COUNTING COUP
In this extraordinary work of journalism, Larry Colton journeys into the world of Montana's Crow Indians and follows the struggles of a talented, moody, charismatic young woman named Sharon LaForge, a gifted basketball player and a descendant of one of George Armstrong Custer's Indian scouts. But Counting Coup is far more than just a sports story or a portrait of youth. It is a sobering exposé of a part of our society long since cut out of the American dream.
Along the banks of the Little Big Horn, Indians and whites live in age-old conflict and young Indians grow up without role models or dreams. Here Sharon carries the hopes and frustrations of her people on her shoulders as she battles her opponents on and off the court. Colton delves into Sharon's life and shows us the realities of the reservation, the shattered families, the bitter tribal politics, and a people's struggle against a belief that all their children -- even the most intelligent and talented -- are destined for heartbreak. Against this backdrop stands Sharon, a fiery, undaunted competitor with the skill to dominate a high school game and earn a college scholarship. Yet getting to college seems beyond Sharon's vision, obscured by the daily challenge of getting through the season -- physically and psychologically -- in one piece.
As Sharon competes on the court, and her team moves toward the state championship, the pieces of her life come together in a jarring picture. Here we meet her estranged, alcoholic mother and even more distant father. We meet Sharon's loving but permissive grandmother. We meet other Crow, young and old, who see Sharon not as a person but as a symbol of struggle. And here we meet Sharon's teammates and friends, Indian and white,
The only sign of energy in the town is the ubiquity of basketball hoops ... on telephone poles, sides of houses, scrawny trees. These hoops aren't fancy Air Jordan NBA specials purchased at the Rim Rock Mall in Billings-they have rotting plywood backboards and flimsy rims drooping toward the hardened dirt. Rare remnants of net, shredded by heavy use and the fierce winds that blow off the prairie, hang loosely.
At the park in the center of town-a luckless patch of dried grass with a well-used outdoor basketball surface in the middle-Norbert Hill, Paul Little Light, and Clay Dawes, three seniors on the Hardin High varsity, are playing a lazy game of half-court crunch. I know their names because I studied their photos in the showcase in the lobby of the high school gym. These are the guys I've traveled to this remote cor ... read full excerpt from: Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn ebook
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