Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life

Wielding the source material with muscular assurance and a judicious eye, historian Bray aims at nothing less than a definitive account of the great Oglala warrior and tribal chief. In painstaking detail, he paints a life and career of exceptional valor, skill and influence on behalf of the Lakota people. Though Crazy Horse was self-possessed and brilliant in battle, his tactical gifts were offset by the reluctant assumption of civil leadership, a role at odds with his taciturn and introspective nature. Bray carefully weighs the private and the political life to illustrate the interaction of Crazy Horse's personal experiences with larger historical events (including intertribal conflicts, fragile alliances, and clashes with American soldiers, among them the battle at Little Bighorn)—all shaped by the mounting encroachments of white society in the 1850s–1870s. The author presents his account as a more historically accurate complement to the breathless, iconic portraiture of Mari Sandoz's long-standard biography, Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the Oglalas . But Bray's compensatory rigor sacrifices some narrative flow to the exigencies of a detailed scholarly accounting. If general readers' eyes may glaze over at many of the particulars, this nonfiction debut promises to be a standard reference for many years to come. (Nov.)