Recasting Epic Tradition the Dispossessed As Hero in Sandoz's Crazy Horse and Cheyenne Autumn

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for

1996

RECASTING EPIC TRADITION THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO IN SANDOZ'S CRAZY HORSE AND CHEYENNE AUTUMN

Lisa R. Lindell South Dakota State University

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Lindell, Lisa R., "RECASTING EPIC TRADITION THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO IN SANDOZ'S CRAZY HORSE AND CHEYENNE AUTUMN" (1996). Great Plains Quarterly. 1126. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1126

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. RECASTING EPIC TRADITION THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO IN SANDOZ'S CRAZY HORSE AND CHEYENNE AUTUMN

LISA R. LINDELL

Although Mari Sandoz is perhaps best known IMAGES OF NATIVE AMERICANS for the biography of her Nebraska pioneer fa­ ther, Old Jules (1935), her two other biogra­ Sandoz's approach to the western settle­ phies, Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the ment experience diverged from the then pre­ Oglalas (1942) and Cheyenne Autumn (1953), vailing historical/literary convention of equally convey her distinctive historical vi­ viewing frontier expansion as predominantly sion of the American West. l In these two positive and progressive. At the time Sandoz works, Sandoz rewrites traditional epic for­ wrote her Native American biographies, the mula, taking the perspective of the dispos­ attitude toward minorities implicit in Frederick sessed Lakotas2 and Cheyennes and recounting Jackson Turner's frontier thesis still reigned. not the growth and expansion of a culture, but Depicting the frontier as "the meeting point its conquest. In spite of material defeat at the between savagery and civilization," Turner hands of dominant white society, her Native declared that "the existence of an area of free American leaders assume heroic stature, striv­ land, its continuous recession, and the advance ing against all odds to preserve their people of American settlement westward, explain and culture. American development." Embedded in Turner's understanding of western develop­ ment was a perception of the Indians as im­ pediments to be overcome.3 Lisa Lindell is a catalogue librarian and assistant To be sure, not every scholar and writer of professor at South Dakota State University. Much of the material in this article is based on her master's the time period subscribed to this theory. In thesis, "Visionaries of the American West: Mari Sandoz the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen­ and Her Four Plains Protagonists" (1993). turies, a small number of novelists, anthro­ pologists, and historians expressed sympathy with the plight of the indigenous peoples, [GPQ 16 (Winter 1996): 43-531 wrote respectfully of their varied cultures, and

43 44 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996 called for government reform. Two nine­ people." Working under Franz Boas, a leading teenth-century advocates of Indian policy re­ figure in anthropology in the first half of the form were Helen Hunt Jackson and Alice twentieth century, Deloria collected, trans­ Fletcher. In A Century of Dishonor (1881), lated, and edited hundreds of Lakota and Da­ Jackson strongly criticized government treat­ kota texts. From her inside perspective and as ment of Native Americans, deploring the bro­ a linguistic and ethnographic scholar, she ken treaties, forced removal and resettlement, played an invaluable role in preserving oral and general violation of individual and com­ narratives and conveying a sense of the dy­ munity integrity. Focusing on the govern­ namic culture of the Lakota peoples, though ment's mistreatment of seven Indian tribes, her own novel, Waterlily, was not published including the Sioux and Cheyennes, she called for more than forty years after it had been for justice and compensation for Native Ameri­ written, seventeen years after Deloria's death.7 can peoples.4 The views of writers committed to reform If Helen Hunt Jackson's rhetoric was the and cultural preservation did not represent reverse of Turner's, Alice Fletcher's was the the prevailing attitude toward indigenous obverse. An early ethnographer who worked peoples in the late nineteenth and early twen­ primarily with the Omaha, Winnebago, and tieth centuries. Not until the 1960s did the Nez Perce tribes, Fletcher portrayed Native general historical perspective begin to shift, American culture as complex and attractive resulting in widespread reassessment of but doomed. She believed the role of govern­ Turner's thesis as it related to minorities, par­ ment and scholars alike should be the preser­ ticularly to Native Americans. Prior to this vation of artifacts and the accounts of the interpretive shift, Mari Sandoz was one of the cultures in museums and libraries as well as few writers and historians who recognized and the rapid assimilation of the people themselves. deplored the cultural devastation inherent in Her career resulted in important publications, the process of westward expansion. Central to such as the Bureau of American Ethnology Crazy Horse and Cheyenne Autumn is condem­ study The Omaha Tribe that she wrote with nation of the exploitation of the vulnerable at Francis La Flesche, himself Omaha, but also the hands of the powerful. in the systematic removal of sacred objects of the Omaha people, which were placed in the CRAZY HORSE Peabody Museum in Boston and which the Omahas only