In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
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Book Reviews of In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
Book Review: Required Reading
Summary: 5 Stars
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" should be required reading for anyone who wishes to graduate from college in the USA. It's that important, that eye opening, that educational.Book Review: excellent book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great book that exposes the wrongs with the government's treatment with the Indian people as well as showing that leonard peltier is not guilty.Book Review: strange combination of journalistic objectivity and bias
Summary: 4 Stars
The net effect of Matthiessen's effort to be journalistically unbiased is that the book is a reflection of South Dakota politics. South Dakota is several times referred to as the most racist state in the union, a racism that dates at least as far back as Wounded Knee (1890). The author makes no attempt to assuage these antagonisms but just reports them.The author is much clearer than Dee Brown in the early chapters on the early antagonisms between Indian and white. For the rest, only a few episodes strike me as being
especially interesting, just as only a few characters stand out as especially interesting, among them, Peltier of course, but also Anna Maria Asquash, Myrtle Poor Bear (both of these rather pathetic figures), Bob Robideau, Robert Hugh Wilson and on the "other side"--because that's what it is,the other side--SA David Price, Richard Wilson, and William Janklow. For the most part when Matthieson "sits down" really spends some time with an individual, interviews him or quotes him at length, then that individual comes across clearly. In between these clear passages are long passages of conflicting evidence which is a reflection of the murky nature of the case. Mathiesson also outlines the main complaints of the Indian against the white man but these passages which run the length of the book are only occasionally brought out in the crystal clear. But since the author returns to them again and again, in the context of AIM demands, by the end most readers would be convinced.
Still the overall impressionistic effect of reading the book is that you will be much better informed than if you had not read it. The book also has a very cosmopolitan atmosphere which will transport the reader throughout the American West, including Los Angeles, Seattle, New Mexico, Canada, and of course the Pine Ridge Reservation. I thought the story of the Marion Penitentiary and the jailbreak from Lompoc was one of the most interesting episodes in the book. Many times the book gets bogged down in legalese jargon or in endless lists of AIM members who were present at Pine Ridge on June 26, 1975, however.
One of the book's main themes,emphasized over and over again, is AIM's paranoia about the intentions of the FBI and white men in general; for the most part Matthiesson's view is that AIM's paranoia is justified, and that Peltier was just a scapegoat who was set up by the FBI to take the blame for the crime.
Book Review: A little too jumbled
Summary: 3 Stars
While I appreciate the authors attempt to present all the facts, I found most of the book very complicated and difficult to follow. Detailing all of the arrests, trials, convictions, allegations,etc regarding all the major players( and some of the minor ones) in the movement at the time, while it served to present the climate in which Leonard's conviction took place, left me unable to form any opinion of guilt or innocence. It was not until the final 3 or 4 chapters that the whole thing made any sense . Still it is worth reading as it is the only book that I know of on a subject, unfortunately ignored by an American Public who had become somewhat jaded about protest movements and reports of wrong-doing by government agencies once the '60's had ended.Book Review: Too jumbled and one-sided
Summary: 2 Stars
I had very high expectations for this book. I've read the author's work before (At Play in the Field of the Lords) and found it extremely impressive. I was also very interested in this subject. However, while this book is certainly exhaustive and detailed, I have two major complaints. First, I didn't think it was well written - the mass of information was not presented clearly enough. Second, the author presents the case in such a biased manner (he's just too cozy with AIM and its supporters) that it's hard to take all his arguments at face value. I found his overall bias undermined the detailed research. It's an interesting and difficult read, but ultimately a little disappointing.