Description
Book SynopsisThis long-overdue biography of Dewey Beard (ca. 1862-1955), a Lakota who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn and survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, chronicles a remarkable life that can be traced through major historical events from the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century.
Trade Review"Using a genuine relationship with Beard’s relatives and intertwining their own personal stories into the narrative, Burnham underscores the legacy left them by this man who just lived life as best as he knew how."—Nancy S. Gillis,
Nebraska History"Burnham reignites a too-little-told story of one of the most extraordinary figures of Great Plains history."—Kevin Hooper,
Great Plains Quarterly"
Song of Dewey Beard is an excellent study of a lesser-known Lakota warrior."—Paul Beck,
Western Historical Quarterly“A well-contextualized oral history of a remarkable man. . . . Highly engaging.”—Debra Buchholtz,
American Studies "This biography gives the Lakota people a written version of a story worth telling future generations."—Danielle Perez-St. Antoine,
Chronicles of Oklahoma“The remarkable Dewey Beard was a man who seemed to live forever—old enough to have fought at the Little Bighorn in 1876 and its last survivor when he finally died in 1955. What the old-time Lakota were like, and what they lived through in those seventy years, is the subject of Philip Burnham’s original, bracing, touching, surprising, and vigorously written book. Take note, this is something we have never seen before: a serious, and sometimes funny, and often dramatic, and always interesting account of a Lakota life after the buffalo were gone. That’s where the story usually stops. Burnham lets Beard tell us what happened next.”—Tom Powers, author of The Killing of Crazy Horse
“By scouring the archives and conducting personal interviews, Philip Burnham has helped clarify the historical record, teasing out new information and dispelling lingering myths. Song of Dewey Beard is a thoroughly researched, well-written, and engaging book.”—Akim Reinhardt, author of Ruling Pine Ridge: Oglala Lakota Politics from the IRA to Wounded Knee
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Origins and Family
2. Growing Up
3. Little Bighorn
4. Canada
5. Wounded Knee
6. Cody
7. Fox Belly
8. Pine Ridge
9. Gunnery Range
10. Last Man Standing
11. American Horse Creek
12. The Song of Dewey Beard
Notes
Bibliography
Index
