myths is that they are "not make-believe constructs debunked by 'true' Key Words: Dakota, enlightenment, myth, Sandoz life ... [but] instead, ordered, value-laden symbols and narratives communally shared Mary Dixon, a visual artist and poet, is a graduate of Hastings College in Nebraska with a BA in art, and transmitted, that interpret an irrational English, and education. She has an MA in English world and provide guideposts for action within from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and an it."z He considers Mari Sandoz a regionalist in MFA in English creative writing from the University the sense that she was able to take the events of Notre Dame. Her collection of poetry, The Way of and substance of the western frontier and Eucharist, will be published by Franciscan University Press in 2007. make them accessible to readers. He writes: "Regionalism, simultaneously an art and a reli­ [GPQ 27 (Winter 2007): 39·54] gion, recovered the folk from the past as pure

39 40 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007 myth: the 'high traditions' of the regionalist light of their own experiences and the issues of civic religion. This myth-making recovery was their day."8 Sandoz confronted social injustices ... a self-conscious procedure of cultural recon­ experienced by women, cultural minorities, and struction."3 Sandoz provided a manifestation the poor, including farmers in the Great Plains, of historical events for her readers that went and in a broader sense her interpretation of the beyond a mere recitation of facts and ideas; past was influenced by the atrocities of two world in fact, her works consciously sought, as the wars, a catastrophic economic depression in the Durants have noted all historiography should, United States, and the diminishing population to bring enlightenment and perspective to his­ and marginalization of American Indians. Her tory. Her biographical books took liberties with fictional and historical works championed the standard elements of historical writing by par­ marginalized and dealt with issues that were tially fictionalizing conversations and events so important to her within the context of the that the symbols of culture could be read and events of the early twentieth century. evaluated. Betsy Downey points out that other historians considered these fictionalizations HISTORIOGRAPHY OF CRAZY HORSE: to be "serious flaws" in that they lacked the CULTURAL TRANSLATION normal documentation needed for academic writing, that Sandoz was "terse" about provid­ In her Indian histories, Crazy Horse: The ing bibliographies, and that only she could Strange Man of the Oglalas and Cheyenne track the sources of her writing.4 Despite these Autumn, Sandoz is particularly interested in criticisms, Julie Des Jardins acknowledges shaping attitudes about the Plains Indians that Sandoz and other women like her had and bringing about the changes she deems produced, from the margins of historical writ­ essential. Downey concludes that Sandoz will ing, "the hidden pasts of western women and "not be remembered as a major Western histo­ native groups who~e lives were irretrievable rian, ... [but] as a significant regional writer."9 through traditional records alone."s Downey Perhaps in light of Dorman's comments about acknowledges that Sandoz "deliberately sought Sandoz as myth-maker, it is more important to correct the biases and to eliminate the omis­ to think of Sandoz as a regional writer (even sion that characterized traditional Western though she resisted such a term) engaged in a histories, particularly in her Indian histories," task that was bigger than writing history, that and in this respect her writing could be valu­ was an interpretation of it, a reconstruction of able because of this "interpretive approach."6 it, and a guidance for change in response to it. Sandoz's works were produced to bring about Sandoz, by these standards, was a historian a new perception of the events of the past and who, through art and research, creatively and to shape the attitudes and actions of those who efficiently brought to light the cultural settings would read her work. Downey contends that of various frontier peoples. Because Sandoz Sandoz's agenda was such that she exhibited was unconventional in her historical writing, a "bias" that reflected her social conscience she was able to produce an experience for her identified with the "Populist/Progressive/New readers that went beyond the recounting of Deal political tradition."7 happenings; her works often re-presented the The criticism of Sandoz's works alleged, happenings as intimate conversations, details, according to Downey, that they were "perspec­ and events, though partially fictionalized, that tivist" and "one-sided," sometimes "distorted, by still reverberated with the essence of the char­ time and by language problems," and dominated acter and setting of their subjects. Sandoz was by the ideas of historians such as Frederick criticized, not just for the amount of fiction in Jackson Turner, who believed that "complete her writing, but for her views toward the Native scientific objectivity could not be reached and inhabitants of the Plains. Because she was that historians naturally interpreted the past in intent on reconstructing the lives and voices CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 41 of the Sioux Indians, as Des Jardins asserts, she was "honest to the point of controversy," and she "remembered the West in ways the histori­ cal establishment was not ready to accept."10 Des Jardins believes that Sandoz, along with other women writers, became the "translators for voices previously unheard by chroniclers of the West, in this sense occupying the role of intercultural broker for Native Americans, but also for themselves as women."ll Sandoz's attempt to provide insight into the culture of the Native Americans involved great effort, accountability, and detail. Her art is clearly evident in the arrangement of detail, stun­ ning personalization of characters, and ordered precision of first-person accounts. Her histo­ riography (in the Durants' sense of the term, i.e., a philosophy that promotes disclosure and discovery in the production of meaning) particularly showed a relevant and somewhat revolutionary understanding of the spirit of the Plains Indians. Her accounts have proven reli­ able, not just in the perception of them at face value, but in the recognition of the tremendous amount of effort that she poured into them. Even though she was a white woman writing FIG. 1. Cover of Crazy Horse: The Strange Man about Plains Indians, she was able to perceive of the Oglalas, a biography by Mari Sandoz. