The Horsecatcher (Bison Book)

Mari Sandoz is best known for her fictional biography of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse. This story is about a Cheyenne youth named Elk who would rather catch horses than go on the warpath, or even the hunt. The gist of the book is that Elk's problem is he is a pacifist in a warrior society. Sometimes, however, the story stretches credulity as Elk will eat buffalo... so long as someone else kills it. He will however kill an animal or human if his life is on the line. Maybe this is based on a true story that Ms. Sandoz heard from the Indians and she added her own details, mirroring her work on Crazy Horse. Also, the writing style is sometimes awkward. The intended audience is young adults. While I don't feel that my time was completely wasted reading the book, I didn't finish it with that feeling that I must read it again someday as I have with other novels of this genre.

According to the blurbs on the back cover, this books is fantastic, wonderful at depicting Indian life, yada yada yada. I only got thru the first few pages before finding it unreadable. I enjoy a number of YA books, but had real trouble here. It's an old book, but that shouldn't affect the quality of the writing.

It was an excellent book. I enjoyed it very much. The author is a very descriptive writer. A must read!

Young Elk, a Southern Cheyenne of 16 or so, circa 1838, is a maverick among his people. He dresses plainly, doesn't care for ceremonials, has no interest in warfare and coup-counting and little more in hunting. He's undergone his fast, but nobody was quite able to figure out what his dream meant. He knows he's a disappointment to his father, Elk River, a headman of his band, to his uncle Owl Friend, who founded a warrior society, and to his grown brother Two Wolves; knows he has little hope of ever being approvingly looked on by the pretty Red Sleeve. But he can't help what's in his heart. He wants to be a horsecatcher--a hunter and tamer of wild horses. When we first meet him, he's slipped away from his village on a lone horse-hunt, hoping to catch Bear Colt, a black mustang with a white splotch on his side in the form of a bear. But despite hardship and deprivation and even almost getting accidentally killed by some of his own tribesmen, he succeeds, and that's worth the shaming he gets from his kin.Over the next two years we watch as Elk learns his chosen profession, standing firm against the misunderstandings that come with it--even when he warns his village of approaching Kiowa raiders and kills one with his little rabbit bow, he doesn't wear any sign of his accomplishment--and facing, bravely and alone, the perils in which it places him. He's no coward: once he helps to save the tribe's great talismans, the Sacred Arrows, after their Keeper has been killed; when his brother is killed, along with his entire war party, he penetrates deep into Kiowa country, alone, to recover and bury the remains. In a culture that places great value on horses, it's surprising that no one seems ready to recognize what a real contribution he could make to the lives of his people. Yet the spirits are on his side: he dreams of the bird-that-lives-with-horses, who tells him, "Work with horses and I will protect you. Kill nothing except to live..."Mari Sandoz, who grew up on the prairies of western Nebraska in the early 20th century, knew personally many Indians who remembered the old days, and she tells lyrically and with deep sympathy of their ways, their beliefs, and how even among them, it was sometimes necessary for a young man to earn the right to live as he felt he must. Young people of today who feel compelled to swim against the current could well profit from reading this slender novel, and anyone with an interest in the Plains Indians should enjoy it.

Outstanding. My favorite of Mari Sandoz.

I first read this book when I was 10, I bought it for my twin grandsons, I’m now 73 and hoping they will like it as much as I did.