Paha

The book jumps back and forth through time, showing Paha Sapa's formidable youth, blossoming romance with a white woman, and his dying days as he plans to blow up Mount Rushmore on the day of its unveiling.

My Five: Books on my Unofficial Summer Reading List 2010

The soldier he has laid his hands upon at the moment of death is none other than General George Custer, and as a result Custer's spirit or some form of it leaped into Paha Sapa's body and mind.

Archive 2010-04-01 2010

It stands apart from just about anything I've read and the language used, seamlessly fusing English with bits of a Siouan tongue, as Paha Sapa gradually becomes more familiar with the white man's world and the white man's nature.

Archive 2010-04-01 2010

For Paha Sapa (Sioux for Black Hills, the place of his birth), a young Lakota boy, the act of counting coup on a fallen white soldier in the midst of a battle winds up backfiring and setting his life on a winding and inevitable course through to his old age.

Archive 2010-04-01 2010

Paha Sapa's story jumps from past to present -- "present" being a relative term here -- as Dan Simmons lays out his life, his maturation, his heartbreak, and his resolutions.

Rabid Reads: "Black Hills" by Dan Simmons 2010

For Paha Sapa (Sioux for Black Hills, the place of his birth), a young Lakota boy, the act of counting coup on a fallen white soldier in the midst of a battle winds up backfiring and setting his life on a winding and inevitable course through to his old age.

Rabid Reads: "Black Hills" by Dan Simmons 2010

Jump ahead to the 1930s where Paha Sapa, now known to others as Billy Slow Horse, is working as a powderman on the construction of Mount Rushmore, carving the four heads of U.S.

Rabid Reads: "Black Hills" by Dan Simmons 2010

Paha Sapa's gift which is rare but not unheard of among his people is a touch, though unpredictable, that gives him glimpses into the past and future of those he touches.

Archive 2010-04-01 2010

Here, Paha Sapa still lives with the spirit of Custer many decades after first encountering him, has been married and raised a son, and now plots secretly to exact a measure of revenge and justice on the day President Roosevelt comes to commemorate to monument.

Archive 2010-04-01 2010

And after touching the revered Crazy Horse after telling about his encounter with Custer, Paha Sapa's life is sent on a path away from his people during a tumultuous time (1876) -- the dust is still settling in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

Archive 2010-04-01 2010