Cheyenne Autumn

Documents the flight of the Cheyenne from the Indian Territory in Oklahoma back to their home in the north. The Cheyenne were promised that they could leave and then chased like escaped prisoners when they did leave. Time after time they survived seemingly insurmountable odds, but not without loss. I believe that the Cheyenne who lived this story -- Little Wolf and others -- would be happy to know that they were remembered with this book.

Mari Sandoz, one of the greatest American writers, amazed me once again in Cheyenne Autumn. A heartbreaking story of injustice and cruelty, Sandoz brings out the heart of the people through vivid imagery and insights that will make you feel you are on the trail with the Cheyenne. Sandoz sees through the heart, and in this remarkable book takes the reader back in time. The book does not simply recount a tragic story, but rather reveals a people's life and their struggle to regain it. I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned with the human condition.

I began reading this book expecting to plod through it but it was so compelling that I stayed up until dawn to get to the end. It is a sensitive, thought-provoking portrayal of the Cheyennes as they doggedly tried to resume their way of life after being carted of to a reservation in the Oklahoma territory. The book recounts how a group of them trekked 1,600 MILES to get back to their homeland in the northern plains. It is an exciting, intelligent and heart-breaking read. Looking at historical maps after reading this will never be the same. Forget Westerns and read this instead!

Sandoz captures both the big pictures and subtle nuances of the atmosphere in which these unbelieveable, but unfortunately real, events take place. She thoroughly reconstructs the characters and so completely immerses herself and the reader in events that reading Cheyenne Autumn is better than any movie or play could ever be -- you see and hear and feel as though you are part of the journey, rooting the Cheyenne on and on, and (even if you know going in know how things turn out) hoping against hope that the US government and the military will just leave the poor people alone. However sad the story is at its base (and it is tragic), the dignity and resourcefulness and love among the Cheyenne is overwhelming. Truly, they were the "civilized" people, and Sandoz conveys this without every stepping a foot on a soapbox. It's a must read for anyone who has an interest in Native American history or culture. It's also a must read for anyone who doesn't have such interests, because their ignorance will be washed away completely.

I have tried to analyze how it is that Sandoz manages to take a story, the mere facts of which I have read many times, and make it so powerfully moving that you find it haunting you long after the book is finished. Besides her expert ability to write in the language of her subjects, she develops all characters to their fullest. We follow them through their every day lives, through their hopes and fears, and most of all through their relationships to each other, until we feel we have become a part of it all. When lives end, usually tragically, we not only feel the loss ourselves, but we grieve for the pain of those left behind. When I read Sandoz's biography of Crazy Horse, I felt each loss he felt, from the death of his brother, to the agony of the decision to bring his followers into the agency. In this book, when the Cheyenne died in their last stand, I felt as their survivors must have felt, both grieved at the loss, but proud that they had died fighting in the tradition of their people, Also, once again as with Crazy Horse, I felt, as no simple telling of the facts could get across, what a great mistake it was not to let these cultures survive, and how foolish and arrogant the whites were to spend lives, money and ammunition to keep a few hundred impoverished people from returning to their homeland.