The Story Catcher by Mari Sandoz

First published: 1963; illustrated

Type of work: Historical fiction

Themes: Coming-of-age, family, and race and ethnicity

Time of work: The late nineteenth century

Recommended Ages: 13-18

Locale: Nebraska and other parts of the Great Plains

Principal Characters:

• Young Lance, a young brave whose differences make it difficult for the men of the tribe to accept him
• Good Axe, a respected warrior and family leader, the father of Young Lance
• Sun Shield, the village leader
• Little Ree, a young Pawnee whom Young Lance finds and brings home with him
• Feather, Young Lance’s second mother
• Blue Dawn, the young maiden of Young Lance’s choice
• Cedar, and
• Deer Foot, friends Young Lance’s age, with whom he shares adventures

The Story

Young Lance, a Sioux Indian lad and a member of Sun Shield’s village who lives on the Great Plains, has great difficulty living by the philosophy of his people. The Sioux are taught from childhood that doing things impulsively without thinking of the good of the family and the tribe is a selfish way of life, not to be tolerated. Young Lance, however, is continually straying to find what lies beyond the hill, to go back and look at danger in more detail.

Once, for example, he brought home a young Ree, a little Pawnee boy. (Rees are a branch of the Pawnee Nation, enemies of the Sioux.) Young Lance went back to a battleground where they had fought and found the little Ree, about five years old, naked, hungry, and hiding. Without thinking about the burden to his family tribe— that the widow of the warrior killed in the battle might choose to kill the little one to avenge her husband, as she has a right to do—Lance captured the Ree and took him back to camp. Jumping Moose, leader of the scouting party, told him, “You are a leaky kettle in which to cook the soup of responsibility!”

Several times in the growing years, Young Lance must be punished for his impulsiveness, but he learns independence and develops keen senses of tracking and scouting, which proves valuable to his people. He wins some favor, while having to remain behind when a hunting party leaves one spring, by trapping and killing a bald eagle with only his hands. The span of the eagle’s wings is more than six feet.

The young Sioux’s greatest talent is in observing, drawing, and painting pictures of events in the life of the tribe. He paints on animal hides given to him by Feather. At first they have no value, but as his talents develop, he shows them and recounts the story that goes with the picture. The old historian of the village criticizes him until he learns to be accurate.

On his first buffalo hunt, he kills three buffalo. It is in the fall of the year, when the village is trying to kill and preserve by drying and making wasna for the winter. (Wasna is a food made by grinding dried meat and mixing in some dried berries and tallow.) They need hides for their beds, their tents, and their robes, as well as the meat for food. Young Lance is proud to be able to present meat to his second mother, Feather. (Boys of the tribe have second mothers, who chose them as babies. The blood mother is not allowed to speak directly to a son after he is seven years of age because by doing so she ties him to her too closely. The second mother is free to express the care that is denied to the blood mother.)

Young Lance wants to win the favor of Blue Dawn, a popular young maiden of the village, but he is too shy to court her, as others have done. Winning her hand and learning to draw the pictures that will tell the history of his people are motivations for many of his adventures. The rigors of survival for himself and his people demand many sacrifices. Speaking to Paint Maker, Young Lance tells of his dreams about making pictures and his hopes to see things as if from a high hill and into tomorrow. Days later, Paint Maker looks at some of Young Lance’s pictures and says that he must learn to observe things in the natural world and record the wisdom of Mother Earth.

After many adventures and wounds, winters, battles, and white men’s measles, Lance finally hears Good Axe and Paint Maker chant his deeds and declare his new name, Story Catcher, to the tribe. He is honored and determined to live up to the honor.

The Story Catcher depicts the harshness of life on the plains before the comforts brought by civilization. Young readers can identify with Young Lance, who is a very believable character, and feel pride when he finally wins recognition and a name from his people.

Context

Expert, painstaking research went into the writing of The Story Catcher. Sandoz was born in the Sand Hill cattle country of northwest Nebraska. The rigors of land and climate about which she wrote were a part of her nature, but her knowledge went beyond experience. She said, “When I was nearly 14 my brother and I had to dig our cattle out of the snowdrift of a May blizzard, and by night I was snowblind, totally blind for around six weeks. Then I discovered I had only one eye left. But it’s very useful to me, so it doesn’t matter.” In The Story Catcher, Sandoz shows that same kind of determination and outlook toward life to Young Lance. He does what must be done and is thankful for all blessings.

In The Cattlemen of the Rio Grande Across the Far Marias (1958), a nonfiction book written for an adult audience, Sandoz shows similarly thorough and extensive research. The same is true of Cheyenne Autumn (1953), the story of the heroic attempt to preserve the Northern Cheyenne Indians from disease and starvation. This novel was adapted for film in 1964.

Sandoz calls upon her own experiences for the descriptions of the plains. One critic, W. H. Hutchinson, speaks of “the singing voice and nobility of soul this woman has brought to her writing.” Sandoz depicts the spiritually rich, physically stark life of the Plains Indians, showing a complex, mystic people facing life with dignity and faith in their customs. To understand the evolution of culture of all Americans, The Story Catcher is a story to cherish.