Home › Books › The Earth Is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting…
The Earth Is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation
by
58/99
Critics' Rating Index
84/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
15/99
Volume of Reviews
55/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
A magisterial dual biography of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, the two most legendary and consequential American Indian leaders, who triumphed at the Battle of Little Bighorn and led Sioux resistance in the fierce final chapter of the Indian Wars, from the bestselling author of Rough Riders and Shot All to Hell. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull: Their names are iconic, their significance in American history undeniable. Together, these two Lakota chiefs, one a fabled warrior and the other a revered holy man, crushed George Armstrong Custer's vaunted Seventh Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. Yet Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, arguably the most famous American Indians to ever live, have never had their full stories told in one book. Both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull were born and grew to manhood on the high plains of the American West, in an era when vast herds of buffalo covered the earth, and when their nomadic people could move freely, following the buffalo and lording their fighting prowess over rival tribes. But as idyllic as this life seemed to be, neither man had known a time without whites, whether it was the early fur traders or government explorers. As time went on, the number of white intruders onto Sioux land began to grow dramatically: Oregon-California Trail travelers, gold seekers, railroad men, settlers, town builders--and Bluecoats. The buffalo population crashed, disease spread by the white man decimated villages, and conflicts with the white interlopers increased. On June 25, 1876, in the valley of the Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, and the warriors who were inspired to follow them, fought the last stand of the Sioux, a fierce and proud nation that had ruled the Great Plains for decades. It was their greatest victory, but it was also the beginning of the end for their treasured and sacred way of life. And in the years to come, both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, defiant to the end, would meet tragic--and eerily similar--fates. An essential new addition to the canon of Indigenous American history and literature of the West, The Earth Is All That Lasts is a grand saga, both triumphant and tragic, of two fascinating and heroic leaders struggling to maintain the freedom of their people against impossible odds.
Reviews
"Gardner settles into a straightforward recapitulation of the Plains Indian Wars featuring its best-known episodes—from the Grattan Fight (1854) to the Fetterman Fight (1866)—as well as some other violent encounters that will be less familiar to many in his audience...Only rarely does the author raise his eyes to take in events happening elsewhere in the United States—most notably the Civil War, which conditioned U.S."
"Spur Award winner Gardner delivers a stirring account of the resistance campaign led by Lakota holy man Sitting Bull and war chief Crazy Horse in the 1870s...As Gardner makes clear, however, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse's greatest victory set the stage for their eventual defeat...After Little Big Horn, they had the permanent attention of Gen."
"[Gardner] places Custer's demise in the context of a complex Native political and military milieu, with two leaders of widely different dispositions in the forefront...One was Sitting Bull, who, as a holy man endowed with a gift of vision, not only launched a concerted war against the Whites, but also foresaw Custer's defeat in specific detail...Another was Crazy Horse, the 'mysterious Oglala war chief,' whose bravery in the Battle of Little Bighorn verged on the suicidal...Gardner broadens the narrative to embrace related episodes such as the so-called Red Cloud War and the Starvation March, the latter of which made Sitting Bull's name a household word—so famous that once he surrendered, he joined Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show...A grim highlight of the book is the denouement, which recounts what happened to Sitting Bull's body in the years after his murder in 1890...A strong work of Western history that strives to bring the Native American view to center stage."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!