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, A Bison Book, 1961. and communicate their life experiences and Cover design by lack Brodie based on a drawing by aspects of their culture that had remained . Printed by permission of hidden from her readers. She was able to do University of Nebraska Press. this because she was more than a historian, she was an agent of change, and she was able to strongly identify with the Indian. Even though eye upon the people of the past and present she called herself "a plug historian with a crav­ and thereby upon events in which these indi­ ing to write,"12 she was more likely a biographer viduals participated" (LMS, 332). Sandoz's goal who intelligently and diligently researched the seemed to be more than that of an historian; details of her subjects' lives, the people who she wanted to interpret and preserve the aura surrounded them, the places they inhabited, of the people about whom she wrote. and the times in which they lived. Recognizing Sandoz commented that the attempt to write Sandoz's drive to identify with people, places, should not be done "without an understanding and times, Helen Winter Stauffer wrote that of the deep philosophical and mystical implica­ Sandoz was after more than authenticity in her tions of the material" (LMS, 306). She exhibited writing, that she wanted to "capture the aura" this kind of a commitment and understanding of her subjects (LMS, xxi). In fact, Sandoz her­ in her book Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the self alluded to this when she wrote, "I should Oglalas. For her, it was not enough just to know like to entice my viewer/listener to look upon the material or even to know its importance; it the story of people first and events second ... to was essential to experience a passionate identi­ give him by illustration, etc., a new or renewed fication with the subjects, history, and place. 42 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007

Des Jardins explains that this commitment stories. In general, her extensive resources to write about the Plains Indians was "not to included newspaper clippings, historical soci­ make the extermination of Native Americans ety documents, genealogies of Indian families, an accepted or static part of the canon, but, many of which she compiled, photographs, rather, to incite change in social attitudes and direct quotes, and oral histories from those who land allotment policies."13 The methodology lived in the time.14 She used many resource that Sandoz used in her historical writing materials from the National Archives and pri­ consisted of an intense effort to bring about vate collections, as well as relevant resources change in policies and attitudes, born out of such as Craigie's Dictionary of American English her own personal experience, her compassion, on Historical Principles and the Dictionary of and her perception of injustice. American English, two volumes that did much The urge to shape political policy and atti­ to aid her use of correct colloquialisms common tudes by capturing an aura of her subjects is to the West (LMS, 370, 328). Creating a reality best exemplified by Sandoz's passionate inten­ for the reader pertaining to place, people, and sity in the writing of the book Crazy Horse; time was serious business for her. She amassed in fact, she connected with him in a mystical by her own recollection three hundred thou­ way. As she researched the details of his life sand or more notes and cards (LMS, 310). She on a trek through his country, she wrote about claimed that she never depended on second­ this connection: "[I]t was at night, out upon ary material when she had access to primary the sagebrush plains of the Rawhide where the sources (LMS, 434). Furthermore, much of her brown-haired, never photographed chief had material was "cross indexed by individual and hoped to establish a refuge for his people that activity" (LMS, 360). we seemed closest to- the spirit of this silent, For the Crazy Horse project, she spent a powerful war chief of the Oglalas" (LMS, 23). year of intensive work, including time at the As she began to ferret out the story of his life, National Archives in Washington, DC. She she used the methods and objectives that served studied photographs and even obtained access her in writing Old Jules: "I tried to bring some to an Indian pictograph that illuminated reason, some pattern, to make a book artisti­ events from the Indian's perspective. Still, she cally and philosophically as well as historically was not happy with the results; her belief was true" (LMS, 29). The goal of her historiography that "there are still gaps, discrepancies and (in keeping with the Durants' model) was best contradictions, and what look like deliber­ exemplified in the methodology that Sandoz ate evasions and omissions, particularly in used in her attempt to create for the reader a the family relationships" (LMS, 185). In the discernible and sensual aura of the person of process of writing, she counted research of all Crazy Horse and his people. Writing with this available sources first, then "with a terse, syn­ goal in mind required a disciplined approach, optic rough draft" she returned to the region and Sandoz certainly exhibited this discipline. (LMS, 310). So, in her typical investigative She was relentless in the pursuit of truth, with fervor, she journeyed to Pine Ridge, embark­ its historic, philosophical, and artistic com­ ing on an extensive road trip through Sioux ponents. The aura of truth produced by her country to sort out the mysteries, eventually writing was achieved through three important amassing a fifteen-thousand-card index for her methods: meticulous research, personal experi­ files to be used for the book (LMS, 190). ence, and instinctive artistic application. At this point she turned to the oral testimo­ nies of witnesses, the communal narratives that METICULOUS RESEARCH would interpret cultural attributes of the Sioux for her readers. She endeavored to "interview To understand the importance of Sandoz's all the Indian scouts and military men available research is to understand the backbone of her who were in any way connected" (LMS, 20). CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 43

She interviewed a Sioux named He Dog, who "some of the things ... for which there were no had witnessed the killing of Crazy Horse, and white man words."19 As Barbara Rippey writes, eventually amassed interview material num­ Sandoz "searched for a language pattern that bered around two hundred pages (LMS, 349). would convey the rhythm of Indian culture and She also conducted direct interviews with reflect the Indian's oneness with the land."zo other friends and relatives of Crazy Horse.1S The passage from the book Crazy Horse that The trip across the Plains was a successful one; best illustrates the results of Sandoz's research Sandoz was able to interview five other Indians into Indian language and culture, mostly who helped her by shedding light on the think­ through personal interviews with the Indians, ing and attitudes of this great people. Judith is in the description of a ceremony in which McDonald asserts that Sandoz used Indian two medicine men sought help against the storytellers as "learning resources for cultural white man's guns, illustrating the belief in a preservation."16 Her preservation and transmis­ spiritual oneness with the land: sion of the Indian culture figured prominently in Sandoz's drive to provide a link to these past [T]he people [were] watching, hungry for inhabitants of the Plains and her mission to the sacred help. And after awhile the danc­ produce a contact point for her readers so that ers truly became of another world, and then their enlightenment regarding the unjust treat­ the drummers, the helpers and the people ment of the Indians would become an effective melted into one power, and finally the circle force for change in attitudes. Richard S. Grimes of the earth and sky about them too, all writes that Sandoz, along with a flood of others, becoming one sacred whole, as many small including anthropologists, ethnologists, and rivers