succeeded in beginning to repa­ In tracing the life of Crazy Horse from a triate in 1989.1 pivotal experience of his youth through his A half century later, historian Angie Debo betrayal and death in 1877, Sandoz firmly chose, like Sandoz, to study and write about aligns her sympathies with the dispossessed the experiences of American Indians, notwith­ Plains Indians. At the heart of her biography standing the comparative lack of interest in is the conflict and loss suffered by the Lakotas serious studies on this subject in the 1930s. as the whites relentlessly dispossess the indig­ She shared with Sandoz a passion for histori­ enous peoples of their land and livelihood. cal accuracy and an instinct for supporting Torn between living in peace with the whites the underdog, despite the potential repercus­ or fighting the power of the U.S. government, sions and difficulties in getting published.6 the characters in Crazy Horse experience the Ella Deloria was an author and scholar who emotions and conflicts of a displaced people. faced even more obstacles than Debo or San­ Sandoz consciously set out to chronicle this doz in getting her work published during her period of cultural disruption on the Plains from lifetime. Deloria, a Yankton Sioux, saw her what she reconstructed as the perspective of mission as "[making] the Dakota people un­ the Native American. A great admirer of the derstandable, as human beings, to the white customs and lifestyle of the Lakota people, she THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO 45 hoped to convey something of the vibrancy him her favorite historical character. II She and richness of the culture threatened by white creates a protagonist possessing both univer­ encroachmen t. sal, timeless qualities and attributes in the full­ Upon its publication, Crazy Horse received est sense representative of the particularity of mixed reviews. Reviewers focused almost ex­ his Lakota world. clusively on the extent of Sandoz's research Sandoz presents Crazy Horse's heroic quali­ and use of detail, her style and point of view, ties and her vision of the grand themes of Great and her inclusion of invented dialogue. Opin­ Plains history by borrowing and adapting ele­ ions differed concerning the importance and ments of epic tradition, which she had discov­ interest of the b09k'S protagonist and themes. ered in the classical literature she read during Touching upon several of these issues, Clifton her years of study at the University of Ne­ Fadiman, book editor for the New Yorker, braska.II Crazy Horse abounds in parallels be­ charged Sandoz with "carrying on a fervent tween the typical characteristics of the classical historico-literary affair with a dead Indian, the hero and the qualities exhibited by Crazy consequence of which is a curious, half-inter­ Horse. Like traditional epic, Sandoz's work esting, uneven book."8 centers on a figure of fundamental importance Some western historians and writers were to his people who interacts with supernatural inclined to respond more favorably to Crazy forces, endures great trials, is a superb leader, Horse. Fellow Nebraska author John G. and demonstrates prowess in battle. Neihardt, avoiding the rhetoric of Frederick In a letter to Helen Blish, a friend who Jackson Turner and his followers, regarded the shared her interest in Lakota history and cul­ book as "a glorious hero tale told with beauty ture, Sandoz described the story of Crazy Horse and power." He commended Sandoz's exhaus­ as "tremendous, with all the cumulative in­ tive research and commented on her "rich evitability of Greek tragedy."u Sandoz's join­ background of sympathetic insight and under­ ing of epic and tragic elements reflects standing." Neihardt praised Sandoz's writing, Aristotle's own definitions in Poetics. Tragedy observing that her "skillful use of characteris­ is "a representation of an action which is seri­ tic figure and idiom creates the illusion that ous, complete, and of a certain magnitude ... the tale is growing directly out of an Indian and through the arousal of pity and fear effecdsl consciousness."9 the katharsis of such emotions." Aristotle com­ Despite current critical interest in Native pares and distinguishes between tragedy and American topics, there is little recent treat­ epic, ultimately choosing tragedy as the higher ment of Crazy Horse. Helen Stauffer, one con­ form, provided that it is unified and contains temporary scholar who has studied the book, epic elements. In Poetics, as John Kevin focuses on Sandoz's sources and transforma­ Newman points out, "tragic drama is to be tion of historical accounts into literary form; understood as in some sense the culmination the language and point of view; and the quali­ of epic, and epic as in some sense the ancestor ties of the classical hero displayed by Crazy of tragedy."14 Horse. She emphasizes the affinity Sandoz felt Although the Iliad, the prototypical ex­ with her protagonist and her perception of ample of tragic epic, records the victory of the him as a vital symbol to his people. 