SOURCE: "The Preliterate Traditions at Work: White Bull, Two Leggings, and Sarah Winnemucca," in American Indian Autobiography, University of California Press, 1988, pp. 48-71.

In the following excerpt Brumble considers two contrasting Native American autobiographies—Two Leggings: The Making of a Crow Warrior and Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins' Life among the Piutes—and examines the contexts in which each were composed, edited, and published.

Two Leggings

Two Leggings, a River Crow Indian, was born about 1847. He was a warrior, as tender of his reputation as Achilles, as eager as Ajax for honor and booty. Like White Bull, he delighted in war, the hunt, and the stealing of horses. In 1888, just two years before Wounded Knee, he led what was almost certainly the last Crow war party. He was a seeker after visions, and to this end he danced in the Sun Dance lodge, leaning back against the pull of the...