In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

“My great-grandfather—your great-great-grandfather—was born in 1860. He saw Crazy Horse, as close as you are to me. He said Crazy Horse had light skin, like you, and brown hair, like you. He didn’t have blue eyes. But some boys teased him, too.”

The similarity between Crazy Horse’s appearance and Jimmy's light hair and blue eyes (See: Symbols & Motifs) creates an instant connection between the two Lakota. The fact that they both are bullied as children sets them up for parallel paths on the journey of personal growth and understanding, with Jimmy taking Crazy Horse as a role model on his path to adulthood. Grandpa Nyles’s focus on his ancestor’s direct contact with Crazy Horse also emphasizes The Value of First-Hand Experience, while showing that Nyles puts a high value on the Lakota oral histories passed down through the generations.

“‘A long time ago…people and animals could understand each other’s languages. A person could understand what a hawk said. The hawk could understand people. But things changed. Animals and people don’t understand each other anymore. That’s sad.’

‘What changed, Grandpa?’

‘Oh, people began to think there were better than anything. Better than animals.’”

Grandpa Nyles’s legend about animals and people points to the failures of communication that pervade the novel. In Nyles’s stories about Crazy Horse, the Lakota and Long Knives are unable to understand each other’s cultures, beliefs, and motivations. Their inability to empathize with one another contributes to the animosity and bloodshed between the two groups. The white settlers’ inability to understand and respect the natural environment leads to further negative outcomes, like land destruction and the eradication of the buffalo. Nyles’s legend suggests that these problems stem from human hubris and selfishness, in which people think they are better than everyone and everything else, including the natural world.

“Long Knives were known to attack any Lakota—man, woman, or child. They were mean people—if they were people at all.”

The suggestion that the Long Knives might not be “people at all” reinforces their brutality and poor treatment of the Lakota, while also indicating that the Lakota and white settlers are incapable of empathizing with one another. Their cultures are so different that the Lakota view the settlers almost as aliens, or animals, instead of humans. The passage’s focus on the danger the Long Knives represent to women and children provides an early indication that Crazy Horse will often focus on the needs of the most vulnerable members of his community.

“Yellow Woman did not want him to leave, yet she understood that he must.

‘I will never forget you and what you did for me,’ she said with tears in her eyes.”

Yellow Woman’s departing words to Crazy Horse mark the beginning of his rise to legendary status among the Lakota. Her selflessness in letting go provides an example for Crazy Horse, who later will likewise give up his own desires for the good of his people. There is a certain parallel between Yellow Woman and Grandpa Nyles, who is telling her story. Like Yellow Woman, Grandpa Nyles has promised to never forget Crazy Horse’s legend and is often moved to tears when he thinks of his Lakota hero. Nyles now imparts that lesson to Jimmy, hoping that he will continue to remember The Importance of Cultural Heritage and Identity.

“The next morning Jimmy and his grandpa drove south and got on Interstate 80 going west. After a few hours they crossed into Wyoming and arrived in Cheyenne. They stopped for a bite to eat and to put gas in the truck, and then they went north on Interstate 25. At the exist for a town called Guernsey, they turned east.”

This passage exemplifies the detailed navigation instructions that occur throughout the novel and correspond to the accompanying map of Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles’s journey across the Great Plains. These travel details build the verisimilitude of their journey, serving as a reminder that Crazy Horse’s cultural sites actually exist. They also subtly invite the reader along for the ride, reminding them that it is possible to personally partake in Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles’s journey. Just as Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles follow Crazy Horse’s footsteps, the novel provides the reader with everything they need to follow Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles’s.

“‘Ever heard of the Oregon Trail?’

‘Yeah, we studied it in school.’

‘Before it was called the Oregon Trail,’ Grandpa Nyles explained, ‘it was known by the Lakota and other tribes as the Shell River Road. And before that, it was a trail used by animals, like buffalo. It’s an old, old trail.’”