1o warring Greeks, the tenor of the poem is ulti­ It is in the development of the Oglala war­ mately tragic. Achilles' wrath, his alienation, rior himself that Sandoz most aptly conveys his destructiveness, and, finally, his implied her sense of the Great Plains region and the death (rendering futile the restoration of his human forces that shaped its history. Sandoz humanity), establish him as a tragic figure. identified Crazy Horse with the stories and Underlying all of the tragic action of the Iliad land of her childhood. "The mystic turn of the is the destruction of Troy. Seth L. Schein notes: man, and the exalted theme of his story" made "Much of the tragic power of the Iliad derives 46 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996 from a paradox: the activity that has the high­ Black Elk, survival depends on restoring the est value, the individual and collective attain­ ritual focus of traditional Lakota life. He is ment of honor and glory by both T roj ans and always attuned to the presence of the sacred in Greeks, involves destroying a city that repre­ the natural world. 17 Sandoz's Crazy Horse like­ sents all that is domestically and socially most wise relies upon supernatural powers to guide humane and civilized."15 his actions, especially during the time of cul­ Crazy Horse clearly fits into this tragic form tural crisis for his people. of epic. Sandoz also represents the devasta­ Sandoz emphasizes the role of supernatural tion of a vital and humane culture, but she intervention in Crazy Horse's destiny. The employs traditional epic conventions to assert centrality of vision in Lakota culture connects her nontraditional epic vision: the displaced with but surpasses the traditional involvement and ill-fated, the "Other," becomes the pro­ of the gods in ancient epic. From his youth, tagonist of the revised New World epic. 16 Crazy Horse endeavors to live up to his vision. While ancient epics do represent the suffer­ Deeply affected by the death of the Lakota ings of conquered peoples (the Iliad and Aeneid peace chief Conquering Bear at the hands of record the defeat and attempted assimilation white soldiers, Crazy Horse experiences a vi­ of the Trojans and Italic peoples, respectively), sion in which his potential as a great warrior it is the conquerors who are presented as the and leader of his people is revealed to him: central figures in these works. As a rich and complex culture confronting forces that would It seemed he must have slept because he oppress them, the Trojans elicit sympathy, but had a feeling of giving up and letting him­ the victorious Greeks, and specifically Achil­ self go, and almost at once his horse that les, are the primary focus of the Iliad. In the was hobbled out there eating started to­ Aeneid, Aeneas and his band of Trojans are wards him, his neck high, his feet moving initially defeated but ultimately found a new free. A man was on his back, sitting well civilization. Sandoz's attention on the defeated forward, only the heel fringe of his mocca­ rather than the victors remains true to her sin stirring as he rode. It was not like the vision of Great Plains history. world the boy knew but the real world be­ In Crazy Horse, Sandoz grounds her epic in hind this one, the sky and the trees in it, history as well as tragedy. Not concerned with the grass waving, but all in a strange and the specific task of creating an epic but rather sacred way .... And all the time the enemy with presenting the historical Crazy Horse shadows kept coming up before the man, accurately, Sandoz draws broad parallels be­ but he rode straight into them, with streak­ tween the themes and characters in ancient ings all about him, like arrows and lead balls, epics and the nineteenth-century Lakotas, but always disappearing before they struck using the epic framework to express her his­ him. IS torical vision. The stories from her childhood, her extensive archival research, and her iden­ Accompanying an Oglala raiding party, Crazy tification with her subjects were all instru­ Horse remembers the protection promised him mental in her interpretation of western and, like Achilles of old, rides unscathed expansion and Native American displacement. through the battle. Blending epic style and themes with histori­ Sandoz endows Crazy Horse with many cally-based narrative, Sandoz seeks to capture other characteristics of the traditional epic the essence of her protagonist. hero, though in a specifically Lakota incarna­ In Paul A. Olson's "Black Elk Speaks as Epic tion. The Oglala warrior, like Achilles or and Ritual Attempt to Reverse History," he Aeneas, confronts numerous trials. Unlike characterizes epic as a mixture of religious­ their struggles, however, which commonly led allegorical forces and historical actions. For to the subjugation of indigenous peoples and THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO 47 the founding of a new civilization, Crazy rows are reminiscent of Aeneas's grief at the Horse's efforts are geared toward cultural pres­ death of his wife, his father, and his faithful ervation. He eventually dies at the hands of Achates. Mourning the loss of his daughter, his enemies, and it is never clear from Sandoz's the Oglala warrior undergoes a symbolic de­ account whether she believed that his moral scent into the underworld. Deep in mourning, victory would result in the spiritual-or even Crazy Horse visits his daughter's death scaf­ material-survival of the Lakotas. Crazy Horse fold: "The father could hold himself no longer. not only has to defend against the soldiers but Face down beside the body of his daughter he must deal with the growing division among let the sorrow locked in his heart sweep over the Oglala people, an internal friction vari­ him, the rickety scaffold creaking a little un­ ously precipitated by disregard for traditional der his weight" (286). ways, vying for positions of power, and dis­ Leadership is another quality Crazy Horse agreement on how to respond to the soldiers, shares with the