Digital List Price: | $23.99 |
Kindle Price: | $8.54 Save $15.45 (64%) |
Sold by: | Amazon.com Services LLC |
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Kindle Edition
Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the government to sue for peace on his terms. At the peak of Red Cloud’s powers, the Sioux could claim control of one-fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters. But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured. Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the nineteenth century’s most powerful and successful Indian warrior can finally be told.
In this astonishing untold story of the American West, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin restore Red Cloud to his rightful place in American history in a sweeping and dramatic narrative based on years of primary research. As they trace the events leading to Red Cloud’s War, they provide intimate portraits of the many lives Red Cloud touched—mountain men such as Jim Bridger; US generals, like William Tecumseh Sherman, who were charged with annihilating the Sioux; fearless explorers, such as the dashing John Bozeman; and the memorable warriors whom Red Cloud groomed, like the legendary Crazy Horse. And at the center of the story is Red Cloud, fighting for the very existence of the Indian way of life. This is the definitive chronicle of the conflict between an expanding white population and the Plains Indians who stood in its way.
“Gripping.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Illuminating.” —Publishers Weekly
“Unabashed, unbiased, and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor-sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled. . . . a compelling and fiery narrative.” —USA Today
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateNovember 5, 2013
- File size34966 KB
Customers who bought this item also bought
- The four pillars of Sioux leadership—acknowledged by the tribe to this day—are bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom.Highlighted by 356 Kindle readers
- The Sioux regarded the universe as a living and breathing—if mysterious—being. And though they recognized the passage of time as measured by the predictable movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars, to their eyes mankind was but a flickering flame in a strong wind; and their concepts of past, present, and future were blurred so that all three existed simultaneously, on separate planes.Highlighted by 350 Kindle readers
- To the Sioux, war was the reason for living, and though their raids and ambushes were of course made to establish territory and gain booty, more important was the chance for an individual warrior to give vent, in public, to an aggressiveness prized by the tribe’s ethos.Highlighted by 336 Kindle readers
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
From School Library Journal
Review
“Exquisitely told . . . Remarkably detailed . . . The story of Red Cloud's unusual guile and strategic genius makes the better-known Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse pale in comparison. . . . This is no knee-jerk history about how the West was won, or how the West was lost. This historical chronicle is unabashed, unbiased and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor-sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled. . . . A compelling and fiery narrative.” (USA Today)
“Vivid . . . Lively . . . A tale of lies, trickery, and brutal slaughter . . . In telling the story of Red Cloud, Messrs. Drury and Clavin appropriately bring a number of the larger-than-life figures from that time onstage . . . [and] chronicle in considerable detail the shameful treatment of the Indians across the plains and the destruction of their ancient way of life.” (Christopher Corbett, The Wall Street Journal)
“A page turner . . . Drawing on archives, letters, and a long-lost autobiography written toward the end of Red Cloud’s life, the narrative has a remarkable immediacy . . . [and] the narrative sweep of a great Western.” (Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe)
“Valuable . . . Meticulous . . . [A] remarkable story . . . The writers don’t shy away from the atrocities on both sides of the gruesome, long-running conflict between the Indians and the U.S. forces. But when, for the umpteenth time, U.S. officials break a contract as soon as the glint of gold is spotted in the hills, one cannot help but feel that there’s all the more reason to celebrate one of the Sioux’s most impressive fighters.” (Smithsonian)
“The authors paint a full and vivid picture of the Oglala Sioux leader . . . The story of Red Cloud is presented here with all the tension and excitement of a good Western novel. . . . The narrative is gripping but not sentimental, and it is well-sourced, drawing, for example, on Red Cloud’s autobiography, lost for nearly a century, and the papers of many others who knew Red Cloud’s War.” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
“Astounding . . . A tour de force of historical storytelling . . . The Heart of Everything That Is is grand in scope and beautifully observed. . . . Together, [Drury and Clavin] have managed a feat of scholarship that interweaves ethnological brilliance and an insightful reinterpretation of Indian culture from the point of view of the Sioux.” (The Wichita Eagle)
About the Author
Tom Clavin is the author or coauthor of sixteen books. For fifteen years he wrote for The New York Times and has contributed to such magazines as Golf, Men's Journal, Parade, Reader’s Digest, and Smithsonian. He is currently the investigative features correspondent for Manhattan Magazine. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
Early Life
One quiet night on the plains of Nebraska, a glowing red meteor raced across the sky. Below it, a band of Brule Lakota Indians camped. Those who saw the meteor knew it was a sign of some kind—whether it was good or bad would be determined in the future. A few days later at the edge of the camp, a woman named Walks as She Thinks spread a brushed deerskin blanket over a bed of sand on the banks of Blue Water Creek and gave birth to her first son.