Jimmy and Grandpa Nyles’s conversation focuses on the value of first-hand experience. Jimmy may have heard a bit about the Oregon Trail in school, but that abstract form of knowledge doesn’t compare to the deeper experience of seeing the trail with his own eyes. Nyles’s extensive knowledge about the Trail’s history underlines the importance of cultural heritage and identity since he wouldn’t have access to that information without the Lakota oral tradition. Nyles’s words set up a distinction between the Lakota and white settlers: The Lakota are aware of the ancient animal trails that they use for their road, while the settlers just use the land for their own purposes, not caring about what came before.

“We don’t want those people staying here, on our lands. They leave their trash behind and scare away the buffalo. The wagon wheels leave marks—they scar the land.”

This conversation between Crazy Horse and another Lakota epitomizes the contrary views of the Lakota and white settlers toward their environment. The Lakota have a deep relationship to the land and depend on animals like the buffalo to survive. The personification of the land as something that can “scar” underlines this Lakota view of the environment as a fragile living thing. Conversely, the settlers are unaware or uncaring about the effect their actions have on the natural systems around them. The wagon trail marks (See: Symbols & Motifs), which are still visible more than 100 years later, provide a sign of this carelessness.

“It was a strange dream. A warrior on a horse rode across a lake. Mountains and storm clouds rose to the west. There was the sound of thunder, and a red-tailed hawk flew above the man and horse. As the horse galloped, it changed color, from black to blue to white and then red. Bullets and arrows flew at the man but did not hit him. Then the horse and rider reached the dry ground, and other men, who looked like the rider, rose out of the earth. They surrounded the horse and pulled the rider down.”

Crazy Horse’s prophetic dream reveals a spiritual side to his character and Lakota culture more generally. The presence of the red-tailed hawk recalls Grandpa Nyles’s previous story about an earlier time when “a person could understand what a hawk said” (13). Here, though, the meaning is unclear, reinforcing the failures in understanding that epitomize the novel’s depiction of cross-cultural interactions. The dream-warrior’s experience avoiding projectiles foreshadows Crazy Horse’s bravery and success in battle, while his pulling down foreshadows the role of other Lakota in Crazy Horse’s death.

“‘Why did we stop here?’ Jimmy asked.

‘So you can see what he saw. Smell the sagebrush and feel the same sand under your feet.’”

This brief passage encapsulates the novel’s perspective of the value of first-hand experience. Grandpa Nyles’s instructions to Jimmy focus on three different senses—sight, smell, and touch—which are all paths to knowledge that Jimmy could never get in the classroom. Jimmy’s questioning of his grandfather shows he hasn’t yet fully grasped the lesson that there is no substitute for a direct way of learning. The fact that the years have left the sand and vegetation largely unchanged further connects Jimmy and Crazy Horse, showing that they are on parallel courses in the journey of personal growth and understanding.

“‘We’re Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. I’m taking my grandson on a tour of Crazy Horse sites.’

‘Ah, I see,’ the man replied. ‘Then you probably know more about Crazy Horse than I do.’”

The tour guide defers to Grandpa Nyles when it comes to Crazy Horse in a nod toward the value of first-hand experience. The tour guide is specially trained to educate visitors, but he recognizes that Grandpa Nyles—as a Lakota—has a deeper connection to Crazy Horse than any amount of third-party training could ever bring. Grandpa Nyles’s confident statement of his and Jimmy’s Lakota background helps emphasize the importance of cultural heritage and identity, showing Jimmy that being a Lakota comes with a sense of pride and self-worth.

“‘They got it wrong’ Grandpa Nyles said. ‘There were survivors of this battle: hundreds of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne.’”

Nyles’s critiques of various battlefield memorials emphasize the value of first-hand experience by showing how third-party accounts can warp or misrepresent historical events. The fact that the memorial ignores the Indigenous warriors involved in the battle in favor of focusing on the white soldiers reveals that the people who made the memorials were biased toward the perspective of one side versus the other. That bias threatens to spill onto other visitors to the historic sites, who don’t have the first-hand knowledge to know the truth when faced with misleading information. This makes it even more important that Jimmy and others learn the facts from more direct sources like Grandpa Nyles and the Lakota ancestors.