classical hero. As the Oglala settlers, and other intruders. people confront the perils and disorder of war­ Crazy Horse must also undergo personal fare with the white forces, they need strong trials, such as his ill-fated love (a notable epic direction. Respected older men of the tribe convention) for Black Buffalo Woman and his create a new chief's position and select Crazy subsequent expulsion from the shirt-wearers' Horse to fill it. Crazy Horse takes the respon­ society. Crazy Horse's long love for Black Buf­ sibility of being leader and protector seriously. falo Woman, who exercises her Lakota right Fasting, seeking visions, and striving to draw to leave the husband she had not wished to strength from the natural elements, the Oglala marry and elects to go with Crazy Horse, leads warrior endeavors to learn what must be done to dissension throughout the camp. to protect his people. He is particularly adept Like the traditional epic hero, Crazy Horse at formulating effective battle plans, calming experiences great loss in his life. The deaths of and organizing the often impetuous young his brother Little Hawk and his warrior friend warriors, and fortifying the courage of the Hump (calling to mind the death of Achilles' people. beloved Patroclus) deeply grieve the Oglala. In the midst of heated debate among the He accuses himself of attending to his own warriors, the Oglala leader quietly allays their cares rather than dedicating himself to the anger and impatience, his persuasiveness remi­ people (247, 262). Sandoz describes Crazy niscent of that of Odysseus: Horse's reaction to the death of his brother: Finally Crazy Horse arose, looking slighter So Little Hawk was gone, the gay, brave than ever in the open, fire-lit center of the younger brother, lost to the bullets of the great dark crowd. whites while he had stayed behind with his "Wait, my friends," he said to the war­ woman plans. This thing had happened be­ riors. "There will be fighting pretty cause a man thought of himself instead of quick-" the good of his people and so misery fell on "Hoppo! Let us go!" one called from far all those around him. . . . And as Crazy out, hearing only the repeated words, not Horse realized what had been done a dust­ knowing who had spoken them first. gray bitterness settled in his heart, a bitter­ But the quiet voice of Crazy Horse went ness that would take a long, long time to be on and slowly a silence came over the gone. (247) people, starting around him and spreading outward like the branches of a great tree, Crazy Horse also suffers greatly at the death reaching far into the night, until every of his little daughter from the "choking cough" woman and child could hear or was told brought by the whites, and his cumulative sor- what he was saying. (314) 48 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996

Despite his leadership abilities and his that would call him enemy and barbarian. As power to unite those under his command, a visionary and a leader of the people, he Sandoz's Crazy Horse endures the isolation serves as a heroic figure combatting all that and alienation, both physical and spiritual, converges to disrupt the traditions of his often associated with epic heroes. Known as people. "Our Strange Man" by the Oglalas, Crazy Horse Sandoz ended her work with the death of possesses traits that set him apart within the her protagonist. In the spring of 1877, Crazy community. With his light skin and hair, his Horse makes a fateful decision. Profoundly disinclination to sing, dance, wear paint or desiring peace and agonizing over the welfare feathers, and his habit of going off by himself of his people, he leads the Oglala band into to meditate or to attack those invading Lakota the Red Cloud Agency in northwestern Ne­ country, he is inevitably distanced from his braska. The confined, inactive lifestyle of the people: "Sometimes it was days before visiting agency leads to high tension, broken prom­ warriors saw the man they had come to follow, ises, misunderstandings, animosities, and ulti­ for often Crazy Horse kept far from the noise mately to Crazy Horse's betrayal, arrest, and and the drumming, perhaps making a fast, death. As Sandoz explained in a letter, she hoping for a vision or a dream to tell him what disliked anticlimaxes and felt that the story must be done" (312). Unlike that of Achilles, was finished. 19 She believed that she had re­ however, Crazy Horse's isolation is not moti­ corded the end of an historical era. vated by stubborn choice but comes from his The qualities Sandoz found and developed concern for his people's future. in the character of Crazy Horse are closely Crazy Horse's reluctance to boast of his feats linked with her historical vision of the Ameri­ is a further departure from Homeric epic con­ can West. She discerned a universal signifi­ vention. Whereas Achilles and Odysseus were cance in the course of western development. expected to boast of their deeds of valor, Recognizing the seeming inevitability of the Sandoz's Crazy Horse is modest by nature and powerful overcoming the powerless, Sandoz cultural training. His selfless, community-in­ viewed the events taking place in Crazy Horse spired aims, arising out of his adherence to as representative of the experiences of many traditional Lakota values, stand in marked other minority groups throughout history. In contrast to the self-centered, individualistic a letter to Adolph G. Kaufman, she main­ aspirations held by those overtaking his land tained: "The pattern of expropriation of