ABSTRACT
Kingsley M. Bray’s account is notable for its painstaking reconstruction of Indians’ negotiations, and for uncovering the logic that compelled Crazy Horse first to cling to authority during a long, harsh winter and then to relinquish it the following spring. The Crazy Horse village, comprising about 250 lodges of Oglalas, Brules, straggling Cheyennes, and others, was located in the middle Tongue River valley. Crazy Horse seized upon the Cheyenne disaster to reinforce his anti-agency ideology. The Sioux War of 1876–77 grew out of years of mounting frustration between the United States and the hunting bands of Sioux and Northern Cheyennes, who roamed the Powder River Country between the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains. A wealth of Indian testimony exists that enables us to understand the Great Sioux War from Indian perspectives. Like the Civil War, the Great Sioux War drew photographers to record key participants.
