About this title: Sandoz's retelling of the Cheyenne and the Trail of Tears emphasizes the tribe's humanity, the tragedy of their loss, and the simple heroism they exhibited.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780380010943ISBN:0380010941
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean unmarked pages are tanning at edges. Three names are inside cover. School stamp atop closed pages. Serious edge wear to cover and short tear bettween front cover and spine at lower corner of front cover. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Morrow/Avon
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780380010943ISBN:0380010941
Description: Good. Book is in good condition. Pages are clean and the binding is tight. Mutiple copies may be available. Wear to paper wraps, former classroom set. read more
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Embossed book plate. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade.336 p. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon Discus, New York
Date Published: 1972
Description: Good. No Jacket as Issued. Wear with some creasing to the front cover. Very light page toning with age. Clean text and a very good reading copy. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon
Date Published: 1953
Description: Good. Creases in spine, and on front cover next to spine, spine is still pretty straight, no marks or writing, and very little edgewear, pages have darkened with age. read more
Edition: First Bison Book Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Bison Books, Lincoln, NE
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780803292123ISBN:0803292120
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. FIRST BISON BOOK PRINTING. 282 bright and intact pages. Name in ink on first free-end paper. Very slight curl to corners. Otherwise in Fine condition. Priced well below like copies in similar condition. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: 1969
Description: VG Used, Very Good in VG jacket. PAPERBACK, VG/VG, Avon Books, 1969, 3rd, 7.3 oz. This copy has visible but minimal creasing of the spine, is in otherwise Very Good condition. Special Notes on this book: creases on lower front corner Note: expect tanning of any paperback more than a few years old, regardless of condition. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Discus Books by Avon Books
Date Published: 1964
ISBN-13:9780380392551ISBN:0380392550
Description: Very Good. Beautiful vintage paperback book in excllent condition with tanning inside topages, no wear, no markings. It will be dispatched to you within 24 hours of your order. MendoPower Employment Services carefully packs each book in high-quality bubble lined, envelopes. We appreciate your business and welcome any questions. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon
Date Published: 1953
Description: Good. Spine is tight with normal shelf wear and heavy creasing on the spine, heavy crease on the front cover, pages are clean and tight. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Paperbacks-Western Inventory No: 001375. read more
"Mari Sandoz has a unique way of providing the reader with a factual account by keeping the dialogue and language based on her interviews with Native Cheyenne. This was a very moving account of the atrocities that occured during the period post Battle of the Little Big Horn. I had the privilege of visiting the current Northen Cheyenne Reservation in April 2009, and paid respects at the gravesites of Chief Dull Knife and Chief Little Wolf. So to read the book and then go to their home was very emotional and exciting. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in gaining a better understanding of how the Cheyenne were treated during those sad and dark times."
I read this book as a history and it was a hard book for me to read. If I read it as a fictional story I probably wouldn't have finished it. The style of the writing made me read the same words 2 and sometimes 3 times to understand what was being said. But I was interested in the story and wanted to finish.
I think the treatment of the native americans was horrific. The all out genocide against them shameful. If this book was intended for me to understand the injustices that happened against the Cheyenne people it fails. I spend more energy trying decipher what the author was saying then I did understanding the story. The narration jumps from present events to past events in a confusing manner. I found myself always asking where in the timeline of the story was a particular event happening. Was this event a backstory? Is it part of the current events? Or is it just a memory of one of the protagonists?
Another issue I have is there are a lot a sweeping statements. The example I'm thinking about is when the Cheyenne killed a surveyor and his helpers, attacked some emigrants and took 4 girls. Later the girls were returned. The Cheyenne were disarmed and put into a prison camp. The 2 older girls (ages 15 and 17) were at the camp to identify those involved. This is how Sanoz describes the event:
"Dressed like visiting white ladies, with plumed hats and dard red cloaks bought by General Miles, the walked stiffly down the line pointing this was and that, and with them went a Mexican who had been around the Cheyenne camps too.... It was done on just the finger pointing by the two that the Indians considered foolish children, not women as Cheyennes would be at that age. Surely no soldier chief, no men among the whites would be judged guilty of any wrong because two such children walked along a row and pointed here and there while General Neill sat red-faced and unsteady on his horse overseeing the picking."(85)
A couple of things:
1) don't know why, who or how the Mexican has anything to do with the story.. I guess he was just there...it never is explained. Little unexplained characters or events like this happen throughout the book.
2) I think Sanoz is trying to describe how easy it was for the Cheyenne to get a raw deal. How that justice wasn't blind when it came to the Cheyenne. That the Cheyenne would be considered guilty by the 'finger pointing' of 'foolish children'. This very well could be true in this event, but Sanoz brushes off any idea that what happen to the families was anybody's fault but their own for being where the whites were should not have been. That is just over simplifying the matter and history.
This book shows the importance of being able to feed yourself. The Cheyenne were being bent to the will of the US Government by the withholding of food. If you control the food/water, you control everything. What wouldn't a father or mother do to feed their starving child. The Government made promises to the Cheyenne and then willfully broke those promises. The Cheyenne were told that they had nothing to worry about-- the Government would provide what they needed. When what the government provided wasn't enough, the Cheyenne were told-- tough. The Cheyenne were put into a position through lies and deceit where they couldn't feed themselves on a reservation and had to rely on the government. It is a sad story.
I can't help, but think about the millions of people who right now rely on government for food and water. I'm mostly talking about right here in America, but it is everywhere in the world. What happens when what the government provides for you isn't enough? What the government provides isn't enough. People will opt out, much like Dull Knife and Little Wolf did. I'm getting too political here, but it is what crossed my mind when I read the book. I think that the ability to provide for yourself and family is what makes America great. When the nations of the Native Americans lost the ability to provide for themselves is when they ceased to be great. And with that lost ability they were made to bend to the will of the government.
This book dragged on and on, I found myself wanting it to end."
"Although Sandoz's methodology is less-than-perfect, this is a beautifully written, moving account of the daring attempt of many Cheyenne to return to their homeland from Indian Territory. Well worth reading.
The movie of the same title is a revolting bastardization of this book, and so upset Sandoz that she never allowed another of her books to be made in to a movie."
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