a and culture. By locating egotism and expan­ minority by a covetous, and uncontrolled, sionist ambitions in the conquering civiliza­ majority, no matter what the greatness or the tion, Sandoz follows epic precedent, but in bravery of the minority leaders [is] always the selecting a hero who is self-denying, faced with same, always inevitably successful." She reit­ defeat, and seeking to recover old ways, she erated her views on the subjugation of minor­ revises traditional epic formula. The variance ity cultures in a letter to Douglas T. Barker: between Lakota decorum and classical epic "Any minority that possesses something the tradition (reworked into the notion of Mani­ majority wants is in danger of dispossession, fest Destiny) underlines the clash of two cul­ even extermination. "20 What Sandoz does not tural paradigms. seem to have considered in these letters is Not popular with all the people and, in­ that the conquest would not necessarily be deed, occasionally a source of divisiveness complete. In her image of subjugation, Sandoz (such as that which results from his relation­ reveals a telling irony. Her depiction of the ship with Black Buffalo Woman), Crazy Horse downfall of Crazy Horse and the disintegra­ nevertheless epitomizes many of the qualities tion of Native American epic possibilities esteemed by the Great Plains tribes, and, shows white society to be unresponsive to the ironically, by the Euro-American civilization very values it claims to admire. THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO 49

CHEYENNE AUTUMN Northern Cheyennes and a famed Dog warrior in his youth, is a revered leader and a man of This irony is at the heart of her subsequent absolute integrity. In spite of great suffering at book of Native American displacement, Chey­ the hands of the whites; sickness, hunger, and enne Autumn, the story of the tragic 1500- the loss of his people's land; and his witness­ mile journey of the Northern Cheyennes from ing many broken promises and much killing exile in Indian Territory to their homeland in during the journey north, Dull Knife stead­ Yellowstone country, with the U.S. Army in fastly believes that the white soldiers will not pursuit. In writing Cheyenne Autumn, Sandoz harm his people. Having been promised that drew upon the tales of the 1878 flight re­ the Northern Cheyennes would be free to re­ counted by her father and aged trappers, trad­ turn to their homeland if they were dissatis­ ers, and Cheyennes at the Sandoz fireside. She fied at the southern agency, Dull Knife takes wanted to convey to readers the heroism of the whites at their word. In the face of ma­ the Cheyennes as they struggled for freedom. laria, dysentery, and starvation, he is deter­ Sandoz's account of this journey might ap­ mined to go north while some of the people pear to be a purely historical panorama, but are still alive: "To this old-time Cheyenne the beneath the factual narrative is a philosophi­ promise of the officers in the north was like cal study of a clash of values and of cultures on iron, and so he was going home."23 an epic scale. During a time of physical and Little Wolf is also a tribal chief. The bearer cultural dispossession, the Cheyennes find of the sacred chief's bundle of the Northern themselves simultaneously battling the en­ Cheyennes, he is honored for his bravery and croachment of white soldiers and settlers and has been entrusted with protecting the people: disputing with one another. Sandoz empha­ sizes the dissension within the Cheyenne tribe Soft-spoken and gentle, he could whip any through her portrayal of the conflicting val­ unruly Elk warrior to his duty and still, at ues of her two protagonists, Dull Knife and fifty-seven, lead him in any battle. The Wolf Little Wolf. had fought so hard when the soldiers struck Unlike Crazy Horse, Cheyenne Autumn re­ the Cheyennes up on the Powder Fork two ceived mainly positive reviews. Although some years ago that it stopped the heart. . . . reviewers questioned Sandoz's fictional tech­ Under his arm he bore the bundle brought nique and her rendering of Native American to the Cheyennes by Sweet Medicine very speech and point of view, they generally con­ long ago, and so was selected as the dedi­ cluded by endorsing her work, praising her cated one of all the tribe, the man who extensive research and her success in drama­ must always forget himself, as their culture tizing a powerful story. Many noted the epic hero had done, and remember only the qualities of the book.21 Still, as is the case with people. (15-16) Crazy Horse, current literary criticism of Chey­ enne Autumn has not been extensive, focusing Unlike Dull Knife, Little Wolf has learned mostly on historical events and language and to distrust the white man. Sandoz contrasts mythic patterns in the novel. 22 the attitudes of the two leaders: What is lacking in the criticism is analysis of Sandoz's Cheyenne protagonists and the [Dull Knife's] wisdom was of the old days­ function they serve in reshaping the epic of of the wool-blinded buffalo feeding with frontier expansion. In Cheyenne Autumn, even his nose always into the wind, snuffling out more than in Crazy Horse, Sandoz conveys danger, of the young grass waiting under her perceptions of the conflict in the Great the winter snow, and the Powers of the earth Plains through character development. Dull and sky and the four great directions-the Knife, one of the four tribal chiefs of the old wisdom of the time when a man spoke 50 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996

