A. C. Ross

Too much woo. Rather than a work simply expounding upon the oral history and spiritual beliefs of the indigenous people of North America, I found Ross to be obsessed with aliens, UFOs, Atlantis, psychics and other such paranormal pseudo-scientific nonsense. He invokes Edgar Cayce and Erich von Däniken along with other such discredited researchers, and he contorts genuine scientific theories of Einstein and others beyond recognition, ascribing unintended (and, frankly, unimaginable) meanings as he strives to interpret native origin stories, spiritual beliefs, and cultural similarities with other peoples. He goes to fantastical lengths to provide evidence for some of the most outlandish origin stories without giving any serious consideration whatsoever to the Beringia migration theory of settlement, dismissing it out-of-hand.… (meer)

I had picked up this book several years ago (2008) and after loving the audiobook of Joseph M Marshall III's Journey of Crazy Horse in January, expected to love this one, too.

Unfortunately this one was a disappointment.

The first part of the book is a distillation from other published sources of the events (well documented with footnotes and bibliography) taking place leading up to the battle. The battle itself is very detailed with many maps. Besides the published accounts, some of this is from oral Lakota history; other is information from Ehanamani's spirit guides which he received during trances.

He then goes into what he feels are the real reasons that the battle took place--most revolving around the white man's lust for gold in the Black Hills (true and well documented). Unfortunately, he wanders into the creation of the Federal Reserve System some 40 years later as the root cause of the Indian's current problems including alcoholism and poverty on the reservation. He refers to 'a small library' of books on the Federal Reserve System conspiracy but none of these are included in the bibliography. There may be something here, but this section comes off as hysterical conspiracy theory with nothing to back it up.

He then offers two astrological natal charts for Crazy Horse and the Battle itself, showing how honorable and inevitable the whole thing was. Ah c'mon. This author is a PhD - so where are the controls for this bit of research-- two charts from thousands of participants in a battle is not convincing evidence of anything. And again--no references for astrology in the bibliography.

This book badly needed an editor; it illustrates many of the problems with self-published books.

I feel like I'm being generous giving this one a two star rating; part of this is for the good bibliography on the Indian wars.… (meer)