After reading the postings of my fellow classmates, I feel just slightly ignorant in revealing that, before reading this book, I had never heard of Red Cloud. It is entirely possible that I did learn about him at some point and just was not paying attention (whoops!), but I would think that I would have recognized at least the name of the only Native American to lead his people in "military victory against the United States Army" and actually negotiate with President Grant face-to-face (p 8). Reading this book interested me in large part because I was learning about someone, of obvious importance, who I had never heard of before. This being the case, I do think about how the slant of the transcribers of this autobiography influce my idea of Native Americans.

     Several of my classmates have pointed out the bias present against the Native Americans, portraying them as war mongers and savages uncapable of successful negotiations. I think that Paul made a very good point, though, in that the different fighting tribes are parallel in many ways to the "bickering nation states" of the Western world. They also made me think of stories I've seen on the news about African tribes killing each other today. As "civilized" Americans we gasp at the brutality and inhumanity of such stories, but I definitely think, too, about the atrocious things Americans have done, as Jefe pointed out. I thought it was apparent, though certainly not emphasised, that alcohol and firearms introduced through Westerners decreased quality of life and increased mortality rates for the Native Americans, as shown in chapters 6 and 18 for alochol and throughout the narrative for guns. This just reminded me of learning about these devastating affects of white western expansion in a more modern-day setting in the story, _Ceremony_ by Leslie Marmon Silko, that I had to read junior year, probably because it is the only other Native American book I've read.

     Unlike some of my classmates, though, I think this book does include information about the "daily life" of the Oglala people, depending on what one's definition of "daily life" is. True, it does not venture into the actual day to day goings on of the people, but it does give informative accounts of the rituals surrounding important events of marriage, death, war, and feasting. As Rusty noted, this book is very detailed. I, for one, know this book benefitted me by informing me of who Red Cloud was. Yes, one does have to face the question of objectivity in this as with all historical books, and passing through several hands cans reduce a story's integrity, but what else can one do but take in as much information as is available from various sources and from them piece together a history to the best of their ability (like we did with our term projects)? Though I wish Red Cloud had chosen to relate stories of his later interactions with Americans, such as his travels to Washington, I can see where these would not be the glorious type of story he would like to keep remembering; nontheless, this book added to my knowledge of Native Americans.