Best Books About the Sioux 2026: Plains Nations, Little Bighorn and the Long War for the Black Hills

BLACK ELK SAID THAT THE NATION'S HOOP WAS BROKEN AT WOUNDED KNEE. He had seen the Ghost Dancers shot down in the snow, the women and children cut down by Hotchkiss guns, the bodies left frozen in the field for three days before they were buried in a mass grave. He lived another sixty years after that morning, and he never stopped seeing it. The Sioux story is one of the most dramatic and tragic in North American history: a century of resistance that included the greatest military defeat of the US Army by Native forces, and ended in the snow of South Dakota. --- ◆ --- ## The Sioux and the American History Problem The Sioux present American history with some of its most uncomfortable questions. The Black Hills were guaranteed to the Sioux "forever" by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, then seized four years later when gold was discovered. Custer's expedition into the Black Hills in 1874 was explicitly a violation of that treaty. The Great Sioux War that followed, which ended with Little Bighorn and then Wounded Knee, was a consequence of that violation. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that the seizure of the Black Hills was illegal and awarded the Sioux $105 million in compensation. The Sioux refused the money. They wanted the land. As of 2026, that money sits in a federal account, uncollected, because the Lakota have never accepted cash in exchange for their sacred land. The story is not over. --- ◆ --- ## The Best Books on the Sioux ### 1. *Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee* by Dee Brown This 1970 book is one of the most important works in American history and the book that permanently shifted popular understanding of the Indian Wars. Brown tells the history of the conquest of the American West from the perspective of the Native nations who experienced it: the Sioux, the Navajo, the Apache, the Comanche, and others. He draws on council meeting records, government documents, and firsthand accounts to document broken treaties, military atrocities, and forced removals in specific, unflinching detail. It became a bestseller and changed the language Americans used to discuss this history. Forty years after publication, it remains essential. ### 2. *Black Elk Speaks* by John G. Neihardt Black Elk was an Oglala Lakota holy man who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn as a young boy and survived Wounded Knee. In 1930, he told his story to poet John G. Neihardt, who transcribed and shaped it into this classic text. Black Elk's account of the Lakota world before and after conquest is a spiritual as well as historical document: he describes his great vision, the ceremonies and beliefs of his people, and the grief of a man who watched everything he knew be destroyed. The book has been criticized for Neihardt's editorial shaping of Black Elk's words, but it remains irreplaceable as a primary account. ### 3. *Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas* by Mari Sandoz Sandoz grew up in the Nebraska sandhills near the Pine Ridge Reservation and wrote this biography with access to elderly Lakota who had known Crazy Horse personally. The result is the most vivid and humanizing portrait of the most famous Sioux war leader. Crazy Horse led the forces at Little Bighorn, fought with relentless skill against the US Army, and was killed under disputed circumstances while surrendering at Fort Robinson in 1877 at around age 35. Sandoz captures the internal Lakota politics, the religious dimensions of Crazy Horse's role, and the human cost of a decade of war. ### 4. *The Last Stand* by Nathaniel Philbrick Philbrick's account of the Battle of Little Bighorn is the best recent treatment of the military engagement itself. He reconstructs the battle from both sides, using archaeological evidence from the battlefield site, Army records, and Native American accounts. He is particularly good on what went wrong with Custer's plan and why the defeat was so total. The book situates the battle within the larger context of the Grant administration's Indian policy and the gold rush into the Black Hills. A superb narrative history that does justice to the complexity of both sides. ### 5. *In the Spirit of Crazy Horse* by Peter Matthiessen This investigative account covers the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973, the subsequent FBI investigation, and the trial of AIM leader Leonard Peltier for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Reservation. Matthiessen, a National Book Award winner, argues that Peltier was convicted on inadequate evidence in a politically charged atmosphere. The book was suppressed for years through libel litigation before being published in full. Whether you accept Matthiessen's conclusions or not, it is an essential document for understanding what happened to Sioux sovereignty and Sioux communities in the 20th century. --- ◆ --- ## The Historical Arc **Great Plains Migration (1600s-1700s):** The Sioux acquire horses and migrate from the Great Lakes to the northern Great Plains, transforming into bison hunters and becoming one of the dominant powers of the region. **Fort Laramie Treaties (1851, 1868):** The US negotiates treaties with the Sioux recognizing their territory. The 1868 treaty guarantees the Black Hills forever. **Gold and the Black Hills (1874):** Custer's expedition discovers gold. Miners flood in. The US government attempts to buy the Black Hills; the Sioux refuse. War is declared. **Great Sioux War (1876-1877):** Little Bighorn (June 1876) is a Sioux victory. But the US Army responds with relentless winter campaigns. Sitting Bull flees to Canada. Crazy Horse surrenders and is killed. **Reservation Era and Ghost Dance (1880s-1890):** The Sioux are confined to reservations. The Ghost Dance movement promises renewal. The US Army kills Sitting Bull and then massacres 250+ people at Wounded Knee. **20th Century and AIM (1900-1975):** Urban migration, poverty, and political activism. The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee in 1973. The Supreme Court rules the Black Hills seizure illegal in 1980. **Black Hills Legal Battle (1980-present):** The Sioux refuse $105 million in compensation. They continue to demand the return of the Black Hills. --- ◆ --- ## Chapter Resources - Brown, Dee. *Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee*. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. - Neihardt, John G. *Black Elk Speaks*. University of Nebraska Press, 1932. - Sandoz, Mari. *Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas*. Knopf, 1942. - Philbrick, Nathaniel. *The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn*. Viking, 2010. - Matthiessen, Peter. *In the Spirit of Crazy Horse*. Viking, 1983.