In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

I'm often deeply suspicious of writing as political as one finds in this book - I greatly admire Matthiessen's writings on travel, nature and Buddhism, but found his novel "At Play In The Fields Of The Lord" a bit ham-fisted in its' approach, even when I agreed with it's sentiments. But after a few reads, several years apart, IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE stands as a great, damning document - it's a piece of work that is impressive and massive, and will leave you infuriated. The entire work is built around the trial and conviction of Leonard Peltier, and rather than simply recount the events or press an agenda, Matthiessen goes to meticulous lengths to contextualize and cover every side of the background. The history of the Sioux Lakota is covered extensively, as are the social conditions (health, income, education, and the infamous violence) on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The AIM (American Indian Movement) emerges on Pine Ridge, and it should be noted that the reservation is officially two counties - Shannon and Jackson, which were administered from elsewhere in the state, and run by Bureau of Indian Affairs appointees, instead of by an elected government (the case in most US counties). These appointees' extreme and unorthodox tactics in administering the reservation dovetailed nicely with FBI surveillance and subversion of suspected subversive groups, including AIM, and the paranoia generated set the stage for the firefight and subsequent trial. Matthiessen expends considerable effort in the attempt at giving both sides a space to speak, not extremely successfully from an objectivity standpoint, but well enough for the purposes of this book: Matthiessen also unearths and publishes a vast array of court transcripts and legal documents; a certain point of view does begin to emerge, and Matthiessen admits where his sympathies lie, but generally, this is a book in which the FBI and various individuals within the government of South Dakota hang themselves with their own words. And they do this consistently, over hundreds of pages, and when afforded many opportunities by Matthiessen to justify or clarify themselves, they fail to do so repeatedly. Such Machiavellian governmental machinations were an unfortunate part of the political landscape during the Nixon era (this has not necessarily changed with the passage of time); this is one of the most devastating documents of that ruthlessness (see William Shawcross' SIDESHOW for a second, scary glimpse at this political tendency), and Matthiessen - through meticulous investigation and research - goes out of his way to be fair. Give this dense and - at times - difficult book some patience; the history lessons and legalese do have both a point and a payoff - this is a far more infuriating document of injustice than any simple agenda-based hatchet job could ever be. -David Alston

This is a marvelously well researched book. In respsonse to some of the bad reviews I have read I have to say that yes, Matthiessen does not try to hide the fact that he sides with the Indians. Yes the book is biased in the favor of the Indians. So what. When you examine the FBI and the US Government's history of maltreatment of all minorities, especially native peoples, why should an author feel obligated to paint the establishment in a flattering light. He is simply exposing the ugly truth of the dark underbelly of our "democracy".This is hard for some people to handle, thus the poor reviews. Ask yourself this, in the midst of phenomenal violence why does the FBI never investigate dozens of unsolved murders, instead devoting lots of man-hours to tracking down Jimmy Eagle for the theft of a pair of cowboy boots???You be the judge.This is an amazing read. Thankfully, the FBI, Special Agent David Price and Governor William Janklow all lost in thier legal attempts to keep this information from us. So celebrate freedom of press and curl up with this book!!! Freedom for Leonard

This is an excellent book. Peter Matthiessen covers all the bases. His depth of coverage is astounding. Everytime I had a question about a person or event, they were answered somewhere in the book. It is an amazing telling of what are truly frightening events in our history. It creates a desire to learn more and more, not just about what happened to the Lakota people, but about our government. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone! The fact that it took so long to be published speaks volumes about the content.