2007 Summer Institute

Exploring the Westward Movement

Supplemental Bibliography

Killing Custer: The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Fate of the Plains Indians, James Welch (W.W. Norton, 1994).

Welch, a Blackfeet who grew up on the reservation, wrote the screenplay for a PBS documentary about the Battle of Little Big Horn from the Indians' point of view (Last Stand at Little Bighorn, 1992). This book—part history, part personal journalism—grew out of his experience working on the movie, and it succeeds in placing the battle in a larger historical and ethnological context than most conventional wisdom. While the narrative is not straightforward and can be a little hard to follow, it is full of fascinating and valuable insights that may not be easy to come by in other literature on the subject.

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, as told through John G. Neihardt (1932; many editions).

This classic combines Black Elk's retelling of his visions (first occurring when he was 9 years old, in 1872) and his quest to fulfill them, with his recollections of the conflict between Plains Indians and U.S. soldiers from that point up through the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 (including the Battle of Little Big Horn).

Sweet Medicine: The Continuing Role of the Sacred Arrows, the Sun Dance, and the Sacred Buffalo Hat in Northern Cheyenne History, volume 1, Peter J. Powell (University of Oklahoma Press, 1969).

Powell is a Catholic priest who was drawn to the Cheyenne because of close analogies between Plains Indian concepts and ceremonies and those of the Church. He lived among the Northern Cheyenne for parts of 14 years before he wrote this book and was privileged to witness and experience intimate details of their culture. The first part of the book traces Cheyenne history by weaving together two parallel narratives: of the early migrations of the people onto the Plains and their eventual encounters and conflicts with whites, and of the dynamics of the tribe's spiritual and communal life as they adapt to changing circumstances.

Holding Stone Hands: On the Trail of the Cheyenne Exodus, Alan Boye (University of Nebraska Press, 1999).

You may have heard Alan Boye's commentaries on Vermont Public Radio, "walking the hills of Vermont." His passion for walking started when he decided to retrace the route of the Northern Cheyennes who fled Indian Territory after their exile there following the Battle of Little Big Horn and attempted to return to their homelands in Montana in 1878-79, a tragic episode that decimated the tribe. Along the way, Boye is joined by descendants of Dull Knife and Little Wolf, the chiefs who led the exodus. Interwoven with the story of the journey and the depredations against the Indians committed primarily by the U. S. Army are Boye's ruminations on history, violence, suffering, sacrifice, spirituality, and cultural preservation.

Parading Through History: The Making of the Crow Nation in America, 1805-1935, Frederick Hoxie (Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Hoxie is a leading scholar of Native American history. This monograph, academic but written in sparkling clear prose, demonstrates "that a group can maintain its traditions and its identity through a staggering era of change. . . . the Crows not only weathered and withstood the dislocation and conquest that was visited upon them after 1805, but acted in the midst of these events to construct a modern Indian community-a nation."

Grandmother's Grandchild: My Crow Indian Life, Alma Hogan Snell (University of Nebraska Press, 2000).

Alma Snell, herbalist, master cook, and cultural preservationist, will be presenting her "Taste of Heritage" program to our summer institute group at her home in Fort Smith, MT. Her acclaimed autobiography of being brought up on the Crow Reservation by her grandmother, the famous medicine woman Pretty Shield (whose husband was a scout for Custer), offers an intimate portrait of Crow life and culture in transition from relative autonomy on the Plains to adaptation to new conditions of white encroachment, relocation to a much diminished homeland, and intense pressure to assimilate. Alma's life story complicates the conventional portrayal of Native American women and demonstrates how the Crow people have managed to keep their memories and culture strong and vibrant in the modern world.

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