In the Spirit of Crazy Horse is a book by Peter Matthiessen which chronicles "the story of Leonard Peltier and the FBI's war on the American Indian Movement." It was first published in 1983. Leonard Peltier was convicted of murder in 1977 and sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 killing of two FBI agents, after a trial which the author and many others allege was based on fabricated evidence, widespread fraud and government misconduct.
Synopsis
The book portrays a politically violent period on the Lakota Nation's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation during that time, including the 1973 'Wounded Knee Incident' and the following "Reign of Terror," and describes the 1975 'Pine Ridge Shoot–out' or 'Oglala Firefight' and the subsequent trials and their aftermath. Distribution of the book was interrupted for almost a decade while legal challenges against it were resolved.