what he believed and his word was his life. Little Wolf, torn apart "as though he were But long ago something new had come into both the rabbit and the eagle who fed on the this, the veho, the white man, and to Little quivering entrails," sadly concludes that the Wolf it seemed that the whites had to be old ways must be forgotten: met on their own terms, for now the power of numbers and of guns and the twisted The Cheyennes could escape the veho only tongue was with them. (20) by the veho road. The white man had the power and the Indian must learn to smile Through her characterization of Dull Knife too when his heart was bad, say "Hou!" when and Little Wolf, Sandoz explores the history he meant a roaring against it, say the "Yes, of conflict on the Plains. The wide rift be­ yes, this will be done," when it is only for so tween the values that the Native Americans long as the eye was there to see. (107) yearn to maintain and those that the whites impose leads to bitter conflict between the Sandoz lamented the necessity of Little two cultures and to dissension within the Wolf's cynicism and, likewise, Dull Knife's Cheyenne tribe. By examining discord and disillusionment. Although she respected Dull greed, Sandoz offers a miniature portrait of a Knife's original idealism, she questioned the larger issue. As we have seen, she believed desirability, or even the possibility, of inte­ that the subjugation of the Native Americans grating Native American and white culture. resembled the suppression of any minority The repression suffered by the Native Ameri­ culture. cans at the hands of the whites led her to fear In the preface to Cheyenne Autumn, Sandoz that cultural genocide would result rather than cites "the discovery of gold and the rise of integration. In the absence of any synthesis, economic and political unrest over much of Dull Knife and Little Wolf are left to follow the civilized world" as reasons for the white their own judgment and principles as they usurpation of Native American lands, culture, struggle to lead their people to freedom. and sovereignty: "With millions of men hun­ Through her representation of these larger­ gry for a new start, ... the romantic Red Hunter than-life characters and their extraordinary [became] a dirty, treacherous, bloodthirsty sav­ odyssey, Sandoz creates an epic work. She con­ age standing in the way of progress, in the sistently develops the heroic themes inherent path of manifest destiny" (vi). in the Cheyennes' experiences and actions. In Both Dull Knife and Little Wolf wrestle her preface, Sandoz refers to the flight of the with adapting to white values and demands. Cheyennes as "the epic story of the American Dull Knife clings steadfastly to his own integ­ Indian, and one of the epics of our history" rity, refusing to conform to white values or to (vii). She gives her Dull Knife and Little Wolf accede to white demands that he and his people many traditional epic heroic traits: they lead return to the south: "'No,' he said in his soft their people during a time of extreme adver­ Cheyenne. 'I am here on my own ground and sity and suffering; they seek guidance and I will never go back'" (192). The old chief strength from supernatural powers; and they declares that he will never leave his home­ feel alienation and separateness. Despite their land, even if he must die fighting. Ironically, differing points of view regarding the whites, it is his people who die, killed by the white Dull Knife and Little Wolf share many goals. soldiers after the Cheyennes break out from Both struggle with questions of cultural iden­ Fort Robinson, while Dull Knife is condemned tity and destiny, and both are dedicated to to live, a disillusioned and defeated man: "'I the welfare of the Cheyennes. The two men am an empty man!' he cried to the Powers, 'I pursue their visions in divergent ways, but have become so weak that I cannot even die they together embody Sandoz's vision of epic with my people!'" (246). heroism. THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO 51

As in Crazy Horse, however, Sandoz refor­ superiority lies with the victims. Despite their mulates the classical epic to her own purposes. internal conflicts, which indeed are largely Seeking to convey her own historical vision, brought on by the actions and threatening she departs from the epic formula of the growth presence of the whites, Sandoz's Native Ameri­ and continuation of a culture to portray a cans display a richness of culture and a nobil­ struggle destined to material failure. Sandoz's ity of character not exhibited by their elevation of the members of the suppressed antagonists. They live in communion with society to heroes reverses the traditional fo­ nature and champion an unfettered way of life. cus. Not vitality and hope, but death and dis­ Yet the minority culture is inevitably over­ illusionment, characterize Sandoz's epic. "The powered by the majority culture, losing its au­ names of these dead men were like a song, a tonomy. Ultimately, however, the vanquishing song of the sun dance bloodletting, a great red of the Native peoples does not diminish the blanket spread upon the ground to plead for a greatness of their culture or character or the vision to save the people. But nothing came of exalted nature of their struggles. Indeed, in all their dying, only more blood" (107). Sandoz's eyes, it is the conquering civiliza­ Of the nearly three hundred Cheyennes who tion, through its willful destruction of a vital begin the trek north, many of them women and heroic