“No one really wanted a battle. But it was a necessary way to defeat the Long Knives. Every man was afraid. Most would not admit that to anyone but themselves. But part of being a warrior was facing their fears. That was called courage.”

Grandpa Nyles’s description of courage marks a step for both Crazy Horse and Jimmy along the journey of personal growth and understanding. Just as Crazy Horse learns that he must face his fears to help his people, Jimmy learns to be brave when dealing with his own problems, including the bullies at school. This passage uses a synecdoche, describing the white soldiers as “Long Knives,” thus intensifying the feeling of fear around the approaching battle by connecting the soldiers to dangerous weapons. In doing so, the passage reinforces Crazy Horse’s courage in facing his enemies.

“‘He held his friend in his arms until he died. Everyone who saw that said Crazy Horse cried like a baby.’

Jimmy noticed that his grandfather had brushed something out of his eyes.”

The parallel shedding of tears between Crazy Horse and Grandpa Nyles connects the two men, bringing the trauma of generations ago into the present, while underlining how deeply Nyles feels connected to his Lakota heritage. While Nyles wasn’t born during Crazy Horse’s lifetime, it is possible that he experienced similar tragedies as Crazy Horse during his time in the Vietnam War. The simile of Crazy Horse crying “like a baby” reinforces the idea that no one—not even someone as brave as the legendary Lakota warrior—can face the horrors of war unchanged.

“This is for the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors…We should never forget them and what happened here. But we have to remember the soldiers kindly, too. They fought hard. Their people shouldn’t have been here, like they promised. If they had kept that promise, those eighty men probably wouldn’t have died here.”

Grandpa Nyles’s comment about the white soldiers who fought against the Indigenous warriors teaches Jimmy to always have respect for the fallen, no matter which side they fought on. For Nyles, that respect is balanced by continued feelings of resentment toward the white settlers who broke their promise to stay off Indigenous peoples’ land. In this passage, Nyles repeatedly tells Jimmy to remember what happened, underlining the importance of cultural heritage and identity in providing a solid historical basis for working through the many unresolved tensions between Indigenous peoples and the United States government.

“He was quiet and humble. He didn’t brag. He didn’t even speak loudly. That’s what I like about him. There were a lot of good and brave warriors in those days. But not all of them were really good men. Not all of them were humble, like him.”

Having just finished recounting a story of Crazy Horse’s fighting prowess, Grandpa Nyles now wants to show Jimmy that there is more to the journey of personal growth and understanding than just courage on the battlefield. This passage indicates that there is a distinction between being a “brave warrior” and a “good” man. Nyles’s repetition of the word “humble” reinforces the importance of humility and selflessness on Jimmy’s path to growing up. Crazy Horse continues to serve as Jimmy’s role model, showing him the way forward as Jimmy continues to seek his own identity and place in the world.

“When things like that happen, like to your dad and Crazy Horse, it’s okay for tough guys to cry. Don’t you ever forget that.”

Nyles continues to balance the legends of Crazy Horse’s warrior nature with reminders to Jimmy that there are more important things in life. Here, he emphasizes the value of empathy and love for others by turning to two of Jimmy’s role models—his father and Crazy Horse—who both demonstrate their love for their community through tears. Once again, Nyles puts the focus on Jimmy’s memory. His command for Jimmy to never forget this lesson shows that Nyles feels an intense responsibility for the journey of personal growth and understanding that Jimmy is undertaking. Nyles wants to impart the lessons of the past to Jimmy, just as they were passed onto him by their Lakota ancestors.

“The parking lot was nearly full of sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks, and even a few motorcycles […]. They got out of the truck and walked to the monuments. On the left was a new one dedicated to the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors […]. On the hilltop to the right was an older monument. It was large and four-sided, and it sat atop a mass grave. In the grave were the white soldiers who had died 138 years before.”

Like the wagon trail marks (See: Symbols & Motifs), the many vehicles at the historical site represent a blight on the landscape, a visible symbol of the encroachment of outsiders into lands that once belonged solely to the tribes. The distinction between the two memorials—the older one for the white soldiers and newer one for the Indigenous warriors—shows the initial bias of the architects, who didn’t value the Indigenous peoples as much as the white soldiers. However, the presence of both memorials today indicates a desire to overcome this bias and set the historical record straight. The novel’s listing of the various tribes involved in the Battle of the Little Bighorn—Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho—highlights the distinct cultures that were previously overlooked in the memorial’s design.

