newsgroups: soc.culture.usa, alt.native, soc.culture.native, soc.history.war.misc author: Simon Laub date: January 18th 2004. Heroes on the open prairie in 1876. -------------------------------------- Just finished with Stephen Ambrose's "Crazy Horse and Custer". Easily one of the best books on the subject. And food for thought on what western civilisation is all about. The following is a sort of review for those interested in the subject: As in a movieplot we get the story of two men, two societies and two ways of life. A story of the Sioux and those who tried to destroy them. And most importantly how they both became part of what America, indeed the world, is today. A western world obsessed with exploration and progress, and what the world could have been like. This is alone makes the book worth reading. When Custer looked on a virgin forest, he envisioned sawmills, houses being build etc. Custer believed in progress, in the doctrine that things are going to be better. He was like we are today. Not so, with the indians, Crazy Horse saw the trees as they were at that moment. He lived in that moment. For Custer events marched forward, onward and upward. For Crazy Horse things were done because thats the way they had always been done. Indeed, the European thought that a man should and could improve his station in life would have made little sense to Crazy Horse. Obviously, these opposite views couldn't live side by side. Sure, in 1851 at the big council the whites had signed at treaty, promising eternal friendship and recognizing the Sioux right to all land from Laramie northward. But, as we all know, in the end the whites would exterminate the indians in order to give way for this thing called progress. As Ambrose lets us in on the real Custer, we see that he might have been a buffoon, but he ultimately died for the thing called progress, the thing we, whites, also believes in. Was Custer a buffoon - then so are we. On the side we get to know Crazy Horse, his love for Black Buffalo Women and his people, the Sioux. And one get to enjoy the "justice" of the Little Big Horn on june 25th 1876. Where Custer is slaughtered on what is now Custers hill. One final indian victory before the end. The following year Crazy Horse was killed as he surrendered. The indians marched into reserversations. And through it all no attrocity was wicked if only commited in the name of progress. General Sherman made it very clear. E.g. as he launched one of many search-and destroy missions in Kansas he made sure that everybody understood that the whites could think of only two solutions to the indian problem: Civilisation (i.e. take up farming like whites) or extermination. As at the time the army was not strong enough to exterminate the indians, Sherman at first agreed to give civilisation a try. But along comes Custer, a kind of a hero for progress and the white cause. Clearing the way for the railroad. In fact so much a hero that democrats, eager to be back in the White House after a sixteen year absence, could be expected to give Custer the democratic nomination after a new indian victory. Custer himself had no doubts, and told indian scouts that he was planning to become the next Great White Father. Perhaps the Sioux knew that their world was about to end. But still apparently they had decided to have one last, great summer before giving in to the whites. At the Sun Dances that june 1876 Sitting Bull had a vision from Wakan Tanka, the All, of soldiers attacking their camp just to be killed. Which lifted everybodys spirit. And so Ambrose leds us back to the Little Big Horn on june 25th 1876. With Custer slaughtered in an indian victory over "progress". A victory for that other world view. Nevermind that Crazy Horse is killed the following year. Nevermind that the indians are marched into reserversations. With only 11.500 "oglalas" surviving in the Pine Ridge reservation, Southe Dakota. And with only 4280 Shoshonis and Arapahoes sharing a reservation in Wyoming etc. The important thing now is that we know that this other vision of the world also existed. What a great book. FUT: soc.culture.usa -Simon Simon Laub silanian.tripod.com