Lakota History

Rich with storytelling, history, folklore, and Marshall's own personal experiences, The Lakota Way expresses the heart of Native American philosophy and the 12 core qualities that are crucial to the Lakota way of living: bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion.

This first complete account of the Lakota Indians traces their rich and often surprising history from the early 16th to the early 21st century. Pekka Hämäläinen explores the Lakotas' roots as marginal hunter-gatherers and reveals how they reinvented themselves twice: first as a river people who dominated the Missouri Valley, America's great commercial artery, and then - in what was America's first sweeping westward expansion - as a horse people who ruled supreme on the vast high plains.

In this enthralling narrative, professor and award-winning author Jeffrey Ostler recounts the Lakota Sioux’s loss of their spiritual homeland and their remarkable legal battle to regain it. Moving easily from battlefields to reservations to Supreme Court chambers, Ostler captures the strength that bore the Lakotas through the worst times and kept alive the dream of reclaiming their cherished lands.

The Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876 has become known as the quintessential clash of cultures between the Lakota Sioux and whites. The men who led the battle, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Colonel George A. Custer, have become the stuff of legends.

Most of the world remembers Crazy Horse as a peerless warrior who brought the U.S. Army to its knees at the Battle of Little Bighorn. But to his fellow Lakota Indians, he was a dutiful son and humble fighting man who, with valor, spirit, respect, and unparalleled leadership, fought for his people's land, livelihood, and honor. In this fascinating biography, Joseph Marshall, himself a Lakota Indian, creates a vibrant portrait of the man, his times, and his legacy.

Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family’s origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over the next few decades, despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story.

Sitting Bull was born in 1831 near the Yellowstone River in Montana. He was originally named "Jumping Badger" and nicknamed "Slow" due to his careful nature. Sitting Bull was 14 years old when he went on a raiding party with his father, uncle Four Horns, and Lakota warriors. They took horses from a camp of Crow warriors.

 In The Lakota Way, Joseph M. Marshall III shares his own story and many others imparting the wisdom of the Lakota culture. These stories express the heart of his Native American philosophy and the 12 core qualities that are crucial to the Lakota way of living: bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion. Rich with storytelling, history, and folklore, The Lakota Way offers a fresh and compelling outlook on spiritual and ethical living. 

The Last Sovereigns is the story of how Sioux chief Sitting Bull resisted the White man's ways as a last best hope for the survival of an indigenous way of life on the Great Plains - a nomadic life based on buffalo and indigenous plants scattered across the Sioux's historical territories that were sacred to him and his people.

A broad range of perspectives from natives and nonnatives makes this book the most complete account and analysis of the Lakota ghost dance ever published. A revitalization movement that swept across native communities of the West in the late 1880s, the ghost dance took firm hold among the Lakotas, perplexed and alarmed government agents, sparked the intervention of the US Army and culminated in the massacre of hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in December 1890.

Mary Brave Bird grew up fatherless in a one-room cabin, without running water or electricity, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Rebelling against the aimless drinking, punishing missionary school, narrow strictures for women, and violence and hopeless of reservation life, she joined the new movement of tribal pride sweeping Native American communities in the '60s and '70s.

Crazy Horse was as much feared by tribal foes as he was honored by allies. His war record was unmatched by any of his peers, and his rout of Custer at the Little Bighorn reverberates through history. Yet so much about him is unknown or steeped in legend. Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life corrects older, idealized accounts - and draws on a greater variety of sources than other recent biographies - to expose the real Crazy Horse: not the brash Sioux warrior we have come to expect but a modest, reflective man whose courage was anchored in Lakota piety.

In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths.

Fired from her job as editor-in-chief of a New York fashion magazine, Zora Hughes travels to a South Dakota Indian reservation. She hopes to find answers to lifelong dreams her psychiatrist calls genetic memories. Zora dreams of a female ancestor who fled life as a slave and was aided in her journey to freedom by a Sioux warrior who would become her husband. On the reservation, Zora meets Captain John Iron Hawk who aids and sometimes hinders her in her quest to find answers to the murder of her forebearer.

Did you ever set a goal so high that you must jump over the moon in order to achieve it? That’s what Phineas Gannon sets for himself. Phin has a big heart, but it’s also a heart that’s failing. Before he dies, he wants to spend more time with his wife, and he must prepare his nephew to run the family business, but his highest goal is to achieve one last sporting victory over longtime friend Morton Cunningham. After a lifetime of one-upmanship, the vibrant economy of the 1920s allows these two successful businessmen to sponsor several unusual sporting events which far exceed normal ...

In this short memoir-like article, Parker recalls attending a Lakota ghost dance ritual in October in the 1890s. Describing everything from the names of participants to what they wore, this narrative is a time capsule into the Lakota traditions of the past.

On December 29, 1890, the US military entered the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with the intention of disarming the natives. When met with resistance, the cavalry opened fire on the Lakota in a massacre that killed several hundred men, women, and children. A few months later, some of the Lakota survivors met with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington to state their side of the story. These powerful testimonies present this horrific event from the perspective of those most hurt by it.