Crazy Fox Remembers by Don, Sue Preston
1982; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 17; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/wal.1982.0025
ISSN1948-7142
Autores ResumoReviews 285 from 13th century Prussia to medieval Spain, from Cortez’s Mexico to the Apaches, and ends up with the iron horse of contemporary times. Steiner’s work is history at its most fascinating, but unfortunately it is of limited use for the scholar, since documentation is sparse and informally cited. Another weak point is that at times Steiner strays too far from horsemen and horses into politics or economics, or confusingly doubletracks in time sequencing, or seems to throw his lasso around an interesting fact but never rope it in and tie it down with explanations, especially in the chapter on American Indians. But compared with the narrative skill, the wealth of new material, the unique vision and hence fresh interpretation of what the reader thought he knew so well, these shortcomings don’t fill a hoofprint. We recommend a sequel where Steiner can go on a new adven ture to rediscover other unique horsemen like the gauchos of Brazil or the Ukrainian kozaks, who were at the same time horsemen and boatmen, a rare combination. Such a sequel should make great reading, just as this book does. OLENA H. SACIUK Inter American University of Puerto Rico Crazy Fox Remembers. By Don and Sue Preston. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. 215 pages, $10.95.) In this book’s author-written introduction we are told that in 1979, prior to the publication of their “widely discussed paper ‘Eating Ceremonies of the Blackfeet Indians,’” the Prestons spent many tedious months pursu ing both printed and handwritten documents in the Indian archives in Flag staff, Arizona. While in Flagstaff an article appeared about them in a local newspaper. Shortly afterward a package arrived addressed to them in care of the Indian archives. An accompanying note, signed by a woman, explained that the yellowing manuscript she’d sent was written by an old man in her family. It was found among his meager belongings at his death in the 1930s. The woman thought the document might have historical value and knowing the Prestons were “experts” at such things, she sent it to them for their con sideration. The Prestons read through the manuscript. What a tremendously fascinating document it was they discovered! Written by a Potawatomie Indian by the name of Crazy Fox (and containing a preface by him written at the reservation in 1933) the manu script recalled his days as a young man beginning in the 1870s. It told of his life and intimate connection with such western luminaries as Buffalo Bill 286 Western American Literature Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, George Armstrong Custer, John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, Annie Oakley, and others. Everybody who was anybody in the old West, it seems, was at one time or another a friend or acquaintance of Crazy Fox. Unfortunately the Prestons couldn’t locate the woman who sent them the manuscript although in the introduction to their novel they state if she will step forward they will gladly pay her two per cent of the “net commer cial value of the property” at hand. Is the manuscript the woman sent them truth or is it fiction, the Prestons ask? Wisely, perhaps, they leave the answer to the reader. Chronologically speaking at least, Crazy Fox’s meeting and associating with many western “celebrities” has a ring of truth in it. As for some of the details relating these incidents, however, the book doesn’t stand up so terri bly well. As an example: Crazy Fox tells how he and his friend Jack Knight were present at the assassination of Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood, Dakota Territory on August 2, 1876, but the account is filled with error. Crazy Fox relates how there were two men playing cards with Hickok when the shoot ing occurred. According to testimony given at the trial of Jack McCall, his assassin, there were four present at the card table that day: Carl Mann, William R. Massie, Charlie Rich and Hickok. Crazy Fox relates that when Hickok was shot he sprawled “into the pot (on the table) with his head in a bloody mess.” Official testimony given by George M. Shingle, who was in the...
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