Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior:Being the Second Part of the Crazy Horse Chronicles (Crazy Horse Chronicles Trilogy) (Crazy Horse Chronicles, 2) [Hardcover]

Richard Jepperson (Author), Ken Mundie (Illustrator), Robert A. Clark (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Crazy Horse Chronicles, 2 | Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Open the creaking lid of a rusty-hinged old trunk and look inside to find a dusty frontier sketchbook. Blow away the dust and lift the cover to the first of the pages of time. As the image fills your eyes a voice fills your mind and a heart-wrenching story unfolds in vivid sketches and words as told by Crazy Horse. The first book of the Crazy Horse Chronicles Trilogy, The War of the Mormon Cow introduced the boy called Curly, who becomes Crazy Horse, and the girl called Little Mouse, who becomes Black Robe Woman. In Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior our story continues as Crazy Horse looks back to the time just after The War of the Mormon Cow. Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior is the second book of The Crazy Horse Chronicles Trilogy. Just one year after The War of the Mormon Cow Curly and Little Mouse are again caught up in the horrors of war as General Harney leads an overwhelming force, to "chastise the Indian." Through luck and heroic venture our heroes survive and grow to maturity against the backdrop of conflicts history dubs the "Indian Wars." Curly becomes Crazy Horse and Little Mouse becomes Black Robe Woman. Crazy Horse earns his name through glory in battle. Black Robe Woman takes her name as a symbol of heartbreak and suffering. She was a real person, as was Crazy Horse, and they were very much in love throughout their lives. It was destined to be a star-crossed love for they were faced with jealousies of clans and families and the struggle for prestige and power. Whether found in Shakespearean tragedy or Lakota villages, youthful love often suffers and falters under the rigors of societal pressures.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 7 Up-Jepperson continues to shed new light on the life and times of a prominent and misunderstood icon of American history. Picking up just after War of the Mormon Cow (String of Beads, 1999), this book focuses on the vision quest and other pivotal events that led the boy Curly to become the young man Crazy Horse. The author also gives ample attention to the title character, Black Robe Woman, reconstructing her life as the girl Little Mouse who eventually became a great Warrior Woman and Crazy Horse's wife. Through this strong protagonist, Jepperson shows the importance of women in Lakota culture, a matriarchal society in which warrior women could be honored as War Chiefs. Except for the last 30 pages, which tell of the treacherous circumstances surrounding Little Mouse's betrothal to Lone Bear in Crazy Horse's absence, the book is written from the first-person perspective of Crazy Horse himself. In his preface, Jepperson states that this and the other books in the series "speak in the meter and structure of the Sioux language, as Crazy Horse would have told it." While only family and friends of the great leader would know how accurate these claims are, the rhythm and tone of the text do lend themselves well to oral presentation. Though many of the details are fictionalized, especially regarding Black Robe Woman, the text is based on extensive research and consultation with Lakota people. Mundie's sketchbook-style illustrations are reminiscent of the traveling artist/writers of the 18th and 19th centuries, giving the impression that he was present to capture the characters and events on paper as they were happening. Pair this series with Russell Freedman's Life and Death of Crazy Horse (Holiday, 1996).

Sean George, St. Charles Parish Library, Luling, LA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Author

"No one ever writes about the women." It was more a challenge than a statement by Winona Johnson, the daughter of Chaske Wicks (Bad Bear) my pathfinder through the labyrinth of the history and legends of The People, we call Sioux. She was right. Though the historical period is fairly recent I had to assemble the story of the women of the Sioux from circumstantial evidence. I then constructed the life experiences of a Lakota girl and woman and imbued them in the girl called Little Mouse and the woman called Black Robe Woman. The Sioux was a matriarchal society that ruled for more than a century over most of the northern Plains. But little is known of the Sioux. What we know of them comes from the memories of old men recorded a half-century after the happenings and we know even less of their women for our patriarchal biased historians thought Sioux women to be but extensions of their men, which is far from true. Ken Mundie's talented pen brings our heroes, their family, friends and enemies to life as if he was there with his sketchbook, recording the happenings as they occurred, where they occurred and how they occurred. Ken is from the "Old" Disney Studios where magic is magical, love is lovable and characters, no matter how fanciful, are believable. The Chronicles is written in the meter and structure of the Sioux language, as Crazy Horse would have told it. It is mostly true but when history and legend conflict I choose legend, where the spirit of the Sioux still lives. I am reminded of the poignant words of Crazy Horse, "I thought again of the string of beads in my vision. There were bright beads and dull beads and plump beads and shriveled beads. There were beads that glowed with life and dark beads that ate the light." And these are the beads of the life of Crazy Horse and Black Robe Woman.

Richard Jepperson

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: String of Beads Pub; 1 edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967201217
• ISBN-13: 978-0967201214
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,292,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book to heal the heart!, February 8, 2001

By 

Richard Walter (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior:Being the Second Part of the Crazy Horse Chronicles (Crazy Horse Chronicles Trilogy) (Crazy Horse Chronicles, 2) (Hardcover)

Richard Jepperson capably and affirmatively expands his Crazy Horse Chronicles with this touching, tender, fierce, reader-friendly book containing articulate, poetic text and original, beautiful illustrations. There are really only two kinds of books. And they are not children's books and grownups' books but good books and bad books. Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior, is most definitely among the former. It's excellent for kids but it is by no means exclusively for them but for all readers of worthy literature. Here is a book you will read to your children and to yourself, not once but over and over again.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A bittersweet, passionate, fulfilling story of love., March 3, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior:Being the Second Part of the Crazy Horse Chronicles (Crazy Horse Chronicles Trilogy) (Crazy Horse Chronicles, 2) (Hardcover)

Part II of the "Crazy Horse Chronicles" continues to enthrall. This vivid retelling of the life of Curly, later to become Crazy Horse, explains the early transition to adulthood for Curly and Little Mouse, who become Crazy Horse and Black Robe Buffalo Woman. They grow to maturity during the "Indian Wars" and Crazy Horse earns his name through battle glory. His painful experience of betrayal by family of Little Mouse drives him to forsake his holy name to become "Worm," or One Who Returns to Mother Earth. The bittersweet story of the love of Crazy Horse and Black Robe Buffalo Woman is passionate and fierce and gentle at the same time. Readers will eagerly devour this latest in the series and impatiently await the third in the series.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

4.0 out of 5 stars new gender information, October 19, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Black Robe Woman, Lakota Warrior:Being the Second Part of the Crazy Horse Chronicles (Crazy Horse Chronicles Trilogy) (Crazy Horse Chronicles, 2) (Hardcover)

the most fascinating thing in this book is the information about the original gender partnering. Men could have one mate. Women were allowed to be married to one man and have another male friend on the side. Women also could have two husbands while men had only one spouse.

This is very different from the sexism practiced in Lakota circles today where the woman is still considered "less than" and put in a servitude position.