Mari Sandoz

Mari Sandoz, the author of several histories that demonstrated sympathy for Indians that was unusual for the time. Strong willed, ambitious, and dedicated to providing an accurate history, Sandoz's work marked the beginning of a movement that greatly revised how Americans viewed the history of western settlement. The Indians were not the villains in this great historical drama, Sandoz suggested, but the victims. Mari Sandoz died in 1966, just as many Americans were starting to embrace her more compassionate view of the Native American.