Crazy Horse Book

In the early 90s my family visited the statue that is being carved into a South Dakota mountain in his image and the National Park on the location of the Little Big Horn Battle in Montana, in which Crazy Horse alongside a coalition of tribes were victorious against the US Cavalry, otherwise known as "Custer's Last Stand." Afterwards, I wondered what about this particular man warranted all of the mythology that has surrounded him in the last two centuries. McMurty's book offers few answers, and in fairness, it seems like anything more definitive would be historical fiction. What he does offer is an explanation for the fanfare surrounding Crazy Horse. By all accounts he was a man who had no interest in following the conventions of others: to some extent he didn't fully conform to some of the propriety demanded of his own people, who were on the whole much more willing to accept nonconformity than the European Americans of the 19th century. McMurty observes that his iconoclast nature makes him the ideal hero for a people whose other great warriors (ie. Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, et al) were subdued on reservations; Crazy Horse, on the other hand, died resisting arrest and refused to relinquish his way of life. While I think McMurty treats his subject objectively, I can't give this biography a 5th star because I was perplexed by the comparisons to native struggles against other colonizing powers (ie. comparisons and quotes from individuals in India and New Guinea resisting their colonizers) -- something about writing that a particular Native American tribe's tactics or objections to Americans invading their territory is just like this other minority group's problems seems reductionist.