give themselves to one great roaring popular writers in the 1920s and 1930s, were stream. (CH, 95) interviewing Indians on the reservations in an attempt to understand and preserve what was Sandoz exhibited a sensitivity to the Indians' quickly vanishingP He believes that Sandoz spirituality as she listened carefully to their and her companions Blish and Hinman were words in the interview process. She discerned "inspired by the neoteric disciplines of anthro­ more than just the words and the style of the pology and ethnology ... [and, thus] offered language; she was able to recognize the phi­ a richer cultural and historical appreciation losophy behind it. The "many small rivers that than those observers who had seen the Plains give themselves to one great roaring stream" Indians as the antithesis of American civiliza­ is the expression of not only a unique inter­ tion."18 In this climate of changing attitudes, pretation of a language style but a perceptive Sandoz was determined to further the cause of understanding of the Indians' spiritual beliefs. the Indian, and her research had a definite bent This aura of the Indian's presence, which she toward animating that culture in such a way brought to her readers, was more than just that those who were interested in the plight physical or emotional; it was spiritual too. This of the Indian would have ample evidence to reconstruction of the spiritual attitudes of the justify allocation of resources to preserve it. Plains Indians was necessary since Sandoz's By making the stories available, Sandoz was goal was to open the eyes of her readers to the providing another opportunity for her readers richness of their culture and thereby gain favor to gain a perspective of historical accounts, a and understanding for them. Native American perspective. As Sandoz became more acquainted with The interview process led her to the conclu­ the Indian language patterns, she came to sion that she needed to develop a more thorough believe that there were some words that could understanding of the language and culture of not and should not be translated into English. the Sioux Indian. She explained that it was nec­ In Crazy Horse, she insisted on using words essary in terms of style and authenticity, to tell from the Sioux language because they would 44 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007

impress upon the reader the uniqueness of the Identification and specification of these Indian spirit. Her research led her to uncover and other small details in Crazy Horse became the hidden meanings of Indian words such another way in which Sandoz reached the goal as Heyoka, which she said is a member of of creating an atmosphere that evoked the the contrary society "who had thunder and memory of the Sioux Indian. For example, a lightning in their puberty dreams and must do description of Black Buffalo Woman revealed everything backward to avoid being struck by details of the physical description of a Sioux lightning and to make the people laugh when woman in a coming-of-age celebration, but their hearts are on the ground" (LMS, 436; with cultural implications on the demeanor CH, 210). Examples of authentic language that and place of women in the society. she put in her book Crazy Horse contributed to a mood she sought to create around the She was sitting in the woman's way, her feet Indians. Akicita was one such word, which to one side, and her hair smooth and shin­ represented the society of helper warriors, or ing, the part vermilioned, her slender young wasna, referring to a buffalo bladder used to face too. Her dress was of white buckskin store food, and many others besides. She also with a deep beaded yoke of blue, the wing used greeting words and words of acclamation sleeves and the bottom fringed, the leggings that the Indians would have used, such as hoye beaded too, and the moccasins. On her and hou, to bring the sounds of the language to breast hung many strings of beads, blue, red, her readers. Stauffer points out that some crit­ and yellow, and on her arms were bracelets ics believed her language was too "esoteric" and of copper and silver. (CH, 114) that her use of Indian metaphors or references "not well-known to the white-man reviewers Such descriptions were meant to show the beauty and readers" was too foreign and inacces­ of the Indian's culture to readers unfamiliar with sible. 21 Even though the words are foreign, they it or to readers who had been exposed to ste­ open the door for her readers to experience reotypes of Indian women and Indian culture. yet another aspect of the Sioux culture, thus The corrective force of passages such as these enhancing the reader's sensual perception of cannot be overlooked in Sandoz's work. the Indians' voice. Rich detail is also evident in her description Just as the sounds of the language did not of Crazy Horse going into battle, a thrilling escape her notice, so, too, she thoroughly exposition of the aura of a warrior: explored the physical appearance of the Plains Indian. She was able to vividly picture the The red-backed hawk was on his head, person of Crazy Horse because of her diligent behind his ear hung the little stone, and questioning of "old timers" (LMS, 319). She on his cheek sat the white lightning streak. researched photographs and became such an He had made his horse decoy medicine very expert that she was able to spot inaccuracies in carefully, sprinkling the bay with a little labeling or inconsistencies in illustrations that earth from a pile made by the secret-working included the style of clothing, face and body gopher, and himself too. (CH, 198) painting, the kind of feathers worn, and even the ways in which different groups of Indians This kind of detail came from hours of pains­ rode or decorated their ponies (LMS, 305). She taking research and personal interviews. The expressed a preference for the artwork that the subjects covered in this little excerpt ranged Indians themselves painted, relying heavily from an accurate knowledge of what Crazy upon the Indian pictograph of the Battle of Horse would have worn and how he prepared Little Big Horn (LMS, 20). In her interviews, his horse, as well as snatches of knowledge she discovered many of the characteristics of about his beliefs and his past dreaming visions. the Indian's physical qualities. Stauffer identifies Sandoz's treatment of Crazy CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 45

