SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2010 BookWorld HISTORYREVIEWBYDAVIDTREUER
Tricked, trapped and defeated
THE KILLING OF CRAZY HORSE By Thomas Powers Knopf. 565 pp. $30
I
t is easy toseewhypeopleare still fascinated by the Oglala Sioux leaderCrazyHorse.He was the frontier version of James Dean. He lived fast,
diedyoungandleftagood-looking corpse. Crazy Horse and Dean even share the honor of having their own U.S. postage stamps. CrazyHorse’s stampwasworth 13 cents;Dean’swas 32 cents. What is unique about Thomas
Powers’s approach to CrazyHorse is the dramatic staging of hisme- ticulously researched and grip-
pingaccount.TheOglalawarchief nearly wiped out Gen. George Crook,wholedtheBlackHills and Yellowstone Expeditionary Force meant to drive the Sioux fromthe BlackHills, andsettledinsteadfor killing Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his command at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25 and 26, 1876. Powers sets up the story as a tragic drama played out between Crazy Horse, the heroic and implacable Indian leader;Crook, the antagonistwith a flaw — a few of them, actually; Frank Grouard, the ethnically vague, self-promotingscout;Little BigMan, the friend who betrayed the chief; and jealous rival chiefs such as Red Cloud and Spotted Tail. Fate hangs over the book’s pag- es like smoke over a battlefield.
Powers shows Crook at his worst — unable to best Crazy Horse in battle, he lures the chief to Camp Robinson, where he is murdered in amystifying stormof deceit on the part of Crook, jealousy and frustrationamonghisSioux allies, and a series of simple blunders. One can’t help feel after reading Powers’saccount thatCrazyHorse was fatedtodie thatday. As the narrative unfolds, Crazy
Horse emerges from the pages as hemust have to thosewhowanted his head: as a mystery, a rumor, someone sighted from a distance. It is not known exactly howold he was—borncirca 1840—orhowhe got his greatname (either fromhis father or from a vision), or even howhefeltaboutall thebloodshed. Powers leaves one to speculate: If Crook’s sin was pride, did Crazy Horse share that tragic flaw?Was hisdecisiontofightAmericans cal- culatedandpolitical?Orwas fight- ing such away of life on the plains that it was impossible for him to imagineanalternative? It is violence that defined the
West during the IndianWars and violence that defines Powers’s
book.Perhapsmore gripping than theway inwhichCrazyHorse’s life begins in soft focus, becomes sharper and then eludes capture (no one knows where his body is buried or what happened to his medicine bundle) are the small moments of violence that Powers relates. These are chilling and un- forgettable. In one episode the Sioux catch a Crow horse thief
ASSOCIATED PRESS The scene of CrazyHorse’s final battle during the Sioux uprising of 1877, as depicted by Frederic Remington.
who is shot and killed, and his arms and legs hacked off and tied to the bushes, before the Sioux band decamps. In another occur- rence,
U.S.soldiersdragthebodies of two Sioux warriors back to the Sioux camp and, within sight of the friends and relatives of the slain, throw them on a fire and laugh as their flesh sizzles and pops in the flames. Much later in the book, Shoshone scouts work- ing alongside
theU.S.Armyunder Crook’s command sack a Chey- enne village and find a buckskin bag full of the severed right hands of their own children, who they’d assumedwere safe athome. Writing about such a time of
rapid, cataclysmic change, it would have been easy for an au-
thor to take sides. In some ways Powers’s decision to withhold judgment is a wonderful thing, but in his quest for balance he glosses over the fact that, while Crook might have been fighting for his pride and his command, CrazyHorse, Sitting Bull and Red Cloudwere fighting for their lives. Crook’s defeatwould have spelled theendofhiscareer;CrazyHorse’s defeatwastheendofanage.What, after all, are you to do when you have been born and bred and taught to live a certain way, and then thatway is no longer open to you? For many Indians at agencies
throughout theWest, thequestion ofwhat tohuntandhowtoexpress their culturewas answered by the
government allotment of beef cat- tle. Instead of killing the cows in their pens and butchering the meat there, Indians released the cows and chased them down on horseback in mock hunts that meant a great deal to those con- ducting them. “The beef issue at Red Cloud [Agency] was part of the tour given every visitor,” Pow- ers writes, “and they all returned with stories of the festival atmo- sphere, the dramatic slaughter and quick work done by Indian women with their butchering knives; of the children and young men with blood running down their necks as they chewed into livers or kidneys plucked steam- ing fromthe freshly killed beeves; of the intestines, carelessly
washed of their grassy contents, chewed on by infants and old peo- ple alike.” More than the story of Crazy
Horse or the battles between two implacable foes, Powers gives us a portrait of a place — a portrait doneinthebloodof theheartland, a heart still beating after all these years. Powers has given us a great book, a great painting of that still- beatingheart.
bookworld@washpost.com
DavidTreuer’s latest novel is “The Translation ofDr. Apelles.”His nonfiction book on contemporary reservation life, “Rez Life,”will be out in2011.He divides his time between Los Angeles and Leech Lake Reservation.
