Crazy Horse

Mari Sandoz's 1954 biography of Crazy Horse is a lyrical, elegiac portrait of the Lakota leader whose name became synonymous with resistance against U.S. expansion in the Powder River Country. Told through evocative prose rather than dry military detail, it traces his rise from an unnamed warrior to one of the most respected figures on the Plains — and follows him through pivotal battles including the Little Bighorn before he was forced into surrender and death under captivity. The book is less a conventional biography than a meditation on character, dignity, and the cost of war.