Horse in passages such as these as "mythic data, descriptive personal accounts, and accu­ archetypes."22 rate photos and representations. Lisa Lindell Using Crazy Horse as a pattern for universal points out that Crazy Horse "epitomizes many values, Sandoz evokes the empathy of her read­ of the qualities esteemed by the Great Plains ers and helps them to identify with the chal­ tribes, and ironically by the Euro-American lenges and values he represents, such as bravery civilization that would call him an enemy and and cultural identity. Stauffer points out that barbarian."25 Lindell claims that Sandoz revises Sandoz's use of myth here "is not in the sense of the traditional epic by making Crazy Horse a presenting legendary or imaginary adventures "dispossessed hero," thus creating a "variance in literary form, but rather [she acts] as a histo­ between Lakota decorum and classical epic rian.'>23 Stauffer cites Richard M. Dorson's com­ tradition (reworked into the notion of Manifest ment that the historian must "piece together" Destiny)," out of her desire to "underline the the myth that "permeates a culture . . . and clash of two cultural paradigms."26 It is Sandoz's render it explicit."24 Sandoz was attempting intent to portray these magnificent people in to bring to light, for her readers, this explicit their former virility, with many of the same rendering of the myth (in terms of Dorman's valuable qualities as the white man possessed, myth as value-laden symbol and narrative) of and to show by the dispossession of the Sioux the Sioux people. By accentuating aspects of the terrible injustice done to them through the Crazy Horse's character that were culturally guise of manifest destiny. She reflected later, in specific, she was recreating the essence of that the context of events marking two world wars culture in a person who becomes an archetypal and the attempted annihilation of another hero. As such, he becomes a significant and people group, that "we [Americans] did to the "realized" representation of the Sioux people, Indian what Hitler did to the Jew."27 Because allowing readers access to a cultural awareness of this awareness, Sandoz became even more not possible in a mere rendering of historical focused on her goal to expose the injustice data. done to the Plains Indian. When Sandoz wrote these descriptions, In light of this goal, Sandoz stubbornly she was faithful to interpreting the truth; not refused to compromise on her version of truth. just the kind of truth that produces facts but She would have no one in charge of crafting her the kind of detail that conjures up images of books but herself. She once asserted, justify­ a people's appearance and voice. That she was ing her refusal to take grants for research from concerned about preserving this exposition museums, government, or even Indian sources, of the life and times of the Plains Indians is "Nobody gets to look over my shoulder" (LMS, evident in the many passionate statements she 344). This integrity of character stabilized her made in her lifetime: writing and ensured an objective point of view. Neither her characterizations of Indians nor of What concerns me now is that something white men were totally positive or totally nega­ more than a few moth-eaten war-bonnets tive. Her portrayals were not flat, one-dimen­ and scalps should be preserved of this mag­ sional snapshots, but, because of her extensive nificent people. And if this is to be anything research, they were elaborate, complicated, and more than the noble Redman sort of thing, true-to-life. She laid out the actions of wicked something that indicates his virility, the or greedy people, as well as the nobleness of menace, the magnificence of his presence men on both sides. She did not hesitate to por­ on the plains, it must be gathered now. tray and some of the other Indian (LMS, 47-48) chiefs that loafed around the forts unfavorably in relationships with other Indians. In Crazy It was this passion that drove Sandoz to Horse, she wrote, "All had seen that Red Cloud extraordinary lengths to obtain rare historical was reaching out to strengthen himself every 46 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007 way he could, slyly, as a tree that sends its roots when "she heard the great stories told over into the ground that others have kept shaded" and over" by the Oglalas who camped on the (134). Even Crazy Horse was not idealized; his Niobrara across the road from her childhood portrayal concerning Black Buffalo Woman home (LMS, 319). In fact, Joyzelle Godfrey, contained the recognition of blame that he an independent Dakota scholar, says that the bore for endangering the peace of the people by Lakota Indians actually had much to do with putting his own desire for her before his desire Sandoz's early life; that they actually shielded for the people's welfare. Sandoz wrote of his her on occasions from her father's abuse, and feeling of guilt, that the giving back of his hair that, in their way, she became as one of their shirt was "nothing to the black load of blame own children.29 Her close relationships with he had laid upon his own heart" (CH, 248). the Indians when she was a child enabled her The depth of characterization in Crazy Horse to communicate aspects of their intimate life was only possible because of the exhaustive that would have been difficult to discover for amount of research Sandoz undertook. These someone solely bound to research. Her encoun­ characterizations of Crazy Horse are exploita­ ters with the Indians in their daily lives must tions of the myth of the archetypal hero and have inspired such scenes in Crazy Horse as the his challenges, both his failures and his suc­ courting scenes between the males and females cesses, another way that Sandoz makes him of the tribe, which she called "walking under accessible to her readers. the blanket," and the nuances associated with Sandoz's meticulous methodology, loaded them (123, 133). with an uncompromising desire to fiercely por­ Similarly, generalizations that Sandoz made tray realistic settings and characters, and her about the Indians and their demeanor must refusal to compromise or shade her perception have come from watching them in family gath­ of the truth, were passions that strongly shaped erings. She was able to confidently assert that her narratives. Her drive to research every Black Buffalo Woman behaved "as was becom­ printed and oral source available yielded an ing in maidens of a good family" (CH, immense amount of data, which she skillfully 123) because of her observations of their way of wove into a narrative that became not only life. Scenes written for the book detailing the an account of historical events but as accurate Indians' camps must have been fond recollec­ and true-to-life a portrayal as she felt was pos­ tions of her childhood memories: "[S]ome of sible. Stauffer points out that Sandoz "does the women worked with awl and sinew at the not invent; she does interpret."28 As she wrote moccasins or brushed summer flies from the her narratives and fictionalized conversations, nursing babies, making drowsy little talkings Sandoz's interpretation of the data was meant among themselves, like prairie chickens feed­ to evoke the quality and presence of her sub­ ing" (CH, 7). She wrote that the older men jects, thus serving her passion to promote an of the tribe "sat in little circles, moving their identification with and empathy for the Sioux. eagle-wing fans slowly, the red willow bark in their pipes fragrant on the air. Here and there PERSONAL EXPERIENCE one sat off alone, perhaps to sing his holy song against some perplexity of the heart" (CH, 8). Perhaps Sandoz's passionate vision was In this reflective way, Sandoz described the rooted in her own experiences as a child grow­ tranquility of the tribal customs she observed ing up around Indians in northern Nebraska. as a child with a kind of reverence and awe. Her Even though her research ability was important observations of Indian behavior made her an in shaping her narratives, revealing the essen­ expert at recreating cultural scenes that came tial character of her subjects and the feel of the to life for her readers. times in which they lived, more significant for Her personal interaction with the Sioux her emotionally was her early life experience inspired in her a fierce loyalty that