Cheyenne Memories by John Stands (review)

164 Western American Literature Cheyenne Memories. By John Stands In Timber and Margot Liberty. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967. xv + 330 pages, illus., $7.95.) The subject matter of Cheyenne Memories is such as to raise the question: Why should such a book exist? Considering the works of George Bird Grinnell and all the other writers on the Cheyennes, what can be added to our know­ ledge of the folklore and history of these Indians, particularly in view of the fact that these memories are those of a man who lived into our own time? Then, too, John Stands In Timber was a literate man, yet not well educated; he had read many newspaper accounts and books. To what extent are his memories a rehash from questionable sources? If the book were nothing else, it would be justified by one almostincidental aspect: it is a kind of indirect biography of a man who was an aficionado of his people. John Stands In Timber was fascinated by what the Cheyennes have been and are. He was the kind of man who goes around marking with loose rocks the sites of past events. Margot Liberty gives a beautiful account of his nature in her introduction, and the sense of the man carries through the book. He had lived a hard life, but at 70 was still a tough man with an eager sense of humor and an objective mind. Born in 1884, John Stands In Timber came along early enough to experience personally the Ghost Dance time, to see rituals and practices hardly yet altered by reservation life, to grow up surrounded by those who re­ membered Sand Creek and the Washita and the Little Bighorn. He died in 1967. If much of his account of old times is heresay, it is nevertheless unique, an insider’s view, the story of the Cheyennes as they themselves understood it. The basis of the book is talk by John Stands In Timber, tape recorded by Margot Liberty. In view of the comprehensive nature of the material, she must have faced a monumental job of organizing and cutting to book length. She has not corrected his account where he might seem to be in error, but in handy notes has added contrasting and complementary information from other sources. The book begins with the creative myth and various legends, covers tribal organization and religiou and history. John mentions some dozen Indians who told him about the battle where Custer died. His own grandfather, Lame White Man, was the only Cheyenne chief killed in the battle. His account of this fight exemplifies how knowledge of a much-recorded event may still be added to. He tells of a suicide vow by a number of Sioux boys and four Cheyennes, of how they danced the "Dying Dancing” the night before, and of how they charged to lead the hand-to-hand combat which overwhelmed Custer. It seems a plausible answer to the question of why Custer could not do what Reno did, fall back on a defensive position and save most of his men. Reviews 165 But it is the personal memories and comments of John Stands In Timber which seem to me chiefly interesting. His brief account of his mother’s death when he was 8 or 9 is realistic and moving. He tells about visits and feasts and about Cheyenne problems with whiskey and disease and changing gov­ ernmental programs. One can hardly finish the book without hoping fervently along with him that all his people will become competent at living in the twentieth century at the same time that they “never forget the heritage of the old Cheyennes.” B e n ja m in Capps, Grand Prairie, Texas Letters from the West; Containing Sketches of Scenery, Manners, and Customs; and Anecdotes Connected with the First Settlements of the Western Sections of the United States (1828). By James Hall. A Facsimile Reproduction with an Introduction by John T. Flanagan. (Gainesville, Florida: Scholars’ Fac­ similes & Reprints, 1967. vi + 385 pages. $10.00.) James Hall was twenty-six years old when he left Pittsburgh in the spring of 1820 and sailed down the Ohio River in a...