My Indian Boyhood

Being written for young people, Standing Bear's account of his Lakota childhood is necessarily sanitized and romanticized. Its focus is on the domestic life of his people. Mention is often made of the courage of the warriors but there is no description of any military action. An incident is related of an enemy warrior stumbling into the village. We are told that he was well treated and quickly released. It is hard to believe that that was typical treatment of an enemy. Similarly, the more adult themes of courtship and sexuality are largely ignored. What we are left with is a treasure trove of homely detail: how cooking was accomplished in the absence of metal pots, how the boys caught turtles in the creek, what games they played. This is the very warp and weft of everyday life that gets left out of the broad-sweep histories that concentrate on great battles and famous lives. Standing Bear may not always be totally reliable, any more than any other commentator - for example, his account of leather tanning, which was strictly women's work, did not quite ring true for me. (Not that I have ever tanned a buffalo hide - I just doubt it can be done in quite the way he describes). All the same this remains an essential work, packed full as it is of fascinating detail, for anyone interested in understanding the lifestyle of the Sioux, and is a perfect gift for a youngster who expresses an interest in American Indians.