KLMNO
EZ BD
B5
RELIGIONREVIEWBYMICHELLEBOORSTEIN
A prayer for moderation E
AMERICAN GRACE How Religion Divides and Unites Us By Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell Simon & Schuster. 673 pp. $30
ven as a religion report- er, I was surprised by some of the findings in this hefty new book about American reli-
gion by political scientists Robert D. Putnam and David E. Camp- bell.
Among them: Secularism is increasing most rapidly among the less educated (the opposite of what happened in the 1960s and ’70s); the growth of evangelical- ism ended nearly two decades ago; and evangelicals diverge most from the rest of the country in their opposition to premarital sex, not in their viewson abortion or same-sex relationships. In his seminal book “Bowling
Alone” (2000), Putnam focused the country’s attention on its de- teriorating community
life.
“American Grace” will probably spark similarly fierce debates. It has already commanded atten- tion from some evangelical lead- ers, who have sounded the alarm about growing secularism. Yet the book seeks to tamp down the culture wars (its conclusions are expressed in the most non-in- flammatory language possible). Most of its findings have already appeared elsewhere, but “Ameri- can Grace” is still perhaps the most sweeping look yet at con- temporary American religion. It lays out the broad trends of the past 50 years, assesses their socio- logical causes and then does a bit of fortune-telling. AfterWorldWar II, the authors
explain, America was such a reli- giously moderate nation that one couldn’t predict someone’s poli-
tics based on whether he or she attended church. Then came what Putnam and Campbell call the “shock” of the 1960s, when intense social change and experi- mentation pushed many Ameri- cans away from organized reli- gion. That was followed in the 1970s and ’80s by a strong reac- tion—the rise of religious conser- vatives and their political activ- ism; church construction and Bi- ble publications boomed. In the 1990s and 2000s a growing per- centage of Americans told poll- sters theyhadnoreligion,andthe estrangement of young people from organized religion was higher than in previous genera- tions. “American Grace” depicts a
country losing its religious mod- erates as the highly religious and the highly secular migrate to op- posite poles and shape their reli- gious identity tomatch their poli-
tics. Putnam and Campbell also find a growing group of unaffili- ated, undecided believers float- ing around in the center. The authors cheer a contrary
trend — a growth in religious mixing in marriage that they ar- gue reinforces tolerance and moderation. But there are mil- lions of religious conservatives for whom interfaith marriage is a major problem. I suspect that some of their leaders will use Putnam’s stature and this book as an excuse to reemphasize ortho- doxy.
Seen through the authors’ soci-
ological lens, religion in America is inherently subject to changing
Michelle Boorstein covers religion for TheWashington Post.
currents. In the past half-century, some of the major forces influ- encing religion and politics were the women’s movement, the in- come gap and increasing diversi- ty caused by immigration. The book encourages speculation about which current trends will be tomorrow’s religious influenc- es.
Though it’s written in an easy-
to-digest, journalistic style, “American Grace” is more like a textbook than a popular title. But it is packed with fun facts: The intensity of one’s religious belief ismorepredictive of one’s politics than religious denomination; about 60 percent of people who switched religious identities didn’t do so because of marriage; 89 percent of Americans believe heaven is not just reserved for people of their own faith. The book also brings to life complex issues such as how politics play
Eighty-nine percent of Americans believe heaven is not just reserved for people of their own faith.
out in a synagogue in suburban Chicago and in a megachurch in Minneapolis. The authors aren’t shy about declaring their agenda: peace. They detail how religious mixing has taken place in their own families and see the trend as the solution to the puzzle of how to maintain tolerance and diversity. The rise in religious blending and diversity, they say, is the “Ameri- can Grace” of the title. But some- times they seem to be cheering a bit too loudly.
boorsteinm@washpost.com
By Walter Cronkite and Don Carleton Foreword by Morley Safer
Conversations with Cronkite gives readers a rare glimpse into the
lifeandtimesofWalterCronkiteinhisownwords.Thebookcontains selections from interviews between the legendary journalist and Cronkite’s friend, Dr. Don Carleton. Edited by Carleton to focus on key events, issues, and themes, Conversations with Cronkite gives readers the opportunity to once again hear the voice of “the most trusted man in America.”
Published by The green pages. Did you know? TheWashington Post is printed using recycled fiber.
www.cah.utexas.edu NF407 3x1.25 Distributed by
American journalism. – Douglas Brinkley
revelatory book filled with invaluable insights on journalism.”
Author of The Wilderness Warrior
“A riveting and
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