Reviews for Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux: A Biography

The average rating for Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux: A Biography based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-10-18 00:00:00 Diane Haslett This book has two great virtues not often found together in history books: First, the author has taken great pains not only to be historically accurate even when others have written slander and lies, but he explains how he came to the conclusions he drew. This book could not have been written today, since Vestal could not have interviewed so many people who were witnesses. Second, it is beautifully readable. The story is engaging enough, but the prose is lucid and lively as well. If you want to know who Sitting Bull was, you will need to read this book.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-04-27 00:00:00 Steven Archuleta I read this book primarily to scan it for genealogical information. The book is more of a collection of chronological narrative short stories about Sitting Bull's life (particularly in the first half) than a traditional biography. It should be noted that Walter Stanley Campbell (pen name Stanley Vestal) did have personal relationships with Sitting Bull's nephews and other Dakota and Lakota and did consult them directly for much of the text. This book should be read critically though. Originally published in 1932, Campbell's biography should be considered both a biography of Sitting Bull and as an example of settler writing on Indigenous peoples from the first half of the twentieth century.