North Dakota Books

Little Crow shares his own personal intrepetation of his Dakota/Lakota world view and how to apply the sacred truths of not only taking accountability for all of one's actions in daily living, but for learning to take responsibility for every thought we create within ourselves, which, in turn, affects everyone and everything else in the universe.

This is a well-written book and Little Crow is succinct and to the point. If you start applying what he writes about, be ready for some life-changing experiences. This book is not for the lazy person but rather for one who is ready to "get up off your spiritual ass and go out and live your life," as the author so eloquently puts it!

This spiritual human being "Little Crow" has been an instrument for my healing and growth since 1991. Since attending "The Gathering", held each Sunday in Garden Grove, California, I have had the blessing of many insights and spiritual people to join me on my path. The tenants of the American Indian Church simplify the altruistic beliefs of most indigenous peoples, hence "World Views". A wonderful gift for those that wish to seek their own individual sacredness.

This book is a roadmap for finding your way out of 21st century stress, violence and emptiness. It is clearly written, based upon the wisdom of the First Americans, and how that wisdom (oral tradition) can be put to use in bringing balance to comtemporary living. This book parallels the wisdom shared each Sunday morning at The Gathering in Garden Grove, California. What you hear at The Gathering is what you get in reading The Sacred Hill Within. If you're desperate in getting a handle on day-to-day insanities, get ahold of this book. It will do your spirit a world of good.

West River is a wonderful book filled with interesting stories and anectdotes from the early history of the American West. Its treatment of Native American and White Settler relations is refreshingly honest and extremely well documented.

Simpson's West River brings to light many exciting, thought-provoking, and poignant stories of the American West that have not made it into our traditional history text books. The more I read about them in this book, the more I wished that I had been able to learn this side of history earlier. They are great stories and an important part of our country's heritage.

Simpson's unique style of writing also makes you feel as if you are hearing the stories being told by the people who lived during the time. And his careful documentation is equally impressive.

I would recommend this book to anyone - especially those who are interested in the forgotten stories of our western history in the great plains.

West River is a wonderful book filled with interesting stories and anectdotes from the early history of the American West. Its treatment of Native American and White Settler relations is refreshingly honest and extremely well documented.

Simpson's West River brings to light many exciting, thought-provoking, and poignant stories of the American West that have not made it into our traditional history text books. The more I read about them in this book, the more I wished that I had been able to learn this side of history earlier. They are great stories and an important part of our country's heritage.

Simpson's unique style of writing also makes you feel as if you are hearing the stories being told by the people who lived during the time. And his careful documentation is equally impressive.

I would recommend this book to anyone - especially those who are interested in the forgotten stories of our western history in the great plains.

Tired of the same old stories? Fed up with people always recommending Grisham, Patterson, and Clancy novels to you? Break the mold with West River.

This collection of capitaviting stories from the American West retraces history in an honest and accurate fashion. The beatuy of this book is the wide spectrum of perceptions expressed within its pages. Reading stories about the interactions of settelers and Native Americans from different perspectives enlightens the reader in a way that few other books do.

However, I am even more impressed with the level of documentation in this book than I am with the stories told in it. I feel as though I have been given a special looking glass that provides me with an honest, impartial view of the past--truly a great gift.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking truth and beauty within American History.

This is the first book I ever bought about Native Americans. It was really great. Funny, sad, shows great love. More, more!

Louis is angry and irreverent, but yet not offensive. It'a a very quick, enjoyable read. The short stories in this work touch on every issue you can imagine, mixing humans and anthropomorphic creatures against a graphic backdrop of contemporary reservation life. If you like Sherman ALexie, you'll love Louis!

This collection of 23 short stories is set almost entirely on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwest South Dakota and the border towns in the Nebraska panhandle. It is the harsh land of the high plains where the seasons are extreme and the lives of Indians balance conditions of poverty and racism against the love of family and home - plus a heavy dose of dark humor.

