Little Crow
The author of Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux, Gary Clayton Anderson, is a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. He is also the author Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1650-1862, The Conquest of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing in the Promised Land, 1830-1875 and The Indian Southwest 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Reinvention. Other publications include Sitting Bull and the Paradox of Lakota Nationhood and he teaches U.S. Survey and Native American history courses at University of Oklahoma at undergraduate and graduate levels. Anderson is credited for co-editing with Alan R. Woolworth on the publication of, Through Dakota Eyes: Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862. Specializing in American Indians of the Great Plains and the Southwest, Anderson presents his biography of Little Crow and a well written story of the Sioux tribe. In Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux, Anderson recounts the life of Little Crow in an objective biography which also incorporates an appealing, analytical narrative of the Sioux, or Dakota, tribe. Anderson describes his purpose of the biography to explain Little Crow as an,” With all of the ambiguity surrounding the life of Little Crow, Anderson does a delightful job of analyzing the social, economic, political and intellectual aspects of his life, and that of the Sioux tribe in general. There are many characteristics of Little Crow’s life evaluated, which include his responsibilities to his family and tribe, and specifically what was essential to his culture. Anderson describes the form of the book as, “In a word, this book is an attempt at ethno-biography, or the writing of a biography from the perspective of a minority culture.” He writes this book in this fashion to attempt to clear up any myths or duel images that have been created of Little Crow. He proclaims, “Little Crow should be remembered as a leader who struggled to shape a realistic
Bibliography: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986. Reviews DeMallie, Raymond J., Review of Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux. Minnesota History Reviews of Books (Winter 1986) 163-164. University of Oklahoma, Department of History website, Gary Clayton Anderson (December 2010) [ 2 ]. Gary Clayton Anderson, Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986). [ 9 ]. Raymond J. DeMallie, Review of Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux, Reviews of Books, Minnesota History (Winter 1986) 163.