Guy
A Fixture
Richard Hook, Warriors at the Little Bighorn 1876,
50 pages, 8 colour plates, Osprey Publishing, 22,-- €
Over the decades the white American historians had ignored the testimonies of Native Americans about the fights of the Indian wars as "unreliable" and "worthless" for the historical research. This attitude enabled the white American historians to write the history based only on the white American testimonies and designed specifically to the one eyed white men's "history of the Indian War," full of faults, inaccuracies, lies and defamation. Only very few historians like Thomas B. Marquis undertook the effort to collect the Indian testimonies and proved how reliable and faithful they had been.
The American historian Gregory F. Michino did a tremendous work when, in his book "Lakota Noon," he put all the available Indian reports of the Battle of Little Bighorn together and offered not only an impressive but very realistic history of this battle.
In his booklet, Richard Hook takes one step further. He gives a face to some 28 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho participants of the battle, by creating beautiful and very accurate colour drawing of these people. Every of the 28 participants is presented with a short but well substantiated biography and a pictorial recreation in a form of a colour drawing. The author used for these colour reconstructions only the reports of Indian eye-witness or the Indian drafts, so called "ledger drawings". The name ledger drawing come from the fact, that Native Americans liked to use "ledger books" for their paintings. Richard Hook analysed the Indian testimonies and drawings with an extraordinary scholarship and an excellent understanding in the Indian way of thinking, their heritage and culture. Last year I had a Lakota friend as a guest in my house. When I showed him my library, he found the book of Richard Hook and decided to read it. The next day he gave his warm appreciation while prizing the book contents. He was also surprised to learn some new facts about these warriors, which he had never heard before, despite the fact that he had lived on the Reservation for some years, where he of course met the descendants of some of these warriors. At Christmas I send the booklet as a present to a Lakota friend of the Brule tribe whose grand-grandfather took part in the battle. He also declared that the book was great!
These are the strongest compliments, and thus I have nothing more to add. "Warriors of the Little Bighorn" is an extraordinary and excellent book.
Highly recommended!
Review by Bruno Schmaeling
50 pages, 8 colour plates, Osprey Publishing, 22,-- €
Over the decades the white American historians had ignored the testimonies of Native Americans about the fights of the Indian wars as "unreliable" and "worthless" for the historical research. This attitude enabled the white American historians to write the history based only on the white American testimonies and designed specifically to the one eyed white men's "history of the Indian War," full of faults, inaccuracies, lies and defamation. Only very few historians like Thomas B. Marquis undertook the effort to collect the Indian testimonies and proved how reliable and faithful they had been.
The American historian Gregory F. Michino did a tremendous work when, in his book "Lakota Noon," he put all the available Indian reports of the Battle of Little Bighorn together and offered not only an impressive but very realistic history of this battle.
In his booklet, Richard Hook takes one step further. He gives a face to some 28 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho participants of the battle, by creating beautiful and very accurate colour drawing of these people. Every of the 28 participants is presented with a short but well substantiated biography and a pictorial recreation in a form of a colour drawing. The author used for these colour reconstructions only the reports of Indian eye-witness or the Indian drafts, so called "ledger drawings". The name ledger drawing come from the fact, that Native Americans liked to use "ledger books" for their paintings. Richard Hook analysed the Indian testimonies and drawings with an extraordinary scholarship and an excellent understanding in the Indian way of thinking, their heritage and culture. Last year I had a Lakota friend as a guest in my house. When I showed him my library, he found the book of Richard Hook and decided to read it. The next day he gave his warm appreciation while prizing the book contents. He was also surprised to learn some new facts about these warriors, which he had never heard before, despite the fact that he had lived on the Reservation for some years, where he of course met the descendants of some of these warriors. At Christmas I send the booklet as a present to a Lakota friend of the Brule tribe whose grand-grandfather took part in the battle. He also declared that the book was great!
These are the strongest compliments, and thus I have nothing more to add. "Warriors of the Little Bighorn" is an extraordinary and excellent book.
Highly recommended!
Review by Bruno Schmaeling
