The Long Knives are Crying (Fiction)

Summoned by the visionary Sitting Bull to the Sioux summer rendezvous on the Little Bighorn River (Greasy Grass), a medicine man shares his vision of a wonderful victory over the Long Knives invaders, though a sad time may come later. When the Sioux’s brilliant strategist Crazy Horse learns of a threat from the Western forts, he and his warriors outflank Gen. Crook at the Rosebud River on June 17, 1876. Eight days later, Custer, ignoring Reno and Benteen’s reserves, charges a Sioux camp across the Little Bighorn with part of the 7th Cavalry. He and his men are killed in a hail of lead and arrows leaving Benteen and Reno bottled up until a sheltered retreat is possible. The time of sadness is still to come. This second novel in Marshall’s “Lakota” series, written from the Sioux perspective, gives the reader a unique insight into a threatened way of life. It’s both heartening and memorable.