“That’s the sad part about war and battles…Doesn’t matter who you are, what side you’re on. It’s still sad, no matter what kind of uniform you wear or the color of your skin. It’s still sad.”

Grandpa Nyles’s words to Jimmy epitomize a central lesson he has been trying to impart to his grandson on their journey: Everyone is deserving of empathy and remembrance, whether or not they belong to your community. His mention of skin color not only refers to the Indigenous warriors and white soldiers, but also subtly recalls Jimmy’s concern about his own appearance at the novel’s beginning, including his light hair and blue eyes (See: Symbols & Motifs). Nyles is suggesting that it doesn’t matter if Jimmy’s skin is lighter than the other Lakota; it is what is inside that counts.

“It’s a bad thing no matter who does it. But that’s the way it was then.”

Grandpa Nyles’s comments about the mutilations after the Battle of the Little Bighorn show the difficulty of applying modern values to historical events. Nyles is caught between the urge to condemn what are brutal acts by modern standards, while accepting that things were different in the past. His open admission of what really happened shows that he doesn’t want to hide the truth from his grandson. He wants Jimmy to face the past honestly, even its darker aspects, so that he can understand its deeper truths and move forward on his journey into the future.

“That’s what being a warrior was all about: facing the scary things no matter how afraid you were. That’s what courage is. And what’s more, it doesn’t happen only on the battlefield. You can have courage and face the tough things that happen to you anywhere.”

As he often does, Nyles here serves as a bridge between Crazy Horse and Jimmy on the journey of personal growth and understanding that they share. Nyles appreciates the parallels of their two lives, transforming a lesson that Crazy Horse learned about courage on the battlefield into an accessible moral lesson for his grandson. Nyles’s figurative language about having to “face the tough things” foreshadows Jimmy’s courageous confrontation with Corky and Jesse at the novel’s end, when he literally turns to face the two bullies.

“You’ve walked a lot of places in the past few days…Places where Crazy Horse and our ancestors also walked. We occupied the same space they did, saw the same kinds of plants, heard the same kinds of birds. The only thing separating us is time.”

Here Grandpa Nyles reinforces the importance of the natural environment to Lakota history and culture. The land, rivers, plants, and animals are central to Nyles and Jimmy’s connection to Crazy Horse and their other ancestors. Nyles’s statement that only time separates them from Crazy Horse underlines the value of first-hand experience by suggesting that their intimate relationship to the ancestors wouldn’t be possible without direct experience of the lands where the Lakota once lived.

“Crazy Horse’s warriors gave up their weapons, too. He was their leader; he showed them the way. There’s no doubt in my mind that that was the bravest thing he ever did.”

Grandpa Nyles uses irony to reinforce to Jimmy the lesson that selflessness is even more important than courage on the battlefield. Throughout the novel, Crazy Horse has proven to be an exceptional warrior. Here, though, he chooses not to fight, instead showing the bravery to surrender to save his people. While surrendering may not appear brave on the surface, Crazy Horse’s sacrificial act shows his progress along the journey of personal growth and understanding. Along that journey, Crazy Horse has learned that protecting the vulnerable matters much more than personal glory.

“Giving up his rifle and his horse went against everything that he was, everything that he stood for as a warrior. He did it for the helpless ones, the old people, and women, and the children.”

Grandpa Nyles description of Crazy Horse’s surrender emphasizes how intimately Crazy Horse's rifle and horse (See: Symbols & Motifs) defined his identity as a warrior and a free Lakota. Without the rifle, he can no longer fight the Long Knives, and without the horse, he can no longer ride free. The repetition of the word “everything” underlines the gravity of Crazy Horse’s sacrifice, while the slow listing of vulnerable people at the end of the passage highlights the sheer number of Lakota Crazy Horse saved through his selfless act.