Rani-Henrik Andersson’s work on Lakota political history provides important context for understanding the community dynamics of the reservation era.

Vine Deloria Jr. — the Standing Rock Sioux scholar, attorney, and writer whose work “Custer Died For Your Sins” and other books transformed the public understanding of Indigenous history and rights — addressed the broader questions about how Indigenous history is written, who writes it, and whose knowledge is treated as authoritative.

His work provides the intellectual framework for understanding why the burial mystery is the community’s question to answer.

These scholars, among others, have contributed to a more honest and respectful engagement with the history than the popular literature on Crazy Horse has always managed.