culture, that is diminished. De­ and children, most die before reaching their spite the tragic quality of Sandoz's epic, the homeland. Those who do survive the journey Cheyennes survive and claim a moral victory. must live under a white-imposed system that What has too long gone unrecognized is runs counter to their lifestyle and spiritual and Sandoz's contribution to elevating indigenous cultural traditions. "With his crippled, or­ peoples to heroic status. In Crazy Horse, Little phaned band [Dull Knife] came to sit in this Wolf, and Dull Knife, Sandoz recasts the dis­ north country that had cost so much. But the possessed as epic heroes; and a careful reading beaded lizard of his medicine dreaming, of his of her works shows that she was one of the first power to save the people, no longer hung on New Western historians, focusing on the cost his breast" (271). of western expansion. Little Wolf's last years at Fort Keogh are filled with pain, remorse, and self-imposed iso­ NOTES lation. Even so, his deeds as a bold warrior and 1. Mari Sandoz, Old Jules (1935; rpt., Lincoln: his dedication to the people are not wholly University of Nebraska Press, 1962); Crazy Horse: forgotten: The Strange Man of the Oglalas (1942; rpt., Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992); and Cheyenne When he died in 1904, there were some Autumn (1953; rpt., Lincoln: University of Ne­ who still remembered and still loved him. braska Press, 1992). 2. The collective tribal entity known as the They propped his body up tall on a hill and Dakota, or more popularly as the Sioux, is com­ piled stones around him, drawing them up prised of three distinct groups, each with its own by travois until he was covered in a great dialect: the Tetons, speaking Lakota; the Yankton heap. There Little Wolf stood on a high and Yanktonai, speaking Nakota; and the Santee, place, his face turned to look over the homes speaking Dakota. The T etons, or Lakotas, the larg­ est tribal group, are subdivided into seven bands, of his followers and beyond them, down the including Crazy Horse's Oglalas. For a more thor­ Rosebud that flowed northward to the ough study of tribal nomenclature, see William K. Yellowstone. (2 n) Powers, Oglala Religion (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977), pp. 3-12. By casting the dispossessed Native peoples, 3. Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," The Frontier rather than their conquerors, as protagonists, in American History (New York: Holt, 1920), pp. 3, Sandoz, like John Neihardt, reshapes tradi­ 1. In "Turner's First Stand: The Significance of tional epic to fit the Plains experience. Moral Significance in American History," William 52 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1996

Cronon writes, "Turner did acknowledge the his­ 7. Ella Deloria to H. E. Beebe, 2 December torical role of Indians and he never intended his 1952, quoted in Raymond J. DeMallie, afterword technical use of the term free land to deny their to Waterlily, by Ella Cara Deloria (Lincoln: Uni­ existence-but he certainly did read their history versity of Nebraska Press, 1988), p. 237; Agnes through a Eurocentric lens that saw them as savage Picotte, "Biographical Sketch of the Author," in obstacles to the civilized progress that was his main Waterlily, pp. 229-31. story." Richard W. Etulain, ed., Writing Western 8. Clifton Fadiman, review of Crazy Horse, by History: Essays on Major Western Historians (Albu­ Sandoz, New Yorker, 5 December 1942, p. 100. querque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991), 9. John G. Neihardt, "Crazy Horse, Who Led p. 91. the Sioux at Custer's Last Fight," review of Crazy 4. Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: Horse, by Sandoz, New York Times Book Review, 20 A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings December 1942, late ed., p. 4. Sandoz, in turn, with Some of the Indian Tribes (1881; rpt., Minne­ acknowledged the great influence Neihardt's Black apolis: Ross & Haines, 1964). Through her novel Elk Speaks had upon the content and style of her Ramona (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884), Jack­ work. In a letter to Bruce Nicoll (director of the son hoped to draw even greater attention to the Nebraska University Press), Sandoz termed urgent need for Indian policy reform. Though the Neihardt's book "one of the three best ... first novel proved to be popular, readers failed to grasp hand accounts of American Indians" (12 June 1960, Jackson's underlying reforming purpose. Composed Mari Sandoz Collection, University of Nebraska in the tradition of nineteenth-century women's Archives and Special Collections; hereafter abbre­ fiction, Ramona was generally read as historical viated as UNA-SC). Sandoz's two other favorite romance rather than as social protest. Native American accounts were Frank Linderman's 5. Unlike Jackson (or Sandoz), Fletcher also American: The Life Story of a Great Indian, Plenty­ worked with the U.S. government, hastening "as­ Coups, Chief of the Crows (New York: John Day, similation" by promoting and helping to shape the 1930) and Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Dawes Act of 1887, which distributed reservation Custer, interpreted by Thomas B. Marquis (Min­ land to individual Indian owners and made the neapolis: Midwest, 1931). vast "surpluses" after the allotments available to 10. See Helen Stauffer, "Mari Sandoz'o; Use of Euro-American settlers. The net effect of the Dawes Sources," Platte Valley Review 5 (1977): 47-56; Act was the economic marginalization rather than "Narrative Voice in Sandoz's Crazy Horse," West­ the cultural and economic assimilation of most ern American Literature 18 (1983): 223-37; and Native American people. The Turner thesis im­ "Two Authors and a Hero: Neihardt, Sandoz, and plied that the lands of North America should be Crazy Horse," Great Plains Quarterly 1 (1981): 54-66. redistributed to white settlers; Fletcher's attempts 11. Sandoz to Charlotte Curtis, 11 March 1956, to secure land in fee simple for the Indians helped UNA-SC. assure that the redistribution would take place. 