Hundred in the Hand

by Joseph M. Marshall III and Marshall

Book Overview

Seeking to round out the compelling story of the American West, best-selling Lakota author Joseph M. Marshall III brings a new slant to the traditional Western: historical fiction written from the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555916538
• ISBN13: 9781555916534
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Hundred in the Hand

Purchased this for my husband who is Lakota. He loved it and asked me to order the sequel which is coming out in October. I also purchased another copy for my daughter.

Great Novel; fascinating perspective

It is often said that Black people have always had a pretty good understanding of how White people think; but that Whites generally have no idea what Blacks are thinking. Based on the evidence provided by Joseph Marshall's Hundred in the Hand, the same is true for Native Americans. This is simply a good novel. Using the traditional Western as his framework, Marshall develops a whole series of characters with real depth--people we understand and care about. We know from the first few pages how it ends, but no idea how we are going to get there. I kept turning the pages, wanting to know what happens to all of these people. This alone would make this one of the best westerns written in the last several decades--on a par with the best of Elmore Leonard. What makes this a uniquely powerful western is that Marshall flips the traditional story. In the traditional western (think John Wayne), the Native Americans are mostly off-screen savages, with no particular identity, background, or appreciable motivation. Marshall puts them center stage, and gives them depth. However, he does not commit the reverse sin of presenting completely flat Whites. By taking occasional breaks from his focus on the Native American central characters, Marshall is able to provide insight into what motivated the Army and civilians who were engaged in a running battle with the Native Americans. Unfortunately (for history, but not for the novel), the two worlds simply did not intersect. They had completely different world views, and simply could not understand each other. Both sides repeatedly ask themselves whether the other is "really" human at all--as they are so different. While the "good guys" win, this is a tragedy in the classic sense of everyone involved being caught in forces of history over which they have no control, and which they do not understand. Highly recommended.

Interesting Book from the Lakota Point of View

A very interesting first novel from a new writer. I loved the Native American point of view and can't wait to see more from this interesting novelist.

A Reflective Perspective on the American West

I was intrigued by the prospect of a western told from the point of view of a Native American and looked at it from the perspective that we had with "Letters from Iwo Jima" vs. "Flags of Our Fathers".... We've constantly been given stories from the American viewpoint, but rarely have we seen the Native American perspective. This story accomplishes that. This is easily one of the best novels I've ever read. This is not just because it is told from the point of view of a Native American but because the messages it passes to us have a much broader significance than the basic Army vs. Indian disputes of the time... Rather, I found that this book really says a lot about our country as a whole, and it says a lot about how we view our "enemies" and how our enemies view us. The story made me reflect on the past as well as the future, and it made me realize that what we often construe as savage behavior is really a reflection on us. This goes for the Lakota wars of this story to our current conflicts in the Middle East. While I am not certain exactly how accurate this story is with regard to historic (this is considered a novel afterall), I think this story would have a good place in a history curriculum. The social viewpoint presented is very educational with regard to the culture of the Lakota people. It gives background into how the Lakota behave, their philosophy with regards to battle, and how they became who they are. It is good to see literature with such social depth and such deep morals. It is great to see such an entertaining and fantastic book that can still serve a social, cultural, and educational purpose. The story doesn't glamorize anything, but it leaves me wanting to learn more. Fortunately, Joseph Marshall plans on providing more by continuing his story of Cloud in future Lakota Westerns. In the meantime, I strongly suggest this read to provide you a reflection on the American West.

Wonderful historical fiction from the Lakota perspective

This book is nominally the story of the battle of "Hundred in the Hand," known to whites as the Fetterman massacre. However, it doesn't really fall into the category of military history of the "Wild West" or of any other war. Instead, it's more of a paean to a lost lifestyle, by an author who drew extensively on oral history as well as traditional historical research to put together a Lakota perspective of the seasons leading up to this battle. The story is told as a flashback, when a survivor of the battle (Cloud) visits a historical monument to the white version of the battle. The novel ends with a return to the survivor, who promises that he will also tell his grandchildren the story of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn) - - which just happens to be Marshall's next book. This framing doesn't do anything for the story, and I would have deleted both bookends and just told the story. What makes the story work is how Marshall immerses us in the seasonal movements of the Lakota between summer camps and winter camps. We go on hunts with the men, and we also spend some time with the women in camp (but not as much). One summer, more and more whites start using the Bozeman trail to get to gold mines in Montana, and the Long Knives (U.S. Cavalry) move in to provide protection. The Lakota realize what is coming, and decide to spend the summer harassing both travelers and Long Knives, hoping against hope that if they raise the cost of being in the Powder River region the whites will go away. As winter comes, they decide to draw the whites out for a set-piece battle, "Hundred in the Hand." Marshall uses a direct, even simple prose style, while avoiding the stereotype of Indians speaking pidgin English. The whole story sounds right. Though fiction, the story includes various details of such distinction that you see the oral traditions from which Marshall draws. Though clearly written as an alternative to the cowboys-and-Indians tradition of the traditional Western, where Indians are "bad guys," Marshall wisely avoids making the reverse stereotype. He wants your sympathy to lie with the Lakota but he is smart enough to know that the whites have to be convincing characters with motives both good and bad. The soldiers, and one civilian, aren't as fully characterized as the Lakota, but they are well-rounded enough for the story. (And, incidentally, if the book is a flashback in which Cloud is telling the story to his grandchildren, how does he know what the whites were doing and thinking?) Because of its distinctive voice, I'll forgive this book its flaws - - a 4.5 that I'll round up to five stars. This is the rare book that I'd recommend even if you aren't particularly interested in the topic.