It is a Good Day to Die - Hardcover

Viola, Herman J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517709120 ISBN 13: 9780517709122

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

I was not sorry at all.  I was a happy boy.  Those white men had come to kill our mothers and fathers and us, and it was our country (Black Elk, Oglala Sioux). Known to generations of white Americans as "Custer's Last Stand" or the Battle of Little Bighorn, it was, to the Plains Indians, the Battle of the Greasy Grass--a great, if short-lived victory against the whites who would soon overrun their country and destroy their way of life. Now, for the first time in a book for children, the story of the Greasy Grass battle is told from the Indian point of view, in a series of dramatic eyewitness vignettes.  Assembled from the recollections of twelve Indian participants in the battle, the book is divided into thirty brief chapters that, together, create a compelling narrative of the battle and the events that preceded it: Sitting Bull's vision of white soldiers falling into his camp "like grasshoppers," Custer's impetuous advance and attack, and finally, his dramatic defeat. An introduction and epilogue provide the historical context and a chronology, bibliographic note, maps, and more than a dozen archival photographs make this an outstanding curriculum item. The voices assembled here create a dramatic memorial to a fabled event in the history of the American West.  

About this title

About the Author:

Herman J. Viola was director of the National Anthropological Archives. His many books include Little Bighorn Remembered: The Untold Indian Story of Custer's Last Stand.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-8-A standard history for young readers involves a carefully unbiased author who assembles a coherent account from various primary and (more usually) secondary sources. Viola has taken a more daring approach. He features excerpts from the memoirs of various participants and observers of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, arranged in such a way as to provide a sense of the chaotic, violent flow of that day. Since no whites survived the battle, all of the witnesses are Native Americans, but some of them worked as scouts for the U.S. Army and thus saw the battle from a different perspective than the victors. The testimony of the narratorsAincluding such prominent figures as Sitting Bull and Black Elk, as well as "unknowns"Ais direct and vivid, revealing aspects of Native American psychology and details of battle preparation. An introduction and epilogue accompany the eyewitness accounts, thus providing readers with an overview of events leading up to, and subsequent to, the battle itself. While the inclusion of multiple narrators might be confusing, readers can consult Viola's biographical notes to identify each speaker. Furthermore, the possible confusion can in a certain sense be defended as an analogue to the disorientation of battle. The note on sources allows for further and more in-depth research. A few black-and-white reproductions and maps are scattered throughout. This is a brief, but powerful, book about an event that still attracts much attention.
Coop Renner, Coldwell Elementary-Intermediate School, El Paso, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0517709120
• ISBN 13: 9780517709122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 101