When the infant’s father, Lone Man, announced to the band that he had named the boy after the strange meteorological occurrence to appease the Great Spirit, the Brules agreed that he had done a wise thing.
This is how the child came to be called Makhpiya-luta, or Red Cloud.
• • •
When Red Cloud was only four years old, his father, Lone Man, died because of his addiction to what the white man called whiskey. In reality, the drink, sold or traded to the Indians, was a shuddering mixture of diluted alcohol, molasses, tobacco juice, and crushed red pepper. Native Americans of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had no more immunity to alcohol than to smallpox.
Lone Man’s death left a lasting impression. Red Cloud hated the distilled mini wakan—“the water that makes men crazy”—for the rest of his life.
After Lone Man’s death Red Cloud’s mother, Walks as She Thinks, left the Brule camp and took him, his younger brother, Big Spider, and an infant sister back to her original Oglala Lakota band, which was led by Old Smoke. Old Smoke recognized her as a “sister,” a term that meant that she was either his true sibling or a close cousin with the same status as a sister. Although Old Smoke was by then in his early fifties, he was still a vibrant war leader; he had been a head man for close to two decades, and his band was the largest, strongest, and most influential of all the Oglala tribes, if not of the Sioux nation.
The Sioux instilled in their children a respect for reserve and poise. Another uncle, a warrior named White Hawk, taught the young Red Cloud to control what he called the boy’s “unusually headstrong impulses.” In the future, these impulses would help to establish Red Cloud’s reputation for vicious behavior in war.
White Hawk was also responsible, along with Walks as She Thinks, for the child’s education. They interpreted for him the messages to be found in every birdsong and the track of every animal, the significance of the eagle feather in a war bonnet, and the natural history of the Sioux. By the age of six, Red Cloud was sitting at council fires with his elders.
When Red Cloud was thirteen years old, he watched Old Smoke suppress his own cousin Bull Bear’s attempt to take control of the band. Bull Bear—a sour man, with a face like a clenched fist—had strength in numbers. But Old Smoke had the loyalty of his brother White Hawk’s less numerous but better-armed akicita, the tribe’s select male society of warriors and marshals.
In the end, Bull Bear’s followers thought better of challenging them. Under Lakota custom and with White Hawk’s braves at his back, Old Smoke could have confiscated Bull Bear’s horses and women as punishment for his behavior. Instead, he banished Bull Bear and his followers, greatly weakening his own band in the process.
Humiliated, Bull Bear threw dust in Old Smoke’s face before riding out of camp. It was an act of disrespect Red Cloud never forgot and it is the likely reason Old Smoke’s band got a new name. Their sullen, fierce reaction to the insult may be why they became known as the Ite Sica, or Bad Faces.
• • •
The Lakota rarely stayed in any one location, following the game along rivers that acted as natural highways through the western plains, seeking fresh pasturage for their expanding herds of ponies, and camping along trails in places that had acquired mystical significance. These journeys pushed the tribe farther and farther west and southwest out of South Dakota.
Life on the lush prairie offered Indian men and boys plenty of opportunity for self-reflection and long, thoughtful conversations deep into the night as the camp’s women did most of the hard work. Red Cloud had ample time to absorb his uncles’ wisdom and insights regarding the Sioux philosophy of existence.
The Sioux regarded the universe as a living and breathing—if mysterious—being. And though they recognized the passage of time as measured by the predictable movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars, to their eyes mankind was but a flickering flame in a strong wind. Their concepts of past, present, and future were blurred so that all three existed simultaneously, on separate planes.
Americans steeped in Christian culture and Victorian science failed to understand this Indian approach to life. They often threw up their hands and resorted to the cliché of Indian spirituality as a blend of ignorance and superstition. Ignorance of Indian ways also contributed greatly to the white man’s description of Indians as untamed, savage, wild people lacking personal discipline. There was, however, a precise structure supporting Sioux religious beliefs, even if it remained largely unrecognizable to outsiders.
Sioux religious philosophy flowed from their recognition of what the famous Oglala holy man Black Elk described as the “Sacred Hoop” of life. That hoop consists of a series of concentric circles, divine rings, the smallest of which surrounds one’s immediate family. The hoops expand outward, growing ever larger to include extended households, bands, tribes, entire peoples, the earth and all its living things, and finally the universe, Wakan Tanka.
