The Story Catcher

Mari Sandoz writes beautifully and with authority about the early settling of the land that is now centered around western Nebraska and the Sand Hills. She was raised by a pioneering family from that area and wrote passionately about the days of the Indians and early white settlers in the region. Story Catcher is about a young Indian boy who growing up into a young warrior had many experiences typical of Indian boys growing into manhood. This young man is different as he has the artistic talent to be able to draw and paint scenes envisioned by the youth of his era. His talent not only recorded events for history, but was able to present them as a story so they would record events in context to Indian reality and mythology. This story tells the "human" side of plains Indians learning to live and adjust to their ever changing environment as the white man pushed them farther west.

Bless Mari Sandoz for saving much of the traditional Plains culture in this very accessible short novel. It is the time before Custer; whites are just beginning to become more populous along the Oregon trail. The main character, Lance, is a boy looking for his role in a band of Oglala Sioux, whose main struggles still involve the enemy tribes of the Rees, Pawnees, and Crow, as well as the battle against hunger. It is his nature to stray from the fold, which goes against the strong tribal value system of doing nothing that will endanger the people. He adopts an enemy as a brother; catches horses; survives a winter alone; participates in the buffalo hunt; attends the Sioux tribal meeting on Bear Butte; falls in love; "buries" his mother in a tree-burial; and finally wins the tribe's--and his sweetheart's--approval for his keen vision in a revenge raid on the Pawnees. His talent is in watching and recording in pictures the people's stories: a comparison could be made to Sandoz and the Oglala historians she worked with. This book renders a topic of inherent interest in beautifully crafted sentences. There is much to learn in its pages.

this story is amazing. all though I am not of native american background I have some friends that are and fortunetly, they are related to the Sioux and Cheyanne tribes and they say this book is one of the best of it's kind.