Like several of the books in our tour of the States, Stephen Ambrose uses the device of parallel lives to trace the eventual encounter of Crazy Horse and George Armstrong Custer. A blurb on the back cover summarizes Ambrose's differentiation of the two characters: "Custer was never satisfied with where he was. He always aimed to go on to the next higher station in his society. He was always in a state of becoming. Crazy Horse accepted the situation he found himself in and aimed only to be a brave warrior ... He was in a state of being ..." Ambrose uses these men to personify the predominant traits of their people and time, and the inevitable misunderstanding and clash of cultures.
For most of the book, I ran with that premise, until I noticed the word "where" ... our quest to discover the influence of place on personality and story. Both men moved almost perpetually, and the book is hardly limited to Montana. Custer made his moves as career moves, seeing the Plains as his next theater in which to become a national star and potential Presidential candidate. He used his hometown roots to enhance his standing by marrying the most sought after girl in town. He used West Point as yet another credential, and parlayed those connections for plum assignments during and after the Civil War. His usage was almost abusive, pushing social barriers and academic and military discipline. His movement blasted through perceived confinements and rules.
Crazy Horse knew no State boundaries, only the geography of camp sites and the length his horse could travel. He did not manipulate his place/tribe and compatriots. His motivation was the advancement of his people not personal aggrandizement. His travels were often escapes into solitude and reflection.
And so, Ambrose paints two cultures which could not understand or tolerate each other's values, heritage or sense of the future.
Less explicitly, Ambrose uses the transcontinental railroad as a deus ex machina, the real cause of the Army establishing forts and squashing Indian buffalo hunts and free migration across the Plains. The railroad becomes the metaphor for "becoming" ... becoming an industrial power, an avenue for personal reconstruction and profit. It is also the weapon that decimates the herds and hunting grounds, essentially cutting off the Sioux' main trait.
I found the book slow going and scholasti and it does not present a picture of Montana in its geographical uniqueness. Rather it emphasizes two different plot lines common to all character development and good writing: the tragedy of accepting a doomed place and lot and the hubris of marking your ground to write history.
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