Book Review - The Day the World Ended

I am almost finished with the second book, The Day the World Ended at Little Bighorn: A Lakota History, of the three my dad lent me that discuss various aspects of the Battle of the Greasy Grass. Let me tell you, this book was magnificent!

While the first book, Soldiers Falling into Camp, focused almost exclusively on the major battle and the one that preceded it, this work by Joseph Marshall III simply uses the battle as a mooring to tell of the overall story, history and culture of the Lakota people. While I certainly don't mean to suggest that Marshall's effort gives a short shrift to the battle itself -- it is covered very well in the first two chapters and makes timely appearances throughout the book -- the story he tells is far deeper and insightful than can be contained in one historical event.

Too often, in American history books, the vanquished are presented as faceless people who lack value and a sense of community. Marshall seeks to introduce us to his ancestors in an easy-to-read style and personal manner. We are reintroduced to the big names -- Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, Spotted Owl -- that most people will recognize as well as to many that white historians have neglected altogether.

Here's what Publisher's Weekly (via Amazon.com) had to say about this book published in 2007.

America's westward expansion in the 19th century was far from a foregone conclusion to the thousands of indigenous peoples, whose ancient way of life lay in its path. Historian Marshall (The Journey of Crazy Horse; The Lakota Way), who was born on South Dakota's Rosebud Sioux Reservation and has long chronicled the traditions and perspective of the Great Plains tribes, explains the context and the painful aftermath of this major turning point in his people's history. His careful description of the Greasy Grass Fight of 1876 (or the Battle of the Little Bighorn) overturns the popular misconception that the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors' victory over the U.S. Seventh Cavalry was a "fluke" or, worse still, "a massacre." Yet he also registers the enormity of the change that followed — including forced settlement, assimilation and dependency — when Crazy Horse surrendered his rifle to a U.S. Army officer less than a year later. Chapters alternately emphasizing strategy, weaponry, beliefs, lifestyle and other areas lend a fractured quality and some redundancy to the narrative. But Marshall's thoughtful reflections and rich detail (much of it drawn from the oral stories of unidentified Lakota elders) also immerse the reader in the experience of a once free people wrestling with an uncertain destiny. (May)
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If you're interested not only in the dynamics that helped to create "Custer's Last Stand," but also to learn about one of the great indigenous nations of the North American continent, there are few books that I would recommend more. In fact, several more posts about specific topics that resonated with me from this work will appear in the next few days.