fueled her CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 47 writing and drove her to be faithful to her true the "high traditions" of the Sioux come alive vision of the people she knew and the stories for her readers. they told, and to define their symbols and nar­ Sandoz's ability to portray the Plains ratives for her readers. The Sioux taught her Indians went beyond her observations and her important lessons that she would reflect upon historical discoveries; her status as a woman on in Crazy Horse. She had fond childhood memo­ the Plains made her keenly aware of hardship ries of her friend He Dog, an important source and abuse. She has given details about women's for Crazy Horse, teaching her to pronounce dif­ lives on the Plains in her other books such as ficult Sioux words. The teasing way in which he Old Jules. The compassion and empathy that interacted with her is reflected in her descrip­ she has for the Sioux is one born of personal tion of the training of the young boys in the experience both with the Indians' plight and her camp (LMS, 320). "Yes, he [Crazy Horse] would own knowledge of her position as a woman on try to teach his son to fight, to hunt, and to live the western Plains and her struggle as a woman as a good Lakota.... He told [the young boys] writer with publishers who would not take her stories while they ate from the wooden bowls seriously. Out of this perspective, she sought to the women filled, and teased them a little as enlighten her readers to the injustices done to one would a puppy or a colt to make it gentle Native Americans, even as she knew intimately and yet give it fire" (265). the injustices done to frontier women. Sandoz's relationship with He Dog, which Another way in which her personal experi­ she regarded as sacred, shaped her thinking ence added the element of truth to her writ­ and her writing. Dorman's comments about ing of Crazy Horse was in the familiarity that regionalism as an art and religion apply in this she had with the land. Her hand-drawn maps regard, since Sandoz instinctively understood certainly contributed to the book's achieving the value-laden myths that He Dog was impart­ an aura of the beauty of the Plains, which she ing to her.30 She reflected on the value of these and the Sioux Indians shared as a heritage. stories and the obligation she felt to impart She illustrated the places where she had grown them when she wrote about Crazy Horse: "I up, using the stories from the Indians as an felt, years ago, when He Dog first called me his anchor for her drawings. The publishers for granddaughter, a sort of dedication to the man the book tried to add artistic flair to the map he looked upon as the greatest he would ever she had drawn, but she firmly asserted, "[T]he know" (LMS, 204). The admiration for Crazy material is mine. No one else could have got Horse that He Dog communicated to Sandoz that together" (LMS, 362). She was right; her was reflected in her writing. It must have been childhood memories of the places and the sto­ from He Dog that she r~ceived the song Crazy ries of the Indians, combined with the fervor Horse's father sings at his naming ceremony: of her own research and her minute attention to detail, made her uniquely capable of such a My son has been against the people of the task. The map she made for Crazy Horse not unknown tongue. only contains major geographic information He has done a brave thing; but it also contains battle sites, agency loca­ For this I give him a new name . ... tions, and the location of the great Indian I give him a great name. council of 1857. These places are reconstructed I call him Crazy Horse. (118) in Sandoz's myth-making narrative to make readers aware of the setting of her subjects, thus This intimate bit of knowledge came in part adding one more context in her "realization" of from the familiarity that Sandoz had with the the Indian's environment and culture. people of the region. This familiarity enabled Stauffer says that Sandoz "described the her to communicate the quality of their family places she knew, remembered, and returned to life and culture, furthering her mission to make again and again. These places shaped her life 48 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007 and molded her as a writer" (LMS, xxi). In one through their beloved country. The sensitivity of the last scenes of the book, Sandoz exhibited with which Sandoz described these scenes is a her fine knowledge of the beauty and details of direct result of her personal experiences dwell­ the landscape near Fort Robinson: ing among the Indians in the majestic Plains. Since she lived among these hills and dwelled May, the Moon of Shedding Ponies, lay among the Indians, she was uniquely qualified spring-warm over the plains of the upper to understand the connection between them White Earth River and the bluffs that rose and their land. Sandoz was able to commu­ here and there like walls against the wind. nicate her intimate sensibility, made possible On a bank above the timbered little path of by her personal contact with the land and the the stream was the stockade of Red Cloud people, so that her readers could vicariously agency.... A mile westward was the soldier experience this contact through her writing. town called Fort Robinson; to the east, rising alone beyond the greening slopes of ARTISTIC ApPLICATION the broad river valley, stood Crow Butte; and across the north stretched a row of the whit­ Perhaps the most significant way that ish bluffs with a straggling of pines along the Sandoz communicated the essence of her sub­ top, the Indian horsemen among them dark jects was her instinctive artistic application and motionless as the trees. (CH, 360) of the words she used. As Malcolm A. Nelson points out in an essay on American literature The description of the valley and the bluffs and cultures, Sandoz's "version of the Sioux is artistic, authentic, and uniquely phrased life rings true both poetically and anthropo­ to reflect the Indian point of view. In her logically."31 Sandoz would have been pleased description, there is" not only an aura of truth to hear that, and would have stressed that her about the place but also about the Indians who faithfulness to poetics and anthropology came inhabited it. According to Stauffer, Sandoz through intense training and diligent practice. knew that "places shape the memory ... and In describing the evolution of her writing, she that she saw her region as a microcosm of the said that early on she told stories world, history, containing within its boundaries prototypes of universal happenings geological, with American poverty of incident, with historical, and natural" (LMS, xxi). Her goal more introspection, and considerable emo­ in making maps from her personal knowledge tional elaboration, [but] this method . . . and her descriptions of scenery was to do more seemed incompatible with my material and than give an accurate account; it was to com­ therefore I deserted it. Gradually I solidified municate some meaning, to interpret cause and the environment, objectified the point of motivation, to show the pathos of the events. view, and increased the restraint. (LMS, 62) By showing the Indian's intimate connection with the land, Sandoz hoped to elicit changes This more mature style is seen in Crazy Horse in policies toward the Indians, especially those and is exemplified by the following passage: that involved land allocation. The geography of the scene described above Slowly the great camp of over a thousand gives clues leading to the heart of Sandoz's lodges moved up the Powder, the ponies fat­ intent: the bluffs like walls against the wind tening on the ripening short grass, the bullet­ become a metaphor for the white man's wea­ makers busy. . . . All the war things, the risome invasion the Indians' world, and the lances, shields, and war bonnets, were made Indian horsemen, dark and motionless, depict fine and holy for this old-time war party, the symbolically their fading glory and imminent few men remembering the sacred ways receiv­ decline in the face of the white man's progress ing many ponies for their help.... CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 49