12. See Helen Stauffer, "Mari Sandoz and the See Robin Ridington, "Introduction to the Bison University of Nebraska," Prairie Schooner 55 (1981): Book Edition" of Alice Fletcher and Francis La 257; Sandoz to Bernard DeVoto, 9 April 1936, Flesche, The Omaha Tribe (Lincoln: University of Letters of Mari Sandoz, ed. Helen Stauffer (lin­ Nebraska Press, 1992), pp. 1-8. The Omaha Tribe coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992), p. 102. was originally published in 1911. For an account of The traditional epic is a long narrative poem in an Fletcher's role as a pioneer in American anthro­ elevated style celebrating the feats of a central pology and as a shaper of Native American policy, heroic figure who plays a pivotal role in the history see Joan Mark, A Stranger in Her Native Land: Alice of a nation or race. Conventions include invoca­ Fletcher and the American Indians (Lincoln: Uni­ tion of a muse, beginning in medias res, cataloging versity of Nebraska Press, 1988). of names, and the use of epithets and epic similes. 6. Angie Debo wrote six books on Native Sandoz's epic vision reflects the Renaissance con­ American history, the most significant of which is ception of epic with the hero as its most impor­ And Still the Waters Run (Princeton: Princeton tant element. John Steadman, in Milton and the University Press, 1940), dealing with the wide­ Renaissance Hero (Oxford: Clarendon, 1967), iden­ spread practice in Oklahoma of cheating the Na­ tifies five basic characteristics of the epic hero of tive Americans out of their land. For Debo's the Renaissance: fortitude, sapience, leadership, difficulties in publication see Suzanne H. Schrems amor, and magnanimity. Milton, in Paradise Lost, and Cynthia J. Wolff, "Politics and Libel: Angie shifted the focus, by rejecting the image of the Debo and the Publication of And Still the Waters exalted human hero and ascribing greatness only Run," Western Historical Quarterly 22 (1991): 184- to God. Sandoz's portrayal of her protagonists as 203. exalted and endowed with Renaissance virtues and THE DISPOSSESSED AS HERO 53 her historically-based approach separate her works 18. Sandoz, Crazy Horse (note 1 above), pp. 104- from Milton's conception of epic and the subse­ 05. All further references to Crazy Horse are from quent anti-heroic epic. this edition and are cited parenthetically in the 13. Sandoz to Helen Blish, 16 June 1941, UNA­ text. Sc. 19. Sandoz to Lone Eagle, 11 March 1956, UNA­ 14. Stephen Halliwell, The "Poetics" of Aristotle: Sc. Lone Eagle was the son-in-law of Luther Stand­ Translation and Commentary (Chapel Hill: Univer­ ing Bear, author of My People the Sioux. sity of North Carolina Press, 1987), p. 37; John 20. Sandoz to Adolph G. Kaufman, 25 February Kevin Newman, The Classical Epic Tradition (Mad­ 1948, UNA-SC; Sandoz to Douglas T. Barker, 16 ison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986), p. 39. February 1954, UNA-SC. 15. Seth L. Schein, The Mortal Hero: An Intro­ 21. Orville Prescott's review is typical. He ob­ duction to Homer's "Iliad" (Berkeley: University of jected to Sandoz's style and her "pseudo-Indian California Press, 1984), p. 169. manner" of expression but acknowledged the au­ 16. Sandoz is not the first to perceive epic quali­ thenticity of her work and admired the epic hero­ ties in the characters and events of Great Plains ism the fleeing Cheyennes displayed (New York history. In his examination of how Willa Cather, Times, 18 November 1953, late ed., p. 29). John Neihardt, and Ole RiZllvaag use traditional 22. See, for example, Stauffer's "Two Massacres epic, Paul A. Olson asserts that what is essential to on the Sappa River-Cause and Effect in Mari epic is the sense that "civilization is at a turning Sandoz's Cheyenne Autumn," Platte Valley Review point, and that it was turned by the deeds of a great 19 (1991): 25-43; Pam Doher's "The Idioms and one or a few great." Olson's three Plains writers Figures of Cheyenne Autumn," Platte Valley Review (and Sandoz, too, I suggest) drew upon the stories 5 (1977): 119-30; and Barbara Rippey's "Toward a of their region to elevate peasant peoples, women, New Paradigm: Mari Sandoz's Study of Red and and minority groups to heroic status. See "The White Myth in Cheyenne Autumn," in Helen Win­ Epic and Great Plains Literature: RiZllvaag, Cather, ter Stauffer and Susan J. Rosowski, eds., Women and Neihardt," Prairie Schooner 55 (1981): 264. and Western American Literature (Troy, New York: 17. Paul A. Olson, "Black Elk Speaks as Epic and Whitston, 1982), pp. 247-66. Ritual Attempt to Reverse History," in Vision and 23. Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn (note 1 above), Refuge: Essays on the Literature of the Great Plains, p. xvi. All further references to Cheyenne Autumn ed. Virginia Faulkner and Frederick C. Luebke (Lin­ are from this edition and are cited parenthetically coln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), pp. 3-27. in the text.