Book Description

William J. Bordeaux was a bona-fide member of the Brule band of the Sioux tribe. His grandfather James Bordeaux was one of the early French fur traders who bravely carried on his trade and barter with the Sioux when the virgin prairies of the west were still an open frontier. A lineal descendent of Red Cormorant Woman (Húntkálutawin), his grandmother, he was well versed in his mother tongue. Being proficient in several dialects of the native language, he was able to converse with sage and grizzled old warriors and thus obtain information impossible for a white man to learn. His close union with his own tribe and daily conversations with them is an assurance that no doubtful, or transcribed evidence, will appear on these pages. In Bordeaux’s search for material for a history of his people, he spent considerable time traveling and talking to the oldest Indians on the different Sioux Indian Reservations. Through his research he stored up and accumulated a wealth of stories and legends, with awe inspiring fables and facts that would be valuable to story writers. These fragmentary myths and authentic facts connected with his people would have been lost without these writings. In his travels for the purpose of obtaining datum relative to the hostile activities by the different war chiefs, he found one warrior that stood out alone, excelling all other Sioux war braves, as to courage, and cunning, “Crazy Horse,” an Oglála Sioux.