When everything was ready the warriors The same carefulness that Sandoz used in her rode the circles of the great camp, singing descriptions of events and emotions is also pres­ their war songs, their shields bright and new­ ent in her choice of words. She was so commit­ painted, the spears flashing, those with guns ted to providing the feel of authentic language carrying them ready for war. (163) that she recast Crazy Horse word for word and rewrote it four or five times.32 She wrote: Here Sandoz described the "high traditions" of the Sioux with an artistry that illuminates the I consider English a living, growing lan­ sacred nature of their war preparations. This des­ guage .... I try to use it as a live dynamic cription provides a solid environment, as it rec­ instrument. The language used in the ... nar­ reates both the spectacle of the preparation for rative biography ... must rise out of the mate­ war as well as the aura of a people ready to fight rial and the life portrayed. Words are limited for their dignity. This passage gives the reader in meaning because they must carry approxi­ not only a strong field of sensual details but also mately the same denotation to a great many a sacred vision of the attitude of the people. people. The creative writer gives them special Another passage that shows the command meanings by unusual usages and arrange­ and restraint to which Sandoz alluded is one in ments. This is particularly true of those of us which she described the burial of Crazy Horse's who use rhythmic prose for special connota­ daughter: tions and emotional impact. (LMS, 345)

And on the scaffold, tied on top of the red With the dynamic medium of words, Sandoz blanket, was a deerskin doll, the beaded wanted to create a design that would shape a design of her cradleboard the same as on the "meaningful order" out of the "chaos" of her dresses the little girl always wore, a design research.33 This elaborate and intense design is that came from far back in the family of something that Sandoz continued to practice. Black ShawL In Crazy Horse, in the scene of Conquering When he [Crazy Horse} saw this the Bear's death, Sandoz used the design of her father could hold himself no longer. Face rhythmic prose to provide emotional impact down beside the body of his daughter he let and to ferret out meaning for her readers. the sorrow locked in his heart sweep over him, the rickety scaffold creaking a little After a while the man spoke again, slower, under his weight. (286) the words little more than his [Conquering Bear's} breath. "I am killed now," he said, Sandoz showed restraint, yet power, in this "and in my place I put one you all know, a poignant description of a father's grief. The good man, with many good fathers before details of the doll and beadwork provide the him. To Man Afraid I give my people-all environment and the restraint is in the creak­ the Teton Lakotas I give to him-" ing scaffold. Sandoz artistically created a scene "No, no, I am not strong enough to carry of intense emotion in an objective way. The this thing," the Hunkpatila cried out, the words in themselves do little to describe the firelight red in the tears that stood like rain emotion, but in line with Sandoz's purpose, on his dark cheeks. (44) they convey the fervent feeling of the father for the daughter without ever overtly stating The complicated sounds of the first line with it. This is what Sandoz did best, interpreting breathy s's and w's, and the moaning m's give the emotion and objectifying it by her descriptive prose a poetic sound. The unusual word phrasing action, thereby evoking an emotional response of "I am killed now" demonstrates in an indirect from her readers that would facilitate an empa­ way the urgency and emotion of the moment. thy for the Indians. Also, the use of the Indian words Teton Lakotas 50 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007 and Hunkpatila demonstrates the vernacular, nance."34 As Sandoz wove dramatic narrative, and as Sandoz pointed out, centers the reader in she became a bridge for her readers to a foreign the time and place among the people. Native American culture. She hoped that the This passage also demonstrates Sandoz's aims of justice would be served for the Indians concern for providing a feel for the emotions of as new understanding for their ways and values the Sioux Indians by a compact use of words. came alive in the pages of her histories. She complained of the publisher's mutilation of As Sandoz chose her words, she was con­ her Crazy Horse manuscript "whose foreword," scious of their placement to develop "rhythmic she said, "plainly says that the idiom and the prose for special connotations and emotional rhythm are of great importance" (LMS, 190). impact. This means placement of words by ear The publisher had unnecessarily complicated as well as by eye" (LMS, 345). Sandoz was able her language by inserting hundreds of "hads" to provide a striking visual image and at the and altering numerous other words. These same time the sounds that evoke an urgency changes incensed Sandoz because her artistic that matches the visual image. This strategy sensibilities and feel for the language of the can be seen in the description of a scene from Indians was an important method of convey­ the Battle of the Platte Bridge: "High Back ing emotional reality to her readers. She used Wolf, reloading his revolver on his running ordinary words with ordinary connotations to horse, had put the bullet between his teeth become vehicles of expression. The words carry while he poured the powder into the barrel" the reader beyond the time and place in which (CH, 166). The assonance and alliteration is he lives and immerse him in the atmosphere striking here, and the rhythm carries the reader of former times, exotic people, and culturally quickly through the scene, strengthening the significant ideas. When Conquering Bear gave strong visual image. the Teton Lakotas into the care of Man Afraid, Sandoz also uses a shift in the placement he was doing more than just naming a succes­ of her words to render an emotional impact in sor. Sandoz, by her language, helps us to see the the following passage in which Crazy Horse extraordinary care of the Indian leaders in the expressed his anger over the false way the expression of Man Afraid's lament that he is whites portrayed the Indians in a newspaper. not strong enough to carry such a responsibil­ Crazy Horse's father said, "[I] t would seem ity. In the phrasing, it is also possible to see the that the Indians had gone into the white value that the Indians place on ancestry. When man's country and started to kill his women Conquering Bear ties Man Afraid's mission and children instead of the whites coming to to the many fathers before him, he is calling kill ours .... Crazy Horse would not be quiet upon the tradition and heritage of his people about this thing. 