Awards
Winner of the 1996 Spur Award for Best Western Novel
Synopses & Reviews
Of all the great warriors of Native America, Crazy Horse remains the most enigmatic. Scorned from his childhood for his light hair, he was a man who spurned the love of finery and honors so characteristic of Lakota Sioux warriors. Despite these differences, Crazy Horse led his people to their greatest victory at the Battle of the Little Big Horn where General Custer fell.
Crazy Horse's entire life was a triumph of the spirit. In youth, Crazy Horse was set aside by his powerful vision of Rider, the spiritual expression of his future greatness, and by the passion and grief of his overwhelming love for a woman. It was only in battle that his heart could find rest. As his world crumbled, Crazy Horse managed to find his way in harmony with the age-old wisdom of the Lakota—and to beat the US Army on its own terms. He lived, and died, his own man.
Review
"A deeply thoughtful and persuasive tribute, Blevins's novel offers the compelling story of a man destined for triumph and betrayal, but ultimately for glory." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Blevins presents a fascinating, living history....The novel is powerful because it transports nonnative readers to a world, to a vision of Native American life, that before had been a romance, or worse." Booklist
Review
"This novel is a genuine masterpiece...I can't imagine any book, past or future, novel or biography, that can ever approach it in giving the reader a sense of who this mysterious man really was and what he stood for." Rocky Mountain News
Synopsis
Adorned with distinctive war paint and accompanied by his spirit guide, Hawk, Crazy Horse led his Sioux warriors into many of the frontier's most famous battles, including the battle of Little Big Horn. This is a fictionalized biography of the greatest war chief of the Sioux Indian nation, a man who embraced the traditional warrior's skills and who was destined for not only triumph and betrayal, but also honor and glory.
About the Author
Win Blevins is an authority on the Plains Indians and the fur-trade era of the West. His rollicking tribute to the mountain man,
Give Your Heart to the Hawks, remains in print thirty years after its first publication; his novel of Crazy Horse,
Stone Song, earned several prestigious literary prizes; and such novels as
Charbonneau, The Rock Child, and
RavenShadow have established him as among the best of writers of the West. He lives in Utah's Canyonlands with his wife, Meredith, also a novelist.