Product details
- ASIN : B00BSAZ614
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (November 5, 2013)
- Publication date : November 5, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 34966 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 433 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #63,061 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
TOM CLAVIN, whose most recent book is FOLLOW ME TO HELL, is a bestselling author who has worked as a newspaper and web site editor, magazine writer, TV and radio commentator, and a reporter for The New York Times covering entertainment, sports, and the environment. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and National Newspaper Association. Six of his books have been New York Times best sellers: THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THAT IS, DODGE CITY, HALSEY'S TYPHOON, THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY, BLOOD AND TREASURE, and FOLLOW ME TO HELL. Other books that have received popular and critical acclaim include TOMBSTONE, WILD BILL, ALL BLOOD RUNS RED, TO THE UTTERMOST ENDS OF THE EARTH, THE LAST HILL, and LIGHTNING DOWN. Tom is also a nationally syndicated columnist and "The Overlook" can be found at tomclavin.substack.com. His next book, THE LAST OUTLAWS, will be published on November 7 by St. Martin's Press. For more information, go to tomclavin.com
The New York Times bestselling author Bob Drury is the recipient of several national journalism awards as well as a three-time National Magazine Award finalist for his reporting from Belfast, Sarajevo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur among other earthly Edens. His books include THE RESCUE SEASON, A DOG'S GIFT, and, with co-author Tom Clavin, THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THAT IS, HALSEY'S TYPHOON, VALLEY FORGE, BLOOD AND TREASURE, THE LAST HILL and THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY, for which he received the U.S. Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
His success was due to his ability to have the different branches of the Sioux tribe and other tribes (Cheyenne and Arapaho) work together to keep the white people out of one the last remaining hunting grounds of the Sioux people (Powder River Basin) As civilization began to encroach on their traditional homelands, the tribe was forced into smaller and smaller areas farther west . Things came to a head when the Bozeman trail was built in Wyoming to allow easier and quicker access to the Montana gold strikes. This road was going to bring an end to the Indian's way of life and Red Cloud was able to launch a successful guerilla war campaign against the travellers on the trail and the calvary troops assigned to protect it. The high point was the so called "Fetterman Massacre" known to the Sioux as the "battle of the hundred slain " in which the entire command (81 men) under Capt Fetterman were lured away from protecting a wood cutter detail and killed in a quick 30 minute battle.
After the Fetterman incident the campaign continued for another year but the government soon realized that it needed to make peace with Red Cloud and ended up closing the Bozeman trail and withdrawing from 3 forts built to protect it.
The book gives a good deal of attention to Red Cloud's army nemesis - Col Carrington, a civil war veteran who hadn't seen any action and his civil war battle hardened underling - Capt Fetterman. Additionally the book gives a great deal of insight into the history of the Sioux tribe from the 1600s. How the tribe was organized - 7 branches and the western Sioux had 7 sub tribes which we are familiar with as they formed the core of resistance to white civilization on the high plains. There are a couple of excellent chapters of what daily life was like as a member of the Sioux tribe , the rituals, the diet, the hunting techniques, the division of labor etc. All of it was very interesting. The final thing I liked about the book was that the author let you know geographic locations by their present day states. IE "the Lakota tribe emigrated west from Minnesota and spent many decades on the Missouri in present day South Dakota. For people that haven't travelled a lot in the US west it makes the story easier to understand . Also the maps provided , even in kindle for very friendly and easy to understand.
I just had to think of our current military, which has obviously assumed things about Iraqi and Afghani military forces and their civilian counterparts that just aren't true. That's obviously an old failing on the part of the U.S. military; they've been doing that for a long time. The Indian general, Red Cloud, the authors say, would have whipped both Union and Confederate armies with sheer brilliance in logistics and planning. The U.S. had just won the Civil War and I was surprised that many "U.S." soldiers sent to the West to put down Indian "uprisings' were former Confederate prisoners of war who had been forcibly conscripted into the U.S. Army. By "uprisings" I mean to say 'American Indians angry that the U.S. government expected them to keep the terms of treaties while the U.S. regularly broke and ignored the terms.
This is a terrific book and one I'm glad I stumbled across. Get it. Read it. You'll be glad you did.
Top reviews from other countries
tous ces livres serait incomplet sans les ouvrages de crazy horse , ses biographies qui sont liées lisez crazy horse de mari sandoz et crazy horse de kingsley m bray