'Lies, more white-man lies!' to strengthen Man Afraid. Sandoz remained he cried as he tore the paper through, his face true to her commitment to use rhythmic prose, pale as one of the sick women of the Holy unusual arrangements of words, culturally Road in his anger" (CH, 227). Even though specific words, and emphasizing or placing the words of Crazy Horse's father are in per­ special connotations on certain words to com­ fect and normal English grammar, the feel of municate an aura of a people's values that was the language changes in the expression that distant from her readers. With the simple yet Crazy Horse "would not be quiet about this loaded language combinations she created, she thing." The language continues to evolve, as was able to draw the reader into not just the the sentiment deepens, into the comments of spectacle of historical events but the passion­ the "sick women of the Holy Road," becom­ ate intensity of a people's heritage and pride. ing an authentic expression of grief and anger Downey acknowledges that Sandoz's "vivid with the flavor of an Indian context. This was and dramatic narrative style" and the issues she Sandoz's genius: to mix the formal English identifies as western "have contemporary reso- of the first expression, then to use a slightly CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 51 altered syntactic arrangement, and finally, to The intensity of the moment was not emotion­ draw the reader into the Indian expressiveness alized by Sandoz, but she did give enough detail in the mention of the "Holy Road." for the reader to recognize the heaviness of it. Sandoz commonly mixed perfect English Another way that Sandoz looked at the grammar with expressions that she hoped development of her stories was in the image of would convey an essential suggestion of the an artistic arrangement. She wrote, "[T]hink Indian language. She wrote, "I have used the of the book as a string of beads, each incident simplest words possible, hoping by idiom and a bead, some smaller, some larger, some shin­ figures and the underlying rhythm pattern to ing gold, or sky blue, some murky grey or dark say some of the things of the Indian for which as night. Or think of it as a row of marbles, there are no white man words" (CH, x). Some of well arranged with agates and glassies between the expressions include the naming of months them, to set them off, those plain little glazed by Indian idioms: May, "the Moon of Shedding clay ones" (LMS, 284). She accomplished this Ponies" (CH, 157), and August, "the Moon of design in Crazy Horse as she wove incidents of the Cherries Blackening" (CH, 148). Other great drama among ordinary times. The whole examples are "good-aiming soldiers" (CH, 167); book is full of the mix of simple daily tasks such anger making "a firing in his breast" (CH, 151); as gathering wood and drying buffalo meat, and the whites' coming back "like hungry dogs then the excitement of the hunt for elk or buf­ around the cooking pots or a wolf to a smelling falo, or the tension of preparations for war, and stump on a hill" (CH, 209). These figures of the battles and deaths of friends and relatives. speech communicated tangible expressions for Because life itself is made up of such an order­ her readers that helped them to hear the words ing of commonplace and extraordinary events, of the Indians to more fully experience their it is the combinations and ordering of descrip­ presence. tions that Sandoz used effectively to develop an In many other ways, the mechanics of writing aura of realism about the Sioux people. were important to Sandoz, and she developed Sandoz's writing is full of the stuff of life, the other stylistic qualities that communicated her combination of everyday with extraordinary. vision of her subjects. She characterized her It is not a surprise that she liked "muscle and work as "understatement, no matter how lurid bone in ... literature" and certainly her writ­ my accounts turn out I always keep a little back ing reflected it (LMS, 94). The power of her in the name of art and for special emergen­ words, the authenticity of her phrasing, and the cies" (LMS, 316). There is much brutality in sheer stubbornness with which she undertook Crazy Horse, but Sandoz did not indulge in any task, all lent themselves to the shaping of gore. Instead, she was faithful to her aim of stories that not only reflected the subjects pre­ understatement. She described and made clear sented but produced a presence that lingered in but did not glorify. One scene from the book the reader's mind. She wrote, "I try to take an recorded with factual clarity the betrayal and artistic view, with some significance far beyond revenge killing of a brother-in-law: the local, some significance for the understand­ ing of man" (LMS, 417). The philosophy that His own brother-in-law struck him down would undergird all of her historiographies with his war club, tore off his clothes, cut involved the quest to comprehend and commu­ a long gash up each leg from the ankle to nicate the meaning of variant cultures, primar­ the waist, and left him there outside of the ily the Native American but also the western death lodge. So it was done to the man who Euro-American, as they impacted universal would give the Lakotas new ears to hear human understanding. with, cut their hearts out to eat. A dozen In her writing, Sandoz was concerned with struck him with their bows or their knives the techniques that would enhance the aes­ but none would take his scalp. (29) thetic effect she sought. Her goal of making a 52 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007 book about Crazy Horse that was artistically, [Mly purpose in running down such stories philosophically, and historically true was goes beyond my interest in the truth. What always at the forefront of her mind, and the I am trying to do is to show that the tech­ decisions she made in editing the book reflected nique for expropriating a minority is the this goal. The ideal in Sandoz's mind was not same everywhere, in all times. Once the just to compile an interesting factual account Sioux and the Cheyenne were a romantic, of a once glorious people but to have an effect wondrous people, to be visited by foreign on her readers' thinking. She wanted to pre­ princes and lords and by sick and unhappy serve the stories of the Plains Indians in a way writers from Boston. Then came the time that inspired respect for them. She wanted when the majority wanted their land. So we to leave a heritage. In encouraging Mrs. Elias made them out as subhuman, as beasts, and Jacobsen to write down her experiences among men who killed them, or said they had killed the Lakotas, she wrote, "[Tlhose times will them, became heroes. (LMS, 218-19) never return and it would enrich the future of our country a little bit if you would put down Sandoz, implementing Turnerian historic some of the things you saw and heard and design, was concerned with the Plains Indians' endured and did" (LMS, 320). The past, for plight, as she allegorized that plight to apply to Sandoz, was never irrelevant or