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Description
Little Crow: Leader of the DakotaThe Plains Indian Wars of the nineteenth century garnered enduring fame for certain Indian leaders, their names echoing powerfully even today: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud. Just as significant but less often mentioned is Taoyateduta, known to whites as Little Crow, the reluctant leader of Dakota warriors during the U. S. Dakota War of 1862, the opening salvo of the U. S. Indian Wars. In this carefully researched biography of the Dakota leader,
The Plains Indian Wars of the nineteenth century garnered enduring fame for certain Indian leaders, their names echoing powerfully even today: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud. Just as significant but less often mentioned is Taoyateduta, known to whites as Little Crow, the reluctant leader of Dakota warriors during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the opening salvo of the U.S.-Indian Wars.In this carefully researched biography of the Dakota leader, the first ever written for children, author Gwenyth Swain presents a compelling portrait of the leader, warrior, and politician at the center of the Dakota War of 1862.
Beginning with Taoyateduta's childhood along the Mississippi River near present-day St. Paul, this biography explores his life in the Big Woods, his wanderings west from the Mdewakanton Dakota's traditional home, his leadership of his people when they were forced to sign over their land to white settlers, and his role during the war of 1862. Hemmed in on a narrow reservation, frustrated by broken treaties, angered by dishonest agents and traders, and nearly starved because of crop failures and late annuity payments, Dakota Indians attacked white settlers living on the Indians' former homelands in southwestern Minnesota. Taoyateduta agreed to lead the battles, knowing that the U.S. government's response would be swift and terrible. In retribution for the thirty-eight-day war, thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged, thousands were imprisoned, and the Dakota people were expelled from the state.
Taoyateduta's story brings to life the painful experience of the Dakota as they lost their land and their livelihood--and as some chose to adopt white ways while others fought back, with disastrous consequences. Little Crow: Leader of the Dakota offers a clear and accessible account of both the man who led the Dakota into war and the causes behind that wrenching conflict.
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Borealis Books
Published: 03/08/2004
ISBN: 9780873515030
Pages: 101
Weight: 0.41lbs
Size: 8.98h x 6.08w x 0.34d
Review Citations: School Library Journal 07/01/2004 pg. 128
Booklist 07/01/2004 pg. 1832
Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 79632 / Little Crow: Leader of the Dakota
Reading Level: 6.5 / Interest Level: Middle Grade / Point Value: 3
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4.8 ★★★★★
Based on 1878 reviews
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★★★★★ 5
Great gift idea!
Denomination: 0, Design Name: You're the best. (Animated)
Always a great gift for anyone and easy to purchase and redeem.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Quick delivery, Naturally a great and easy gift.
Denomination: 0, Design Name: You're the best. (Animated)
Always a great way to say thank you.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2026
★★★★★ 5
A Dyadic Review: Baffling, Brilliant
Difficult. Rewarding.
Serious. Hilarious.
Wise. Faux-wise.
Scholarly. Mock-scholarly.
Observant. Absurdly, obsessively observant.
Sharp characterizations. Ridiculous characters.
Devout. Bawdy.
Endearing. Frustrating.
Genius. Barking mad.
Narratively incoherent. Stream-of-consciousness associative.
Consistently provincial. Profoundly universal.
Mired in the 18th century. Harbinger of 20th century literary Modernism.
Baffling. Brilliant
Not for every taste. For my taste.
And while I'm at it, let me give a shout-out for the out-of-print Norton critical edition, which provides many helps, essay avenues of understanding, and a clever chapter summary/table of contents. For so many years - since reading Moby Dick in grad school with the help of a Norton critical - this publication line has been my go-to for great texts: useful annotations, contemporary reviews, later scholarly articles, and more.
And also let me give a shout-out to Anton Lesser, who narrated the complete novel for Naxos. I have never, ever experienced an audiobook as masterfully produced and narrated as Naxos' Tristram Shandy. No, it is simply not a book one can listen to and fully comprehend as heard. But one might read while listening, or listen while reading, with - if you have the riight software - the narration sped up closer to one's own reading speed, and experience the full majesty of Lesser's absolute preparation, with Latin, Greek, French, and German - as well as regional English - beautifully and humorously intoned, character voices carefully differentiated, tone and mood captured, etc. Or, as I do, go for a walk and listen as you walk, and afterward slip into a comfy chair, crack the novel open, and continue from where you left off, or backtrack if necessary to sort out the characters. In any event, and particularly for devotees of audio books, do find Anton Lesser's note-perfect reading, a veritable radio serial, perhaps the last book you'd expect anyone to attempt single-handedly, with My Father, My Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, Doctor Slop, Widow Wadman, and all the rest of the supporting characters beautifully, consistently interpreted. Lesser is, in a galaxy of fine narrators, the greatest I've heard: an absolutely peerless voice actor in a most demanding work.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2016
★★★★★ 5
Brilliant stream of consciousness style, *extremely* humorous
"The Life and Opinions..." is perhaps impossible to really classify. It purports to be a biography of the fictional Tristram Shandy, but I don't think you can call something a biography when it only covers a year or so of the subject's life! I would say that more than half of the novel actually falls into the "Opinions" referred to in the title. The rest consists of short stories on Tristram's father, uncle, and a couple other minor characters.
I have never in my life read so many digressions from the topic at hand, most of which were utterly irrelevant but the charm of it is that Sterne *knows* they're irrelevant, but mockingly expresses his license of authorship in forcing the reader to go off on these sidetracks. His attitude is: "If you can't wait a chapter or two to get back to the story, well, go take a flying leap, I'm the author." Sometimes the digressions are exasperating. Very unlike Victor Hugo's signature habit of digressing, say when a certain main character in Notre Dame decides to enter the Paris sewers, Hugo takes thirty or more pages to give a history of the design and construction of the Paris sewer system. At least Hugo's digressions have *something* to do with the story.
Well, maybe that's the problem. There isn't a main story in this novel. It's not a storybook. There are many short stories nested within the main framework, but there is no real protagonist or overarching theme of any sort. Indeed, the end comes abruptly and there is absolutely no resolution of any conflict.
It's not trying to teach anything, really.
So what is it? I'm not sure. More a comedy than anything else. Right up there with Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" in terms of humor, but lacking the story. Maybe funnier than Dickens and just as clever. I was rolling in the aisles so many times I lost count.
I read the Penguin edition, edited by Melvyn & Joan New. The back cover does a better job than I could ever do in providing a sense of what you're getting into when you pick this one up:
"No one description will fit this strange, eccentric, endlessly complex masterpiece. It is a fiction about fiction-writing in which the invented world is as much infused with wit and genius as the theme of inventing it. It is a joyful celebration of the infinite possibilities of the art of fiction, and a wry demonstration of its limitations."
It's a large work, it will take a while to work through. It's worth it. There are passages I want to go back to and make copies of to tape to the walls, they're that brilliant.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2005
★★★★★ 3
Interesting read, but takes some getting used to
I heard about this book on a blog, and figured I'd check it out. It's the rambling tale of a man determined to give you every last detail of everything that might be important to the narrative of his life. Unfortunately, he goes on tangets so often that he doesn't even get to his birth for several chapters, let alone the story of the rest of his life. Along the way, you're introduced to lots of random characters who are (at best) loosely related to the protagonist, but as often as not these tangents are fairly amusing.
The writing is pretty dense, and this along with the tangents had me putting the book down fairly often. It's probably ideal for a commuting book, but I never wanted to just sit down and blitz through big chunks of it.
Overall it's a very different kind of experience than a novel reader typically gets. It's worth a read for a change of pace, but I can't say it's a life-altering read.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2013