Her mother was critical, unaffectionate, and prone to treating Mari as the family workhorse-the child who had to cook, clean, wash dishes, and care for babies even while her siblings played. Her father, though educated, was a brutal, self-centered man who resented women. When Mari Sandoz was born near Hay Springs, Nebraska in 1896, she began a childhood that could reasonably be expected to crush whatever innate creativity and intelligence she might possess. But then, Old Jules was not a man to dwell on things like that. He did not seem to find it remarkable that this scrawny little girl-unschooled, illiterate, and speaking German until she was nearly nine years old-should have so quickly demonstrated her proficiency with the written English language. If Old Jules felt any pride in his eldest daughter’s accomplishment, he kept it to himself. “You know I consider artists and writers the maggots of society,” he told her years later. He would not tolerate its presence in his family. Fiction, thundered “Old Jules” Sandoz, was for hired girls.

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-117537Īs reward for the first publication of one of her short stories, eleven-year-old Mari Sandoz was beaten by her father and locked in a dark cellar. I loved this book because Sandoz gives Indians’ interpretation of the events that occurred during the mid-1800’s in the American Midwest.(This article first appeared in Nebraska Life, January/February 2001.) Throughout the book, you really get to develop an understanding and relationship with the Native Americans, specifically Crazy Horse. This book is truly a masterpiece Sandoz has a way of using expressions that seem exactly like what the Native Americans themselves would have used. All his life, he fought for his homeland, attempting to free it from the intruding Europeans. He was named Crazy Horse by his father only after proving himself in battle, and continued to astound his tribe with feats of bravery and skill on the battlefield.

As a boy, he seemed different from the other children, and he was called “The Light-Haired One”, or “Curly” by the rest of the tribe because of his unique hair. Want to feel more intimate with the Native American Indians? In this biography, Mari Sandoz writes from the perspective of the tribes, as she tells the story of the remarkable life of Crazy Horse.

Crazy horse sandoz