Humor in some of these stories borrows from Native American oral tradition, with shape-shifting characters who are both animal and human - Coyote, Raven, and Bear. Other stories lean more toward social realism, following lives plagued at every turn by misfortune, alcoholism, ill health, domestic violence and ignorance. Though truly horrible things sometimes happen, each story stops somewhere short of bleakness and despair. Demon alcohol, for all the damage it does, and libido-driven adventures still bring periods of relief. And there is affection and caring that present themselves like Old Bear in the last story to speak sweet reason to despair.

I recommend this book to readers interested in the modern-day lives of Indians on America's reservations. Adrian Louis, in both his poetry and fiction, offers a bracing corrective to all the sentimental and racist stereotypes held by others. His is a grimly unblinking vision of hard lives that still preserves their humanity.

Someone gave me this book, and I am lucky, for I never would have read it otherwise. But it seems that almost no one has ever read "American Daughter"(originally published in 1967), though it should be listed as of the greats of American letters. Thompson is quoted in the preface as saying, "Usually an autobiography is written near the end of a long and distinguished career, but not taking any chances, I wrote mine first, then began to live." That's tongue-in-cheek, and characteristically self-effacing. Very much so. After writing "American Daughter", Thompson went on to be associate editor of the newly established EBONY magazine, as just the start of a distinguished publishing and writing career. But it is this memoir, which should be reissued for mainstream attention--that is her great triumph--a touching, beautifully written book that enriches the lives of all who read it.

Miss Thompson has done an incredible job here. Her autobiography is so personal and touching. In reading her story, I watched her grow up in North Dakota and saw how the family struggled when they first started farming. From the early morning sunrise to the bitter cold weather, Era Bell Thompson is a master of description. She paints a beautiful picture of life, and likewise how hard the death of her mother and father were on her.
Her early 1900 work ethic makes us pale in comparison. Her friendships blossom on the pages. Her sorrows, pains, joys, love, and strength of spirit are poignant and enduring.
She is brave and hard working. She wants to share her soul with us, the readers, and has done a trememdous job!
Please purchase this book and read it. I promise it will be hard to put down and you will have been blessed by reading it.
Come share with me what I experienced by learning about a true american daughter, Era Bell Thompson.

Mr. Brady takes you into the west during a time when the Native Americans were making their last stand. His exhaustive journalistic studies have given us a timeless account of what it was like to both be a Native American and a Calvary fighter during the 1870's. Although Mr. Brady attempts to take an objective view of both sides, he is biased towards the Calvary and one cannot help but to ponder the Native Americans view point as they struggle for their freedom aganist unbeatable odds. I would recommend this book to anyone! I particulary enjoy reading historical accounts and this is one of the best I have ever read. 2/18/97 Tate Perazzelli 102212.2751@compuserve.co

Mr. Brady takes you into the west during a time when the Native Americans were making their last stand. His exhaustive journalistic studies have given us a timeless account of what it was like to both be a Native American and a Calvary fighter during the 1870's. Although Mr. Brady attempts to take an objective view of both sides, he is biased towards the Calvary and one cannot help but to ponder the Native Americans view point as they struggle for their freedom aganist unbeatable odds. I would recommend this book to anyone! I particulary enjoy reading historical accounts and this is one of the best I have ever read. 2/18/97 Tate Perazzelli 102212.2751@compuserve.co
I have since changed my email...whew! this review was written back in the day when an email could only be #'s!!!

One grandfather was a meatpacker, the other a Harvard doctor. Both parents from Ireland. I'm an attorney. This book explains how. Best book I ever read, and I've read a lot.

Brings the old and new world of political intrigue and Irish lore together in a grand way. The story is alive with rich image and bold imagination. Scenes of Irish daring and courage abound.

Frederick Manfred is one of the great lost American writers, and "Conquering Horse" is the beginning of the five-novel cycle (the "Buckskin Man" tales) at the core of his achievement. This novel takes place among the Sioux in the early 1800s, before white settlers started appearing in the region Manfred dubbed "Siouxland." Subsequent titles take in the Mountain Man era ("Lord Grizzly"), the horrifying violence of the 1862 Sioux Uprising ("Scarlet Plume"), the havoc wrought by gold miners in the 1870s ("King of Spades"), and the final transformation of the West in the image of Old World values ("Riders of Judgment") with a new century coming into view. Manfred is a superbly evocative writer, and taken as a whole the five novels (which were published out of sequence) create a unified picture of the Old West that is harsh and unsentimental, yet filled with grandeur and extraordinary writing.

