Crazy Horse Weeps: The Challenge of Being Lakota in White America

"Poverty, physical abuse, suicide, and addiction have all reached epidemic proportions on South Dakota's Indian reservations. Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota children and young adults are disproportionately affected by these trends. Historical trauma, chronically underfunded federal programs, and broken promises on the part of the US government have resulted in gaping health, educational, and economic disparities compared to the general population. Award-winning Lakota writer Joseph M. Marshall III, who himself was raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, wants to give voice to the hundreds of thousands of Native children currently suffering. Crazy Horse Weeps offers a thorough historical overview of how South Dakota reservations have wound up in these tragic circumstances. Through personal narratives and firsthand accounts from children and their families, he shows how discrimination, a disorganized tribal government, and a devastating dissolution of Lakota culture by the US government have transformed the landscape of Native American life. These extraordinary challenges, Marshall argues, can be overcome. Using his extensive experience in traditional Lakota wisdom, he proposes a return to traditional tribal values and outlines a plan for a hopeful future"--