The Crazy Horse Chronicles:

The Crazy Horse Chronicles are a fictionalized account of the life of Crazy Horse from his early childhood through his death in 1877.  These three volumes chronicle the last days of the Great Horse Culture and life in the American West as experienced by the Lakota.

Though many of the details are fictionalized, these books are based on extensive research and consultation with the Lakota people and closely follow the actual historical events.

The text is written in the style and meter of the language as if you are hearing the story first hand and is beautifully illustrated by Ken Mundie in a sketchbook-style that is reminiscent of the traveling artist/writers of the 18th and 19th centuries, giving the impression that he was present to capture the characters and events on paper as they were happening.

Together these two artisans tell the story of broken treaties, wars, hardship and disease. They also take the reader into the hearts of a proud people struggling to maintain their way of life against overwhelming odds.

The War of the Mormon Cow:

The War of the Mormon Cow: Being the First Part of the Crazy Horse Chronicles is the dramatic tale of Black Robe Woman and Crazy Horse in their youth. She called him Curly and he called her Little Mouse.

It is a powerful tale of a small mistake by a naive Mormon unleashing a chain of events that lead to war. It is all the more compelling when the reader realizes it is actual history. The United States Army labeled the incident of the 19th of August 1854, “The Grattan Massacre,” the Sioux called it “ The War of the Mormon Cow.”

Two Fires in the Night:

On the 29th of November 1864 the massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, Colorado brings together the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and Comanche in a desperate fight for survival.

For the next ten years Black Robe Woman and Crazy Horse ride together, as two small guide fires who lead The People, searching for a return to past glories, while a great darkness engulfs their world.

This, the final installment of the Crazy Horse Chronicles follow the pair through the attacks on Fort Sedgwick, The Fetterman Massacre, The Battle at the Little Big Horn and the surrender and death of Crazy Horse.

The Author:

"Illustrations are the key to communications in a multi-cultural society."

Richard Jepperson developed and promulgated this theme in his lecture series as a professor of Communications (1991-1998) at California State Polytechnic University (“Cal-Poly”) at Pomona, California. Eighty percent of the students in his classes were “ESL”

Jepperson holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Science from Westminster College in Salt Lake City and an MBA in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco. But it was his fascination with the history of the Sioux, inspired by his association with tribal members while consulting on technical developments and teaching at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, at Fort Yates, North Dakota, that sparked Jepperson to write The Crazy Horse Chronicles, a trilogy.

Imagine experiencing history first hand, as if side by side with those that lived it!  Each story is well researched, even taken from the diaries of the actual characters in the book.

The Illustrator:

Ken Mundie worked as an animation artist for the Disney Studios and as an Illustrator for the Washington Post.

Mundie created the Fat Albert series for Bill Cosby and the main title graphics for the original Wild, Wild West TV series.  He worked in Television and Movies throughout his carrier creating memorable film title credits, and a number of animated television projects.

The prominent Western artists, Frederic Remington (1861-1909) and Charles M. Russell (1864-1926) inspired Ken Mundie’s  work in the Crazy Horse Chronicles. Indeed, the entire appearance of the book is modeled after the “dime novel” publications of the 1800s, including the artwork and selection of the text font and paper.