even distant the annihilation of the Jews, the suffering of but a valuable part of the present and future. In the economic poor in the depression, and the all her narratives, she sought to bridge the dis­ oppression of women and other minorities in tance between the past and the future by shed­ the early twentieth century. ding light on ignorance and injustice as well as on nobility and strength. She felt a desperate CONCLUSION need to enrich people's.lives, and in most cases shape their thinking, with her reconstructions The motive of Mari Sandoz's truth-telling of the past. was not limited to setting the record straight; it Sandoz expressed sarcasm about people's was more along the lines of producing a faithful desire to be "spared the necessity of facing account that would illuminate the past in light actual reality" when she wrote, "[Rleality in of the motives of those involved, with a watchful literature is disturbing to the sheltered mind eye directed toward her contemporary culture and is therefore bad for our whole scheme we and the attitudes that tainted it. Dorman com­ seem to be trying to build up. As the hull is ments that in another work, Slogum House, taken from our foods the hull should also be Sandoz was "well on her way to a modernist con­ taken from any food for the mind" (LMS, 93). ceptualization of history ... in which culture­ The extreme care that Sandoz took to develop rather than fate, or Providence, or geography, or her historical narratives brought out a disdain blind economic force-was the determinative for those who would, to their own and others' factor in history."35 In Crazy Horse, she resolutely detriment, coat the past in sentiment, disdain, sought to expose her readers to the culture of the or obscurity. She seemed intent on presenting Plains Indians, hoping that somehow through her concept of the truth, which she saw as an that exposure she could shape their future by essential part of the diet needed to keep the educating the Euro-American population to culture healthy. She did not hold back the appreciate that culture and not to obliterate it. awful facts about the greed in the white man's Sandoz knew that the force behind the elimina­ heart as he decimated the Indian way of life. tion of the Native Americans had everything She articulated this goal of her historical writ­ to do with the clash of disparate cultures. She ing in a letter concerning an investigation of attempted in her historiographies to bring light the facts in the matter of whether Bill Cody to elements of the Native American culture that had killed the Indian named Yellow Hand: would highlight the value of preserving it. CRAZY HORSE BY MARl SANDOZ: HISTORIOGRAPHY 53

The thrust of Crazy Horse is in the idea that 8. Ibid. understanding the past is important. Sandoz 9. Ibid., 25. wrote, "I would like to stress that if you know 10. Des Jardins, Women and the Historical Enter­ prise, 117. and understand the story of your community 11. Ibid. you will know and understand a great deal of 12. Helen Winter Stauffer, ed., Letters of Mari the story of man, anywhere" (LMS, 333). In Sandoz (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, this way, Sandoz was an educator who staked 1992),88, hereafter cited in parentheses in the .text asLMS. out the parameters of the past with her dili­ 13. Des Jardins, Women and the Historical Enter­ gent, uncompromising research, her reliance prise, 105. and trust in her own personal experiences, and 14. Lynn Biedeck-Porn and Michele Fagan, "The her intuitive sensibilities about communicat­ Story Teller: Personal Research Resources of Mari ing them to others. The reasons that drove Sandoz," Nebraska Library Association Quarterly 25 (1994): 13-24. her historical craft of writing were weighty 15. Mari Sandoz, introduction to Crazy Horse: indeed. Out of the foundation of the past and The Strange Man of the Oglalas (Lincoln: University the lessons learned in an honest evaluation of of Nebraska Press, A Bison Book, 1961), ix, hereaf­ it, she hoped to inspire interest in the enrich­ ter cited in parentheses in the text as CH. ing quality of a true appreciation of its events 16. Judith Louise McDonald, Mari Sandoz: An Educational History (Ann Arbor, MI: Bell and and people. This, she believed, would encour­ Howell Company, 1981), 40. age her readers to endeavor to understand and 17. Richard S. Grimes, "The Making of a Sioux appreciate the spiritual values of the people Legend: The Historiography of Crazy Horse," South in the past. By her industry, art, philosophy, Dakota History 30, no. 3 (Fall 2000), 283. and enlightened perspective, she constructed a 18. Ibid. historiography that sought to convey meaning 19. Caroline Sandoz Pifer, ed., Gordon Journal Letters of Mari Sandoz, Part 2 (Crawford, NE: and bring about change. As she created the Cottonwood Press, 1992), 118. spiritual aura of the once majestic Sioux people 20. Barbara W. Rippey, "Mari Sandoz," in Twen­ for her readers, she hoped to provide an avenue tieth Century American Western Writers, 2nd ser. of connection to the past, and in its preserva­ (Detroit: Gale Group, 1999), 245. tion, answers would come to those who were 21. Helen Winter Stauffer, Mari Sandoz: A Study of the Artist as Biographer (PhD, diss., University of willing to take the strong medicine of a "plug Nebraska, 1974),302. historian" whose craving to write shaped the 22. Ibid., 241. thinking of her culture. 23. Ibid., 244. 24. Richard M. Dorson, Oral Tradition and Written History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), NOTES 134, as cited in Stauffer, Mari Sandoz, 244. 25. Lisa R. Lindell, "Recasting Epic Tradition: 1. Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History The Dispossessed as Hero in Sandoz's Crazy Horse (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968), 12. and Cheyenne Autumn," Great Plains Quarterly 16, 2. Robert L. Dorman, Revolt of the Provinces: The no. 1 (Winter 1996): 48. Regionalist Movement in America, 1920-1945 (Chapel 26. Ibid. Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993),94. 27. Mari Sandoz, KUON-TV, "Mari Sandoz 3. Ibid. Looks at the Old West," 1959, cited in McDonald, 4. Betsy Downey, "She Does Not Write Like Mari Sandoz, 174. a Historian: Mari Sandoz and the Old and New 28. Stauffer, Mari Sandoz, 241. Western History," Great Plains Quarterly 16, no. 1 29. Susanne George-Bloomfield, "Absolutely No (Winter 1996): 11. Manners," in Mari Sandoz Heritage Society Series, ed. 5. Julie Des Jardins, Women and the Historical John Wunder (Lincoln, NE: Mari Sandoz Heritage Enterprise in America: Gender, Race, and the Politics Society and the Center for Great Plains Studies, of Memory, 1880-1945 (Chapel Hill: University of 2003),23. Many details of Sandoz's early life are also North Carolina Press, 2003), 101. provided in Laverne Harrell Clark, "The View from 6. Ibid., 13-14. Indian Hill: Childhood Years of Mari Sandoz," Bits 7. Downey, "She Does Not Write," 12. and Pieces Journal 8, no. 6 (1972): 5-13. 54 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2007

30. Dorman, Revolt of the Provinces, 94. 32. Pifer, Gordon Journal Letters, 118. 31. Malcolm and Elizabeth Hoffman Nelson, 33. Durant, Lessons of History, 12. Telling the Stories: Essays on American Indian Literatures 34. Downey, "She Does Not Write," 25. and Cultures (New York: Peter Lang, 2001), 44. 35. Dorman, Revolt of the Provinces, 235.