I have always been interested in the old west. The various customs of the Native Americans and the ways that the minds of prior generations worked in their own times. I have always had a love of horses and this novel certainly kept my attention. This book is only one of the Buckskin Man Series. They are all excellent. They have an order in which they should be read to be most effective because of the dates. If I can remember the order they are as follows. 1. Conquering Horse. 2. Lord Grizzley 3. Riders of Judgement 4. Jack of Spades 5. Scarlet Plum I was not disappointed in one of these. Frederick Manfred also wrote under the name of Fredrica. I do however, have a few of his books that I do not like. His home was in Minnesota and the area that he writes about in all these novels is the five state area around Minnesota.

Written by the wife of an army officer, and compiled over the course of seven years in the 1840s at Fort Snelling, in what would one day become Minnesota Territory, Dahcotah Or, Life And Legends Of The Sioux was a groundbreaking look into Sioux (Dakota) customs and manners from a long-term observer, first published in 1849. Now republished in a new edition with a biographical preface about author Mary Eastman and featuring the quality painted landscapes of the original reproduced in color, Dahcotah Or, Life And Legends Of The Sioux retains its unique keen insight and attention to detail that distinguished it over one hundred and fifty years ago. Though Dahcotah is not an entirely unbiased account - for one thing, the author was a devout Christian who wished to see all Native Americans converted to her religion - yet it is written with empathy and sorrow for the sufferings of the Dahcotah people, retold in individual stories as well as broad descriptions, and deserves its reputation as a frontier classic.

I found this book extremely interesting, as it is written by Mary Henderson Eastman, who actually got to know the Native Americans who lived near Fort Snelling, where Mary's Husband, Seth Eastman, was stationed. I was completely engulfed by her stories, and sometimes felt as if I were right there with her, experiencing first hand what these Native Americans were like and how they lived. I applaud the Afton Historical Society Press for their efforts in preserving our country's history, and for putting a small part of that history in such a beautiful book--lovely paper, and a stunning dust jacket. Anyone who enjoys history, or just a good story, should DEFINITELY buy this book!!

An great book anyone interested in Indi'n life and their beliefs will love this book. I am from the author's home town and what is writen is real and true.

I found this book to be a moving experience. It graphically illustrates the current condition of our Reservations, and how the People persevere in spite of living in absolute poverty. It is a story of hope and inspiration. I recommend it highly.

I can't think of a single aspect of the history of the Bessarabian German culture that this book doesn't cover extremely well. I was amazed at how much better I understand my family history after having read this publication.

Review by Janice Huber Stangl, Sterling, Virginia, author of the book, Marienberg: Fate of a Village.

Homeland Book of the Bessarabian Germans by Albert Kern, now translated into English, is a must read for anyone whose ancestors were born or lived in Bessarabia. Those Germans from Russia whose direct line does not stem from Bessarabia will also benefit from the insight written by many people of the area. The descriptive writings about the history, immigration, and then the resettlement during World War II, grips you with the smell of the earth, the blue of the sky, and the wrenching sadness, when they must leave their land, home, animals and all they possess. The narratives often remind me of our experiences during our June, 1998 visit to the villages of Arzis, Alt Elft, Neu Elft and Schabo.

The articles on more than 100 colonies and estates, are written by the people who lived and served in various capacities in the area. The voices of experience and daily living provide reading of such interest, one can hardly put the book down. Hours can be spent studying pictures of homes, churches, and colony life. The format of each parish, and its colonies and estates, makes the material easily accessible. It includes one of the best lists of site locations of German Parishes in Bessarabia, that I have seen. The complete list of sources, index of pictures, place name index, and subject index, all provide specific information at your fingertips in a matter of seconds.

The Honor List of Missing in Action and Deaths in WWI and WWII lists hundreds and hundreds of names of sons and fathers of all the various colonies. The names seem to read like almost any telephone book in the Dakotas, or any community with a large Germans from Russia contingent. This newly translated and published book by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, will become a valuable addition to your library.