Customer Rating: 
Summary: Happiness walks with sadness
Comment: Fools' Crow
The Pikunis must deal with the coming of the Napikwans (the whites). At first things go fairly well, a bit exciting for the bands as trade picks up at the forts, they live by treaty and live in relative peace for many years, but the Napikwans gradually move their whitehorns (cattle) into all of what is now Montana stretched up to the Back bone of the World (the Rocky Mountains) and eventually trickle north of the Medicine Line (Canada and U.S. Border).
Fools Crow is preparing for the greatest task of his life, that is to help prepare his people for the Napikwan takeover and the removal of his people from their lands. Should he and his band move north and live with those relatives that are still free from government control, but who are limited to the fishing they survive on. The other choice is to submit and learn to survive within the confines of the Napikwan agency, getting used to guns, whiskey, abuse and starvation to name a few of its attributes. What will Fool Crows do to help his people?
In this book we learn of a whole new descriptive way of looking at the world through the mind of the Plains Indians; the great buffalo hunters for which there is no possible equal. This is one of few potent portrayals of a history that we have had but a glimmer of, and thanks to the talent of James Welch who was born on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, we are treated to a spectacular voice for the vision of that not so long ago world.
There are times in this life when we must prepare for something that may seem impossible to deal with, and the choices become absurd. This is the book to read then to take heart and be of courage. As Welch points out, there is a type of happiness that walks with sadness.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exquisitely written
Comment: Fools Crow is an historical novel of the European invasion from a Native perspective. This tragedy is told through prose so hauntingly beautiful, it will stay with you for a long time to come. An exceptional book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a real taste of native plains life
Comment: I've read a wide range of books on native americans but none have struck me, or stuck with me, like Fools Crow. This is a masterwork. It gives one the sense of living life on the high plains of what is now Montana in the years just before and then during the westward expansion of the Europeans. The gift of Welsh is his ability to transport you there, make you feel it, live and breathe it, through the glorious days before, the uncertain days leading up to, and the demoralizing days following the near obliteration of the Blackfoot culture. The use of native place names and language in the book serve to draw you in effortlessly. This is a beautiful book, powerful, heartbreaking, and memorable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just Amazing
Comment: I finished this book, put it down, picked it up, and read it again. The historically inevitable ending (for those who know history) does nothing to detract from Welch's ability to keep you hanging on every word, right up to the the end. The seamless integration of the physical and spiritual planes provides a refreshing view into not just Native American life, but life in general.
I just can't believe I didn't discover this book sooner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: FOOLSCROW
Comment: Being an enrolled Native-American myself, and having a good understanding of the history of Native/Anglo encounters, I recommend this book highly as an accurate description of life on the plains during the last days of the Blackfeet... brilliant!
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